Crops all in!!!!

We have had a rough spring with the late winter. It jammed all the work into a very short time frame.

The corn is starting to spike real well. Some of it will be able to be rowed after today's heat. The later planted corn has a much better stand. It was too cold on the earlier planted corn. Some of it looks real tough.

I guess I am not totally correct on being all done planting. I kept about 50-60 acres to finish some water ways and get the contour strips back. This is on the one farm I rent next to me. I spoke of it in an earlier post. My family farmed/rented this farm for over fifty years. It is currently owned by three sisters. They actually split it into three parcels. Six years ago they rented it to a local BTO. He was offering them a sky high rent for then of $350/acre. Well he gutted the farm out in the five years he rented it. Tore out all the water ways. Removed all the contour strips. Plus little fertilizer the last few years he farmed it.


The sisters rented it back to me last year. I/my family has it under a LONG term contract. I built all new pasture fence last year. This year I have rebuilt over 5000 feet of water ways. Some of these had washed out over six feet deep. I used my brother's JD 750J crawler. It is one SWEET machine.

Plus I am laying out all the contours strips like they used to be. So by this time next year almost a third of the farm will be back to grass/alfalfa for hay.

The sisters are well pleased with how things are shaping up. They all have been out walking the place over. They really like all the new grass that is going to be there.

I am going to weight 400 LBS if they keep bring me out things they have cooked. LOL

I am also getting more done without a computer of my own. I would set at my old one and the next thing I knew there was an hour or two gone. So I am not sure I am going to buy another one right now. I have enough projects to finish to keep me busy for a long time.

Sounds great, but you also need to keep us entertained with your stories, some of us really enjoy reading them.

Good deal, there's a lot of ground around here that has not been touched yet, but I suspect this week that should change, wet or too cold, but now its going to warm up.

Nice to see you back, JD. Woo woo on the work being done. Miss your stories and comments.

Larry

Nice to see the sisters make a smart decision. Their short term gain would have cost them big in the long run if they had not wised up. Hope everything else is going well for you guys.

Just in time for the rain last night.

Drive past a place here, for decades there was a nice wide waterway, channeled water from a culvert under the blacktop to a giant intake and to a creek. The waterway was always cut and baled, looked like a lawn meandering through the beans or corn.

Owner died, now in 2 years of being rented out, the waterway is down to a ribbon of grass I could jump across, if not merely step across. Both sides are ridged so it is useless the water will run beside it and wash, not channel into the grass. Really no dip left in the grass, it is worked so skinny nothing left.

Kinda sad to see. I don't know the owner - wife I think yet - or the renter, but just see it every week and think how it used to work and be a good thing.

Paul

Locally, a farmer farmed next to an unfenced pioneer cemetery. Seemed like each year the cemetery lost some grass on the two sides next to his field. He died, neighbor rented the farm. Cemetery was restored, marker placed,border re-established, but same thing happens now- the ground is shrinking. Of course, none of the few residents complain....

I agree with Retired Farmer! Keep up the great stories. I lived in Cedar Rapids for 17 years and still have fond feeling for things between there an Dubuque.

Stan

how many acres do you farm,how much of each crop?

above reply was for jdseller

I like the waterways and contour strips. They call our county The No-till Capital of The World. There seems to be a lot of old waterways gone, also the contour strips. Now you see a lot of washes where the waterways were at. Saw where they fixed some and the next rain just washed them out again.Some BTO's never learn.

That's something you don't ask a farmer. It's akin to asking a restaurant owner, how many meals do you serve per day? What were your net sales for Breakfast? Or a tire store owner, "How many tires do you sell per day? What ere your gross sales in 2013? You would never ask a rancher how many calves are you going to have this spring? Get the point? It's HIS business. Not yours.

He's too polite to tell you to MYOB. There's another saying in farm country for farmers. "Don't worry about what's going on outside your fences".

There"s no reason not to talk about something like that. Should say I farm myself as well. First thing most guys discuss is well how much do you farm. I guess I"ve never discussed it on a forum but absolutely never have saw anyone hesitate to ask about another guy"s farming operation in terms of size. Never met someone not happy to talk about their farming and that normally includes the acreage they run.

If you don't want people to know about what's going on then don't post it to an internet forum for all the world to see. Talk about a rude response. Who gives a darn about telling someone on here how much they farm or even in person.