Agriculture
LCP Update and Work, Work, Work
Today was a rat race from the word go. Quick stop at the church office for some committee work then off to the bank. The bank was a mistake. I forgot that Monday was a holiday and it was crazy in there. Took longer than I wanted or had time for, you know you have to visit, but it was a good visit and I got my business done.
Then a quick run to get planter parts so I can start on the planter rebuild just as soon as I get everything else done…..haha!
The rest of the day was occupied with either shed “issues” or with phone calls. The shed issues are really nothing that doesnt go along with any building project. But they are all things that have to be done.
So this evening just before closing I went back to C N C gun shop here in Benton to discuss the issues I had with the Ruger LCP. Danny was pretty insistent that I was the only one with an issue and as we discussed it became apparent that he was right.
First problem was that we were not shooting with the laser on because it was so bright in the sun. We were using the iron sights. Apparently they are just for show….and tonight with the laser on I was hitting soda cans at 25 ft (~7 yards) pretty easy. Matter of fact I was grouping them about the size of a tennis ball. Much better than just barely hitting paper at the same distance on Sunday with the iron sights.
Second problem was that we were shooing at about 12 yards with the open sights. Danny pointed out that the gun was designed for 7-12 yards with the laser as the sighting device. Again with the laser on and at 7 yards it was no problem to hit a soda can.
Last problem was the tightness of the gun. Tightness as in slide action and trigger pull. The double action trigger pull is horrid compared to other double actions I have shot. Again most all DA pistols I have shot have been pretty well “worn in” or “shot in”. As Danny said the gun just needs rounds run through it to loosen it up. That I can take care of!
So we will run a few boxes through it and see how she does…….with the laser of course.
But its still not even close to Glock………. or a good DA S & W revolver.
Back in the swing of things, sort of.
The barn crew worked on our shed again today and we are now 3/4 roofed and 1/2 sided. The mud is a problem for the lifts, but I hope that with a few more days of work that they will get it buttoned up. Then the mud wont be an issue. The biggest issue today was the wind……it picked up 10 sheets of roofing and knocked it off the lift and bent it. New roofing wont be here until Wednesday now.
Over the weekend we got to shoot a Ruger LCP, the little .380 with a laser sight on it. Man was I disappointed. You can skip the laser because it is pretty much a belly gun at best. I mean at best that’s all it is. We had a terrible time hitting paper at 7 yards. The double action trigger pull was horrid as well. I guess I am spoiled with my Glock.
Got the new hitch put in the truck and got a new trailer on the way for the soil sampling rig. Will have to make some mods when it gets here……but that being said it will be a very nice addition to the fleet for this summer.
I didn’t get to the farm show at Louisville this year but it seems like everyone else did…….. wasn’t able to get much accomplished last week work wise. From what I hear, there was all kinds of expensive stuff there this year…..so its a good thing I didn’t go!
Now that the meeting schedule is pretty much down to one here and there I want to get cracking on soil testing work and getting equipment ready for farming the next few weeks. My hope is my “to do” list gets a lot smaller the next seven to ten days!
History of the barn
I had a few people want to know more about the barn fire I had pictures of on here two weeks ago.
The barn was not ours, but the neighbors across the road. They set it on fire, it was not an accident. The 100 year plus old barn was in bad dis-repair and they tore it down with a track-hoe before they set it on fire. There were a lot of old oak beams that had the peg and hole construction in them that they burned up. That to me was the shame in the fire.
I posted the pictures of the fire on Facebook and David McCollum, who owns a local real-estate agency, provided a history on the old barn and the farm. I have added some notes of the conversation on Facebook below to fill in a few details and also to note a few details that I have been told as well.
Most of the history of the barn and its owner are from David McCollum. Edits or additions to the narrative in italics are by me.
The barn is/was located on what was the old Robert R. Ward farm. He was the President of the bank at that time (late 1920’s) in the Wood Building on the square in Benton. He and his family lived in the big brick house on North McLeansboro St. (later the Eovaldi house) but also owned that farm where this fire was today. When the crash came in 1929, he went to this farm on his noon hour and jumped from the silo. (It is also told by some in the area that he hung himself from the silo on his noon hour.)
My dad (George McCollum) told me that Robert’s Ward’s wife, Terzie, was a cousin of J.C. Penney. After she sold the big house on N. McLeanboro St. to the Eovaldis in the early 1950′s, she moved to a one story brick home in the 300 block of West Church St (north side of street) and lived there until her death in the early 1970′s. That house is where Dr Knapp lives.
Robert and Terzie had 6 children, 3 sons (1 was Russell “Bud” Ward), and 3 daughters, Martha “Sis” Ward Johnson (wife of Judge Webb Johnson), Sue Ward McCollum, and Mary Ward Doerr, who was my kindergarten teacher at Lincoln School. Sue was married to my Dad’s cousin Charles McCollum and they spent many years in Puerto Rico where he was a plant manager for Levi Strauss Co. Sue’s full name was Susan Esther Ward and that’s where the street next to the Eovaldi house got its name. (Susan Esther Street).
Ward also owned the Franklin Mining Company located due south and east of the farm? I believe that is true about the mine company. (Also of note is that coal mining maps show that the only part of the east side of Benton that is not undermined from the old Franklin Mining Co is the block where the Eovaldi house is located, where Robert Ward lived as noted above.) He also owned a dairy company that was located at the farm where the barn was.
If you know any more history on the barn, farm, mine, dairy or house please leave a response in the comments section. I have to approve comments before they show up……so don’t worry if it doesn’t show up right away.
1st Major Announcement…Shed Day 5 and A Barn Fire
I guess we can let the cat out of the bag now and make the first of two major announcments that I alluded to earlier in January of some changes here on the farm.
Not only is this a shed we are building, but it will also be a warehouse for Pioneer Seed. Robertson Farms is now officially a Pioneer seed dealer. We will be servicing farmers mostly in the western part of Franklin Co. It is a natural fit for us. We have enjoyed a long and productive relationship with Pioneer as a seed customer and seed grower, mainly because I have felt that their agronomy and sales staff have always had my success at heart when offering me products and services. So when the opportunity presented itself last fall we began the process to become dealers for Pioneer. We have a lot to learn but are eager and ready for the challenge!
The end of day 5 on the new shed…………….now we are ready for metal! The nice sunny days have allowed for quick progress, but the bottom has fallen out of the ground around the site. We had to pull their forklifts and tellehandler out today. The telehandler was setting on the frame with the last truss suspended in the air………fun!
Meanwhile, while the last truss was going up, we spotted smoke accross the field and found that our neighbors old barn was on fire. By the time we got over there the major part of the black smoke was gone but the flames were still going as high as the silo tops!
The old barn has been a land mark on Rt 14 east of Benton and the silos are also the site where the original farm owner killed himself back in the 40′s or 50′s…………more on that later………
Day 4 of Construction
This is the progress on the new shop, Day 4. Beautiful 60+ deg weather for February 1st makes things go fast…………
Happening now on the farm.
Busy under-describes the amount of activity going on right now.
Finished up hauling my January contracted corn this week. Glad to have that done……..it seems like it took for ever and I guess it did with all the meetings I have had and time away from the place.
Pioneer came and got their seed beans so we spent part of two days loading semis. The big plus is we got it done before the rains set in!
Progress on the new building has come to a halt with the rain and winds so no new updates or pictures of progress on that front.
Waiting on the last of the planter parts to get here so we can start the rebuild on it.
Waiting on the last of the NH3 parts so we can start the rebuild on the anhydrous tool bar.
We did get the planter monitors back from AgExpress………… that’s good news!
The next few days will be spend trying to catch up on all the paperwork that has piled up between meetings and hauling grain.
All in all, I would rather shovel grain than push papers………..
KARTA Meeting Review
Last week, as you know by now if you read this blog or follow me on Twitter, I attended the KARTA meeting. KARTA (Link Here) stands for Kansas Ag Research Technology Association.
KARTA (originally KARA) was organized in May 2000 by a group of innovative Kansas producers, university researchers, and industry members who shared a common desire to learn more about production agriculture and continue to be a part of the leading technological and informational changes taking place on today’s farms
This year was the fifteenth annual conference. It was an applied workshop consolidating information about new and old technologies with a focus on supporting scientifically valid on-farm research efforts and increasing overall farm business profitability.
Topics included precision ag, social media, economics of travel logistics between fields and farms, on farm research, and crop nutrition as well as various presentations by industries on their new, current or trending technologies.
The Thursday night after dinner topic covered land rents and land values. This particular discussion was led by Dr. Terry Kastens & Dr. Kevin Dhuyvetter. I would call it the “Bear Pit” of KARTA. It was a fantastic discussion involving any and all attendees of the meeting. The topic was batted back and forth and ripped apart…and that was just the three hours or so that I stayed for it! Very good discussion…….
While the evening session or Bear Pit was my favorite part of the meeting, I must say that I give the entire meeting a “10″ as far as meetings go. It was very well organized, very well attended by producers and industry. It was an open exchange of information. Information was CURRENT, RELEVANT, FORWARD LOOKING and it was HONEST. It was everything that an agriculture producer meeting should be.
I think so highly of the meeting that I believe we need something like it here in Southern Illinois!
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know how much I hate the usual “rubber chicken and roast beef” agriculture meeting circuit here in Illinois. Well, this wasn’t a rubber chicken meeting by a long shot………in my opinion it very closely resembled, for the production and precision side, what Farm Futures Management Summit is for the economic and business side.
I left there with that good feeling, that positive feeling of knowing that I had been rubbing shoulders with the progressive life long learners of agriculture. When that happens you know you have been to a good meeting……….yes their world is different than mine here in southern Illinois, but that doesn’t matter. It’s the mindset I look for. The mindset of being proactive vs reactive.
KARTA is a great proactive meeting………I highly suggest you attend the 16th meeting if at all possible.
What I found when I got home from KARTA
Paul Miller Construction had started on our new shop/office/warehouse.
Lots to do today, will have a write up on KARTA for tomorrow……..
KARTA meeting Salina, Kansas
Exhibitor hall at KARTA meeting. Good crowd of progressive thinkers. Should be a good meeting!
A Little Surgery on Big John
We had to perform a little surgery on ole Big John. The oil leak turned out to be a blown pan gasket………..
Not nearly as bad as I had envisioned the problem………and thankful it wasn’t the problem I had feared it was.
The worst part was getting the parts………which no one had in stock.
Questions to ask your input supplier.
I got a good question the other day and I thought I would share it with you.
The question was basically that an input supplier was looking for input from a grower on what they thought the future would look like to the grower, and how the input suppliers business fit into that world. In other words what can we do to keep or get your business in the future?
I like to turn the question around and ask how does the input supplier view the world and how does that view fit into my business plans? So I think I would ask them these questions to see what their view of the future and my business is:
- If you are to be my supplier of choice, what are you going to be doing to insure that you are providing me with inputs at the best cost to insure that we both make a profit?
- In these times of great volatility, what are you going to do to insure that you don’t get caught on the wrong side of the swings in input prices and have inventory that we either don’t want, or cant afford, because it puts us at a negative margin?
- If early prepay is going to be necessary to lock in the best prices, are you willing to give me letters of credit on my purchases that are still in your inventory?
- What is your vision of your company’s future and how does that vision fit with my farms vision and mission statement?
- You are my preferred supplier of choice, therefore how can I be you customer of choice to insure your success and make your day to day business life and mine easier?
- As farms consolidate what are your plans to equip yourselves to provide more timely service to larger operations and fit into their business plans?
The first three questions will most likely make them uncomfortable. Your asking them to bear their soul and they see those questions as trust questions vs. business questions. You must trust them if your doing business with them, but how are they relating to you as a business? Your suppliers have to understand that your trusting them. They also have to understand your a business that needs business assurances not just handshakes.
The last three tell you what they think of you as a customer…………and how you relate to them. Are you an income opportunity or a business partner? I hope they answer in a business partner manner…….if they don’t……red flags should appear because they view you as only an income source, instead of seeing you as a partner who will succeed when they succeed………..
I think we have to view our suppliers as our partners. That being said you only want partners who want you to succeed in your business. To me these questions tell me if they are my partner or just a guy trying to selling me bulk input commodities.
I have enough guys trying to sell me bulk input commodities………………..
Plowing on Jan 9. Had to go try it!
Darn it, the ground worked good……..too good. I have never done tillage in January….until 2012. But an oil leak will keep me out of the field for a few more days
The tile line has all but quit running. We are dry.
Plowing in January
Who would have ever thought that on January 4th farmers would be plowing ground in Illinois?
Well, in the southeast part of the state, tractors are running and there is even talk of some spraying starting.
More updates as I get more information.
Free Advise
Whats the difference between free advise and paid advise?
Well the $ for one.
But I have to wonder what some people think when they ask “Can I get a little free advise?” Do they understand what they are asking?
You never hear anyone say “Can I get some cheap advise?” or “Can I get some low cost advise?” or “Can I get some discount advise?”
They want free advise.
I recently overheard a man ask a marketing man for some free advise. He gave him a short quick answer that sounded very vague to me and ended his comments with “this is worth what you paid for it.”
To me that signaled “I didn’t give you anything.”
The marketing man then turned around to one of his customers and proceeded to give him a boat load of information, opinion and explanation on what the markets were doing. I would say that the guy got his moneys worth from what little I heard him explain.
In other words “this is what your paying me for and here is the value“.
Free advise is somehow better than no advise and more desirable than cheap, low cost or discounted advise.
Why do some folks value free advise so highly over paid advise?
Do they not understand that they “get what they pay for?”
I don’t know, I just found this interesting today…………..and thew it up to see if it would stick.
Just some free advise……….
New Year: Updates and Changes Coming
Well, it’s 2012, or something like, that and January is going to start off with a bang so to speak. A very busy month ahead for Robertson Farms. First up is the Farm Futures Management Summit followed by the KARTA meeting shortly there- after. Throw in a IEMA meeting, K9SIL meeting and some other training meetings and the bigger part of the month is gone.
In between those meetings I hope we see the start of the new machine shed as well as getting the new (to us) NH3 bar home so we can put the VRT controller on it. There is a planter to rebuild as well as the backhoe and dozer to work on. So we need to hit the ground running and not look back.
Plus if the weather allows we need to pull a few soil samples, grain to haul and some scraping to do.
Fun and busy!
If that wasn’t enough……..there’s more! First thing in the spare time is a revamp of the website. I have been wanting to a major revamp but have not had the time with all the other stuff going on this fall. The revamp will coincide with two new business ventures we are going to be entering into here on the farm. Can’t say much about them right now but I think some folks will be surprised at what we have planned. These will bring new opportunities for us in agriculture as well as begin to pave the way for the next generation of Robertson’s to enter the the operation.
Hopefully we will be making some announcements in the next 30 days or so……………..
Don’t be alarmed if I miss a day posting this month with all that’s happening.
It looks to be an exciting and busy winter!!!
