Happy Fourth!

Happy Independence Day! I feel more like independant, and that would be a pee ant if you know what I mean. Every person I talked to in the last 24 hours expressed the same sentiment.

Oh well, I am doing my part so let's be happy. We took a nice crop tour up to the Indiana Michigan line to enjoy dinner and fireworks with our good friends around Bryan, Ohio at the Hickory Gove campground. That farmer has really built a campground fast! I guess dairy farmers know how to do that.

I am humbly very blessed with my crop compared to what I saw. The Pro Farmer tour is going to get an eye full next month when they count cobs and pods on their annual tour. The farther north you got the later and worse the crop is and US 127 and SR 49 had some really bad crops, pretty much a disaster with stunted corn, no corn, empty fields and struggling soybeans. They are running wheat up there and it is a disappointment too.

My friend usually hits 90 bu and has averaged that on 800 acres and this year that 90 bu straw is yielding 65 bu and less with tons of dockage. With the low wheat prices that is a double whammy on those crops.

I feel very badly for those farmers as I know eastern Indiana is the same or worse. Huge parts of this country has poor crops and are overrated. That gives me hope for prices but empathy to those farmers involved.

We stopped in Van Wert to take a look at the old fashioned farmer days and saw some rare equipment you don't see anymore. Show numbers were down and money wasn't changing hands. I hope the show can survive. They are supposed to be having a major convention with their show next so maybe that will help.

One of our friends runs a parts department for Liechty Farm Equipment and took off today, Sunday and a holiday to service his customers. Now that is service we need around here. Guess I would be John Deere if I farmed up there.

They had a good fireworks show and I remembered the bombs bursting in air. Then I thought about all the blood shed for us and how we have to wear it everyday has citizens of this once great country.

I hope we can recover. Happy Independence Day.

Ed Winkle