Visitors

We visit lots of farms. We have lots of visitors come to our farm. Yesterday included a visitor from Valley, Nebraska, Daniel Davidson. He writes for DTN Ag Daily and I have linked him on this page.

He came to see me speak at the Purdue Top Farmer Crop Workshop a couple of years ago then came to the National NoTillage Conference in January. We email a bit and I told him he should see Allen Dean in Williams County and Dave Brandt in Fairfield County. They are both cover crop pioneers in Ohio and the group of us are interested in more profit with cover crops.

We all admit that getting the seed on and up is the challenge in a short growing season. Changing your farm operation to allow seeding two crops in one year is no easy challenge, either. In fact, it is the number one problem of cover crops if you want to maximize farm income. You can't let your first crop suffer to gain a cover crop.

He asked lots of questions and took lots of notes. He saw the White planter being rebuilt and a flurry of activity going on preparing for spring planting. The tour ended with the 1880 brick house and the chamber where freed slaves were hid under the kitchen. The Douglis Fir dining room floor and the original pecan hardwood floors are always an eye catcher. Top that off with LuAnn's touches and you have a pretty unique house in this area.

He drove away with $150 worth of inoculants and I was left with a $5 DTN cap. I think he got the better end of the deal but that is how we treat visitors here. We got our share when I retired from teaching and we traveled the 48 states camping in farmers barnyards we had met on AgTalk.

Since that first crop on this farm in 2004 this place has seen lots of visitors, from next door neighbors to Maine to Washington, and Canada to Japan.

That is what makes life more fun to us.

Ed Winkle