New openers, shoes and firming points on the planter…………
Now we wait for Easter to get here……..no planting before then, if I can hold myself back!
Got up this morning and went and fed cows. Nope, not mine but a friends who had to be away for a few days and didn’t have anyone who could fill in for him. Was kind of fun actually. Had to spear four bales of hay to be put out in the feed lots for the cows and then put out some ground feed for the steers.
It was a welcomed change of pace and interesting to watch the livestock go through their habits when they hear the tractor coming and hear the bulk bin auger run. Pavlov was right…….. !
Then if was off to sample for the second day at Ridgeway. Off the tile fields it is a bit wet down at 5 plus inches. Rain in the forecast the next few days has everyone sitting on go. Still lots of spraying and fertilizing going on but little or no field work.
The weather says go, but the calendar and field conditions have everyone standing by. Some farmsteads look like the flight deck of a aircraft carrier. Everything is lined up along the driveway ready for take off.
Worked at soil sampling east and north of Ridgway, IL today. Saw some planters running up and down the roads but didn’t see anything being planted. I would say if it doesn’t rain they will be running hard this weekend.
In several fields I had to dodge tornado/storm debris, lots of insulation, shingles, small boards with nails in them and the occasional toy or Christmas decoration. Not sure where it came from, guessing Ridgway or Harrisburg as none of the structures near the fields I was in were damaged.
The fields with tile are very dry and would work good, but the fields with no tile were very wet at the bottom of the probe.
“The more complex the mind the greater the need for simplicity of play.” Capt James T Kirk
Its been a few days since I have had time to update my blog so I thought I would do so with a long post so “be warned those who enter here!” With the level of activity and constant variety of jobs to be done I feel the need for simple play but there is no time right now it would seem. Nor is there anyone who wants to play either. This rain would normally indicate a time to stop and rest, but rain isn’t welcome right now because of the list of things that must be done is not getting any shorter.
The new shed/warehouse/shop has a concrete floor now. The final pour happened yesterday and it looks truly beautiful. Concrete will be a welcome departure from rock and asphalt. The heat in the floor will be a welcome wonder for winter work that doesn’t seem to get done now because of the cold in the other shed. There is still a lot of work to be done on the shed but its getting closer.
I got in one good day of soil sampling on 2012 ground this past week before I had to pull out and head to a Pioneer meeting. The ground is sampling nice for the most part but is kind of funny in a way for March. With the lack of snow and shallow freeze/thaw that we get here in southern Illinois in a normal winter the ground is very “fluffy” in a lot of areas. That is dependent on if there was fall tillage done, but there is a good 3-4 inches of fluffy ground on most fields I have been on.
Everyone says they are ready to go to the field and plant corn, or so they say. Yet I can gather that most don’t have their seed corn yet and they keep forgetting that its March and not April. This very mild winter has got everyone mixed up and if it keeps this up till April I suspect we will see a lot of corn go in the ground sooner rather than later.
I did manage to slip in getting another field chisel plowed yesterday evening after I got back from my meeting. The ground is hard in these wheat fields and its no wonder why. The wet conditions last summer resulted in ruts from wheat harvest, double crop bean planting and from the bean harvest. Its ground is packed tight!
A side note is that while the big tractor is working in the field, out of no where come these seagulls. I have no clue where they came from. They are not hanging out around the farm anywhere, and the lake is several miles away. Yet they seem to show up within minutes of the tractor going to the field and disappear just a quickly when I shut it down. They don’t hang around. Strange birds for sure.
BTW in case I didn’t gripe enough its week 2 without any acetylene yet………….
If all that wasn’t enough, we have also been trying to get details on the new business finalized. That also isn’t getting done as fast as I want but it is going forward and we will be ready to go live soon, I hope. I guess if I wasn’t so busy with everything else I could get that done as well.
Speaking of simple play. What has happened to my “gun” shows on the outside channels? I mean even my favorites are not worth watching as of late on TV. It seems that every show is now doing the same topic week after week. I mean come on guys show me something new or original, not the same thing program after program with the same bad “experts” talking about and using the trendy words or latest fad in “tactical cool”. I have no interest in hanging an espresso maker off my AR’s rail.
Worse yet some have fallen into this “prepper” mentality as well. All I need is another show with the end of the word being preppers or bunker preppers or salt and preppers or what ever, with some gun play involved. First off your guys don’t have a clue, second you make gun owners look bad and three you can’t be for real. I mean anyone who is so scared of the EOTWAWKI would not be on national TV or even a gun show showing the world what you have laid in for an emergency.
Nothing on TV at all anymore.
Simple is what I need, simple play.
Had an appointment to get cancelled so I hooked up to the chisel plow and went to the field. The ground was working great and I got about 65 -70 acres done before a flat tire on the plow shut me down at dark.
Rain in the forecast tonight……….we will see.
Shed progress really picked up again today but by the time I got back to the house it was to dark for a picture……will update tomorrow if is not to rainy.
Progress was made today on many fronts on the farm it seems.
First off after two unsuccessful tries the roof is now complete on the new shed. I am happy about that! It looks like about one more good day and then the whole thing will be closed in, minus the doors. I am told next is concrete. So we are getting ever closer to being done.
Second I got the NH3 bar all but ready for side-dressing. It has been a hit and miss job so to speak. Minus a few little details its about ready. But it will have to wait a while because one of the needed repairs to it will require a torch. Why wait on a torch?
I ran out of acetylene and went to get another cylinder at the “air and acetylene company” (omitting full name to protect them) and they were out. Out of acetylene. How could you be out of acetylene? Well its in short supply and they wont have any until Thursday. Short supply? What? Has there been a run on acetylene? Well no, we just haven’t had much on hand lately (ah back to my no inventory pet peeve). Well isn’t your company name “air and ACETYLENE company”?
So I wait until Thursday to finish the tool bar.
I then spent the rest of the day working on my truck getting ready for soil testing season to start. Which looks like it could start this week. Next is to work on the ATV and then I will be ready to go, sort of.
The new enclosed trailer is here now and I have to find time to get it outfitted for soil testing and other activities. But I will use my old trailer until I get time to fix it up right.
That pretty much sums up today……..
I have been hit recently by those in academia who believe that anything that comes from the university system that is called “research”, “peer reviewed” and published is gospel.
Who’s gospel is my question.
Having been through a MS program and having done research, thesis defense and abstract of other research papers as part of my MS program, I read all research with much skepticism.
First thing I want to know about any research is who funded it. Follow the money. One does not fund a research project with hopes that their desired result is not discovered. So who funded the research. If the money is tied to a company or individual who could benefit from such research, then the results are suspect to me. If the government funded any research it is suspect to me. If those who funded the research also are sponsoring the researcher, then they and their research are junk.
Call me paranoid.
Second I want to know who the researcher(s) are and what they have to gain from the research. Now don’t get me wrong, a researcher who is looking for a cure to a disease is looking for RESULTS or POSITIVES in their research. That to me is not suspect. One who is getting sponsorships from the one who funds research and gets a positive result, then that is suspect. We have a bunch of those folks in the world of agriculture right now. There are several well known agriculture professors who are out on the rubber chicken and roast beef circuit who are pumping up the results of their research, who are also being sponsored by those who funded the research. The ever-present sales pitch is part of their “research”. So I take their results with a grain of salt.
Call me skeptical.
Lastly there are those who use old research to justify their current research. In other words it’s easier to get researcher A’s paper and then go and duplicate the result on a small scale and get the desired result without doing real research. Again there seems to be a herd of those type university folks out there right now. I suspect its a lack of funding from the traditional sources but more likely its just to prove their bias or please their sponsor.
Call me hacked off.
What is research? I think I know real research when I see it. 1) It must be randomized and replicated in a way that removes the element of bias of a given result. (Side by sides are not research and multiple side by sides are not research) 2) It must be done in enough locations to show a true cause and effect relationship (for fertilizer, chemicals and additives) 3) The researcher should be free of bias. While they can get funding from the persons for whom the research is for, they should not be sponsored by them. 4) The research should last over several trials or several years to show it is not luck, happenstance or coincidence.
The sad fact is that a lot of peer reviewed scientific research that was showed at winter ag meetings this winter had little true research in them. Mostly it was either rehash of old research or it was so biased that it was meaningless. Worse yet the professors from the Land Grants should know better……..and are the worst offenders.
Where is our winter?
Today the outside air temperature was almost 70 degrees. Yes, 70 on the 23rd of February. This just isn’t right.
Yet it is so wet that it is impossible to get the first shot of N on the wheat….
Or pull a soil sample…..
Or do any field work.
We are going to pay for this I am afraid.
Barn construction is moving forward pretty slowly, but moving forward. The new metal for the roof arrived late last night only to be 3 ft to short. They keyed in the wrong info on the order. Great.
Sorry, no new pictures. Was too busy moving rock this afternoon to remember to take a picture.
Going to try and finish the week strong so we can make a strong run next week.
March is about here!
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.
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!
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.
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………
This is the progress on the new shop, Day 4. Beautiful 60+ deg weather for February 1st makes things go fast…………
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………..
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.
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