Charity

A friend sent me this story about a tree grower who really lived up to the Christian model of giving more than you take.

"The man responsible for the finest quality fruit trees sold throughout the world, Robert G. Durling, who gave millions to Christian causes yet lived in a trailer at the end of his life, passed to his reward on August 29, 2013. He was 94.

“The highest quality citrus trees are grown at Durling Nursery,” said Martha Stewart, in a television program she produced on location at the sprawling, 175-acre Durling ranch in Fallbrook, California. The Durling Nursery trees are sold through Home Depot and other outlets, and shipped as far as Europe and the Middle East.

Blessed with health and strength and the work ethic of a bygone era, Durling worked six days a week until his retirement at age 92. He believed his strength and success came from above so he could bless others. Indeed, he tithed over 90 percent of his income in his later years, according to a family member.

In 2004, he gave away the modest two-story home he and wife Eleanor lived in on the ranch, because her arthritis made it difficult to negotiate the stairs. They moved into an even-more modest mobile home set among the glorious groves of naval oranges, Meyer lemons, Mexican limes and avocadoes.
From matching recliners, they watched Christian programming in their free time. Their furnishings evoked the simplicity and straightforward utility of a Sears showroom.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Durling served in the Navy from 1944 until 1945. After the war, he joined the nursery business started by his father in 1926. Durling moved the business from Orange County to Fallbrook in 1960."

What a model of Christian living and giving!

Ed Winkle

Patent Lawyers!

Rollan Lehman shared this piece on Facebook.  You need to watch it just to see the light being made of GMO versus non GMO seed.  If it weren't so true and so sad, it might be funny.  I don't see any funny in it but it is real life for too many farmers today.

Wherever business is transacted, there is going to be law involved.  That's the nature of human beings.  The farm was a pretty safe haven from lawyers until patented seeds got involved.  Do you use patented seed?  I doubt if anyone of us doesn't.

I can't find a seed someone doesn't have individual or company intellectual rights to.  Even the 20 year old Apex I planted is intellectual property of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center from the work of Dr. Cooper.

Farmers were busy across Ohio yesterday harvesting those intellectual properties.  I carry GMO test strips and haven't found much contamination in non GMO soybeans.  That is one of my jobs during the growing and harvest season is to check for contamination in non GMO soybeans.  A bigger problem has been the mixing of a non clear hilum soybean with a clear hilum soybean intended for food.  The consumers don't like little black dots in their soy food and I don't blame them.

Pioneer 93B82 soybean, as old as Apex, has great value as soy food.  I have met Asian taste testers and they compared the taste of non GMO soybeans to a paste made of 93B82.  That variety became the Asian favorite.

I was called to approve 300 more acres of them so I rushed to another County to inspect them.  Other than a lambsquarter breakout, they looked very good.  Purity is the key to inspection or all else is naught.  If they pass inspection, what weeds and blemishes can the buyer expect?  My job is to paint a clear picture of what to expect when the truck unloads.

It doesn't take a patent lawyer to be a seed scout but if we don't all do our job, the field in question could end up in court.

Ed Winkle

Who Is Mother Jones?

Our friend and blog helper Chimel posted this interesting piece from Mother Jones.  Whether you like them or this or not, they wrote an insightful article on the problem with "commodity farming."

Give the article a read.  I don't know of any large agribusiness firms owning farm ground in my region unless you consider the large family farm operations here as "large agribusiness firms."

My friend Jay and I talked about local farming practices and how hard it is for little guys like us to even try to farm.  He is looking at trading his nice, newer 6 row John Deere planter for a 12 row just to increase his efficiency.  Besides, he said "I doubt you can even order a 6 row or 8 row corn planter unless it is a special order."  I haven't tried but imagine he is correct.

Control of land around here is mainly in the hands of the largest farmers.  If a piece becomes available, they snap it up as owned or rented ground.  The recent sale of a very good 200 acre farm near Sabina is an example.  It brought $10,200 per acre and a large family operation bought it.  I asked who bid them up?  There was a standing offer for $7500 from the large family that is farming it and that offer was never seriously considered.  The result shows why.

It is a very interesting and thought provoking article.  The soybean price chart shows the problem producing our most valuable crop in this region, soybeans.  Our soil and weather is very conducive to produce high value soybeans.  Yet, most of our local acres are traited and do go into feed or fuel or possibly cooking oil.

Who is producing the food LuAnn and I purchase on the outside row of our local Kroger store?  No one around here, for sure.  You have to raise a garden or shop at local farmers markets and freeze and can the produce for the rest of your eating year.  69 million people a day eat at McDonald's they said on the news last night at dinner time.  I don't think they are eating what we are, either!  I can't remember the last time we ate at McDonald's!

Who is Mother Jones and where will we be in 20 years?  The trend they report seems to be in trenched in American agriculture.

Ed Winkle

My Soil Collapsed

When Keith and Jeff were here to look at my Apex soybeans and other crops, Keith said "this soil is collapsed."  I was devastated!  My soil collapsed?  What does that mean?

You can see the texture of it where we knocked out a dead tree.  That soil won't hold enough water and oxygen enough during dry periods to stay spongy when you walk over it.  Tillage has taken its toll over the decades.  This silt loam soil needs more organic matter, among other things.

He had taken out his pocket knife and dug up a top layered fracture of one of the fields on our new farm.  We got a good buy on that farm a year ago because no one else bid higher.  Maybe they knew something I didn't but we were tickled pink to get it.

When soil doesn't have enough organic matter or structure and it gets hot and dry for a few weeks, it usually collapses.  Keith's soil doesn't do that, it stays pumped up like a body builder.  I want to make my soil more like his but I only have a few years left to do it.

My soil will never be that good, but it can still be productive, full of life and on the road to recovery.  It doesn't have to be beat to death and lack structure like it does today.  It's already on the right path due to lime, fertilizer and timely planting.  A wheat crop with the straw blown back on it will improve its biology and structure but it takes time!  It takes so much time so we must start now.

Most would say pour the manure to it but we don't have easy access to manure.  I have not seen any manure test without pretty high amounts of glyphosate in it so I don't want to go that direction, either.

Green manure is my best bet and a wheat crop comes closest to providing that, except I plan to steal the protein and carbohydrate from it and sell it.

Does your soil collapse when it dries up?  I would say most soils around here do.

What can you do next to improve it and keep it pumped up longer?

Ed Winkle

Fun Harvest

My first thought was right on those Apex.  I should have entered them into the Ohio Soybean Contest.  They wouldn't beat Vinton 81's for protein but I think they might stomp them in yield.  I had two acres that could win this year and I might have two acres left.  I have some deep, dark Sloan Silt Loam in the back that are still a little green and heavy.

Dr. Cooper, you would be proud of your bean.  Your semi dwarf Apex would rival anything I could have planted.  My neighbor Ed was tickled with his first farm average of 70 bushels which is really good where these farms are located.  They were Pioneer Y91's and really looked good and cut nicely.  That was the first field planted around Martinsville and it paid off handsomely.

The Apex are not for the light of heart.  Your field must be level and you really need a header like a draper head to scoop them all up.  They put a ton of pods on, five branches in 7.5 inch rows for me.  I didn't have the field level enough and left a few pods on the ground but boy did they yield.  If you want any for seed, Scott Apple has 300 acres that are probably even better than mine.  If you need contact information, let me know.  I have his cell phone number and you should decide right now how many you want to plant and tell him so by next April they are in your barn and ready to plant.

They yielded near 60 bushels on the very poorest ground on this new farm.  The good ground they will do 30-40 bushels better than that.  You do have 100 bushel yield potential just like Dr. Cooper found 20 years ago.  If you follow John Haggard's or Jeff Littrell's system they will really crank out the beans like did for Keith Schlapkohl and myself.

I will have a protein test from them in the next week.  They are a little lower in protein and a little higher in oil content than other non GMO's.  I am curious to see if I produced more than 35% protein, the cut-off area for most non GMO premiums.  They can make up in yield what they lack in protein, at least they did for me this year.

Today I might get to plant a little of that new Ohio variety of soft red winter wheat named Lion I told you about.  I will see if I can get it to roar like the seed field I inspected in May where my seed is coming from.  He sold all the seed off 90 acres so it paid to get my order in early.

SabrEx and radish will help that variety or any variety make more and better quality wheat here.

Ed Winkle

Modifying A John Deere NoTill Drill

Chuck Zumbrun from NE Indiana reminded us all on how to modify the basic John Deere no-till drill, the most common drill in America.

"Never used a 5400, but a JD 750 is a great seeder if you keep it in good shape. If you get one, unless it's in unusually excellent shape, you'll want to:

1) Replace all the opening disks

 2) Put in one of the seed boot kits to take out the slop when the mounting holes egg out. I like the one from Craft Air Services, because you can replace the boots and not have to redo it.

 3) Replace all the seed boots. Use the JD bolts when you do it. An ordinary bolt has threads at the shear points and will break. (Been there, done that)

 4) Put the closing arm kit from RK Products on to take out the side to side movement on the closing arms

 5) Replace the JD firming wheels with the ones from Needham Ag

 6) Put the Needham Ag firming strips on those new seed boots

 7) Replace those idiotic JD cast iron closing wheels with Exapta's Thompson wheel (my first choice) or the Martin 20 pt crumblers (a close second for me) "

I've never used the Thompson wheel here but I have used the Martin since 1995 so it would be my choice for a closing wheel for planter or drill.  I would also recommend replacing the gauge wheel tires with a CIH tire or even better, one of Phil Needham's.  It really improves the air to soil mix in the seed slot.

"That renovation does cost a bit and is a knuckle-busting dirty job. But after doing it you'll get much more uniform stands which lets you cut your seeding rate and it pays for itself in a hurry. "

As other posters have mentioned, you want the dolly wheels too.  This helps float and maneuver the drill behind the tractor and helps in transport.

The air seeder needs these plus more tank plumbing and linkage modification.  Allen Dean in Bryan, Ohio and Robert Adamic in Michigan can tell you how to make those modifications.  Both are regular in attendance at the National NoTillage Conference.

Ed Winkle

Home

There is no place like home.  I thank LuAnn for taking over last week the days I was gone.  Any of the four major presentations I heard were worth the 440 mile drive.  It's 67 miles to the Indiana line and 225 miles to the Illinois line going around Cincinnati and up Interstate 74.  It's one I've taken many times in my life and 14 or so times in the past 12 years.

Why do I drive to Iowa each year?  I go to learn of course!  I tease my friends I have to go to Iowa to be able to talk to someone with my interests.  I have to go to find the answers to my questions!

Dr. Huber showed us how the 20 known minerals work in plants and why they are not getting there.

Dr. Cooper showed he had a hundred bushel soybean program 40 years ago but industry has taken us backwards.  Is it in the name of easy weed control?  What can we do to rotate chemicals and crops for better outcomes?  Do we really need traited seed?

Dr. Kindness showed us that glyphosate is in everything, even baby formula.  Science didn't know or didn't tell us how the other half life worked, only the first half that rapidly dissipates upon application.

Amy Bandy reminded me how important crop scouting is and why so many come to visit me to see how I scout fields.  Are we soil smart and plant stupid?  Are we plant smart and soil stupid?  Are we a little of both?

Once again we are at harvest.  If you are too busy or need "another set of eyes"(we all do!) about what you are seeing while harvesting, have an inquisitive person aboard the combine.  He or she could be your scout, your seed agronomist, fertilizer rep or your teenage boy in FFA.  Talk about what you are seeing.  Take notes, write it down.  If you have a good monitoring system and storage, note the spots in the field that don't perform or perform beyond expectation.

Many of us feel that having a drill loaded with grain or cover crop mixture right behind the combine is an excellent investment.  Others will spread fertilizer according to lots of information already recorded and decided upon.  Others will spray a herbicide combination and or a crop residue digestion enhancer of some kind.  Few will get all these done but most won't do anything!  What would be the best investment at harvest on your farms???

I need a little of all these operations going on at harvest to prepare my soil for next year's crop.  It looks like the weather will cooperate here the next 30 days.  What I do today has great impact on what happens next year.

I am going to try to leave my fields in better shape than when I planted this spring and summer.

Can you do that?

Ed Winkle

PS Please bear with me as I use pictures I've used before until I get time to work with this computer.  A picture is worth more than a thousand words and that's why I have tried to post a good one every time I write.  Today's picture is entering Nebraska a few years back.  We practice that song from Willie Nelson, "On the road again..."

Harvest And Selling Grain

It's time for harvest and the marketing of our grain.  I marveled at the wisdom in today's readings during Mass from the book of Amos:

"“When will the new moon be over,” you ask,

“that we may sell our grain,

And the sabbath,

that we may open the grain-bins?

We will diminish the ephah,^*

add to the shekel,

and fix our scales for cheating!^b

6We will buy the destitute for silver,

and the poor for a pair of sandals;^c

even the worthless grain we will sell!”

It's a full moon and the autumnal equinox is here!  The first planted soybean fields have begun to be harvested here in southwest Ohio.  I told you about all of the fields I saw harvested on the way to Farm Science Review last week, mainly on State Route 38.  Yields have been in the 40 range to a high of 70 bushels per acre.

They had the same problem harvesting and marketing grain 2800 years ago when Amos was written.  I found that ironic but so appropriate today.

Non GMO corn and soybean varieties and premiums have been a hot topic lately on Crop Talk.  Farmers are looking at fields and studying their bottom lines for profit this year and beyond.  I am taking orders for my Apex soybeans if you are interested.  Some of you have contacted me already and there should be enough to go around.

There is always great demand for nutrient dense, healthy, well raised and measured grain.  The demand has never been greater in the history of the earth!  If you are reading this, you are one of the very few producing this valuable commodity or one of the very few who understand this.

It's a cool but gorgeous day in southwest Ohio.  This picture is a recent soybean crop being harvested on our farm.

God's Blessings is upon us!

Ed Winkle

Steinlage

Can you pronounce that name?  I couldn't until I met Loran Steinlage at the Farm Progress Show near Nevada Iowa a few years ago.

"Cover crops have been used for years as a nurse crop for alfalfa and to protect areas of field that tend to erode, says Loran Steinlage, a West Union corn and soybean grower who is Rolan’s father. But interest in cover crops like GS3 Quality Seed’s NitroRadish skyrocketed this year after a wet spring prevented farmers in Iowa and surrounding states from seeding hundreds of thousands of acres of corn and soybeans.

Rolan Steinlage became a dealer for GS3 Quality Seed as part of his FFA Supervised Agricultural Experience. He seeded a cover crop demonstration plot at the family’s farm, as well as five totes that weigh about 5,000 pounds each, rest on pallets and can be transported to field days on a flatbed trailer.

"I've been watching what my Dad has done with cover crops and I decided to become a cover crop seed dealer with GS3 Quality Seed for two reasons. First, the demand and, second, for my FFA Supervised Agricultural Experience.

"I'm very interested in the root pits that my Dad has dug on our farm and seeing how cover crops like radish and annual ryegrass affect soil tilth. My goal is to become an agronomist."

Loran Steinlage and Chad Ingels, Iowa State University Extension watershed project coordinator in northeast Iowa,  approached Holthaus about having the students try seeding NitroRadish. Steinlage, Ingels and GS3 Quality Seed’s president Garth Mulkey had explored coating the NitroRadish seed with a temperature-sensitive coating. They thought that seeding this during sidedressing could eliminate the need to seed the cover crop later in the summer. After they weren’t able to obtain the seed coating, they decided to make the NitroRadish seed available to the FFA students.

Steinlage and Ingels offered the North Fayette Valley FFA students a free, 50-pound bag of NitroRadish seed to try on their farms.

“We told the kids, ‘All we want is a little feedback” on how the cover crop seeding works, Steinlage says.
 

In addition to seeding NitroRadish in an outside row of contoured corn at Jensen’s farm, Johnson, Streif and Pleggenkuhle and about seven other FFA students visited the farm of Loran and Brenda Steinlage. In addition to viewing Rolan’s cover crop plot and the cover crops growing in totes students who wanted to receive a free bag of NitroRadish were able to get one free of charge."

Loran and his son Rolan have had an amazing story develop since I met Loran.  It is much deeper than radishes!  If you follow AgTalk, you know what I mean!  I admire how they have dealt with adversity on a daily basis.

Jeff Hoedel reminded me Thursday just how powerful AgTalk really is.  It is changing the way farmers farm.  The Steinlage's are yet another example!

Ed Winkle

Ohio Poverty

Ohio outpaces the nation in extreme poverty.  "More Ohioans can be called the poorest of the poor.

The percentage of people at the very bottom, earning 50 percent of the poverty level or less, grew from 4.6 percent of Ohioans in 2000 to 7.6 percent in 2012, for a 65 percent increase, according to U.S. census data released today.

Only three other states, Michigan, Georgia and Mississippi, saw extreme poverty go up more than 3 percentage points. Only 14 other states have an overall higher percentage of extreme poverty than Ohio, which follows closely behind Tennessee at 7.7 percent and North Carolina at 7.9 percent.

The highest is Mississippi at 10.2 percent. The District of Columbia has 10.4 percent."

Click on the link and read the article.I try to explain this to other people and even people in my own state.  People who don't live here don't understand.  The DHL closing is the major factor increased poverty here but it wasn't the only thing.  There was such a snowballing effect after the stock market crashed as President Obama was elected.

Something like one in five houses is empty here and most of them have been stripped of any precious metal or valuables.  If you want rid of something, just sit it at the curb and it's gone the next day.  We don't like inviting those types of people to be looking around here.

It's hard to explain such poverty among such wealth without civil riot going on.  We might be getting closer to that every day needed change doesn't come.  I will say people have become the most inventive and adaptive you can imagine.  Families and friends have never become closer in order for these people to live.  I imagine those in this category though have less family and friends who can help them.

It's a sad thing in our state but it is true.  LuAnn and I see it every day.  We help wherever we can, especially to those who just need a "hand up" and not a "hand out."

Our government has so many "hand outs" that we don't need to offer those services.  The people who are maxing out those benefits are making more and doing better than those who are too proud to.  LuAnn is concerned about those who are too proud to do those things and that is the ones we concentrate on.

Our best charities have never been more needed over my lifetime.

Ed Winkle

Field Day Frenzy

Today was fantastic, unbelieveable, I just can't explain all that it was.  Dr. Huber gave one of the best talks I've ever heard him give.  It was complicated yet simple, replicated many times but right on target.  He talked about the 20 minerals plants need and why they are or are not getting them.  You really had to be there to understand but I warned you, didn't I?  After three talks I wondered if anyone appreciated them anymore than I did.  It was like the summary of my search for truth in agriculture the past 40 years.

Every field in 440 miles of my travel to Field Day Frenzy was dead or dying but these fields were near maturity also but not dead and dying.  They were green from top to bottom.  Don't get me wrong, there is Goss's Wilt in the corn and Keith can't hide it.  No one can, it is everywhere in the industry.  But his "bandaids," yes Jerry I said bandaids have increased his yield and crop health in a profitable way.

Then my friend Dr. Richard Cooper gave his presentation on semi dwarf soybeans.  That man did something in th 70's no one else ever had, cross the best soybeans from the north from the best soybeans from the south.  The result was he broke 100 bushel soybeans many times in the last 40 years.  That is something I don't anyone else did.

His reward?  Nice job Dick Cooper but we think it's time for you to retire now.  I know the extreme rejection and disappointment.  It is like correlating soybean yields to calcium levels for seven years and having your work rejected.  Then, 40 years later it turns out you were on to something that agriculture is really talking about today!  Or worse, finding cures for major human disease and be shunned by big money.

Dr. Cooper reminded me we were farther ahead in soybean research 40 years ago than we are today!  It was melancholy but fit right in the days teaching.  What is best for your farm?  What is the next thing you need to work on?  Non GMO?  Weed Control?  Calcium?  Balance of the 20 minerals needed by plants?  We have much work to do!

You know it as soon as you turn onto the field day site.  Here is green corn with erect ears planted early May right across the road from brand name corn that is almost ready to shell.  It won't make half as much corn as the corn in Keith's field and I watched three fellows study Keith's corn and walk across the road and look at the neighbor's.  The whole deal took almost an hour.  It is fun to watch farmers truly discover.

Dr. Cooper did great considering a TV crew was setting up lights for Dr. Kindness talk.  It turned out to be a PBS crew because they were taping his presentation!  I thought you little Scottsman, I didn't know you were an Internation speaker.  He truly gave an International presentation.  It alone was worth driving 440 miles but so were Dr. Huber and Dr. Cooper.

Amy Bandy gave the best presentation I ever heard a crop scout give.  I am not exaggerating, these presentations proved Field Day Frenzy is the very top of the nation for agricultural advancement.  I admit I had conversation with all the speakers more than one time this past year so you might consider me biased.  I feel I am not.

I just wanted to give you a feel for this once in a lifetime field day before my battery runs out.

More soon....

Ed Winkle

Iowa

We are back to our favorite state of Iowa.  Why don't we live in our favorite state?  It's because we rooted too deeply in Ohio.  With six children and twelve grand children in Ohio, Ohio is our home.

As soon as I pulled into the field day site last night, there were only four hybrids signed.  Those were four I brought last spring!  They look awesome, green from top to bottom but the whole plot does.  The ears are still all upright but are all dented, too.  I wonder what in the world the are going to say about them?

I will plant all four and two more next spring unless I find something better.  They mid to full season hybrids that always perform well on my farm and in my region.  I don't have near the soil or soil fertility as this old Mississippi river ground does but I am getting closer.  Funny to have that kind of soil on top of a hill!

I hope the talks are all written down because I know I can't write fast enough today.

I wish you could be here too and I hope some of you are.

Ed Winkle

Ag Research?

"Investments in agricultural research has a high return on investment and is necessary for a solution to feeding a growing world population on limited resources, so why is Farm Bill funding for R&D shrinking?

Julian Alston, agricultural and resource economics professor at the University of California-Davis, spoke about the challenge to provide safe, affordable food for a world population expected to reach 8.9 billion by 2050 during the 2013 Congressional Assistants Tour, hosted by K-State Research and Extension Aug. 29-30.

While the growing population expectation is a primary concern for producers, Alston raised additional concerns of competing demands for land and water, competing demands with biofuels, a changing climate, and co-evolving pests and diseases.

The good news is agriculture has been profitable enough the last ten years that research has perked up a bit again.  I saw that yesterday at Farm Science Review but there has been a shift from public research to private research.

The first big knock in ag research in Ohio was the closing of the corn breeding program.  Ohio had inbreds no one else had.  The second big knock was when the REAL soil testing lab was closed down and let go to private competition.

How is your state or country doing in agricultural research?  Or should I ask what at all are they doing?  It isn't much in many states and countries.

Who is number one in public agricultural investment?

Ed Winkle

What Man Can Do

This video about agriculture in Israel makes me want to visit.  Isn't it amazing what man can accomplish?

We have really been given a land of plenty here in the states.  Many think we don't take good care of it.  I beg to differ but I am only one person, doing what little I can.

I received an interesting email from a foreign land to me in South America thanks to Brad Law, and maybe myself a little because of our postings on Crop Talk.

"The watermelon get irrigated with a driptape so after the melon crop we seed two rows of corn ,so corn is seeded on 36 inch because the melons grow on 6 feet

The plant looks good when young but it premature dies off

We seeded about 10 acres every week and like to do this year round every week now is rainy season but also in the dry season because we water and fertilize thru the dripline  The plan is two corn crops and two watermelon crops in one year

We have a high clearings sprayer of 80 feet behind the tractor ,so were the tractor drives is no corn 

The corn right now prematurely dies off before the cob is done so you end up with small kernels.

In the top of the plant there are some purple showing  and now it is also showing short on N

The plant on all other lots look good , i have from 4 inch high to harvest and everything in between  but the problem shows after pollination.

What is the problem

This is a soil analisis   i am doing a plant analisis but take takes a long time here like everything els.

So that do me no good

Pioneer  P4082W  and  30F35

         PH   8

Org  Mat  %      2.1                    We applied   N    228  kg of product  46-0-0

N             %      0.11                                     P      62  kg     12-40-0-10s-1zk   

P           ppm     70.1                                     K      60  kg      0-0-60

K      meq/100g  1.8                           zinc  sulfate   12  kg

Calcio  meq/100g  18.6

Magnesio meg/100g  12.5

Iron          ppm     128.6

copper     ppm      17.2

zinc         ppm       2.4

Manganeso  ppm   1.5

Boron    ppm         1

Sulfer    ppm        15

bulk  density  g/ml   1.2

clay      %    6.8

silt       %     30

sand     %    63

Texture   sandy loam

Ca + Mg/k     23.5

Ca/Mg          1.83

Ca/K         15.19

Mg/K         8.31

Ed  I come just out of the blue to you but i hope you can give me some advise

Also if you need a holyday this winter ,it is alway 85 + here ,we are not too far south from you,

I can show you around."

I think I might take him up on his invite to me but here is the question.  What would you expect to see if you visited and what would you recommend to this young guy in a land you know little about?

He wants to grow corn and I think he can grow corn there but where do you start?

A big clue is the soil pH and the calcium and magnesium content.  Another clue is a lot of sand needs a lot of water but the people in Israel "fixed" this problem.

What do you think, good readers?  There are many of you out there smarter than I am.  I asked him a lot of questions so more will be forthcoming.

Just think, an email like this has taken me to New Zealand twice now!

Ed Winkle

Eight Foods

Maybe eight food additives or processes is a better way to describe this, but I found this very interesting.

"4. Potassium bromate (or bromated flour): Great for impatient bakers, bad for your kidneys and nervous system.  Found in: Wraps, rolls, bread crumbs, bagel chips, flat breads.

Why it’s dangerous: Derived from the same harmful chemical as brominated vegetable oil, brominated flour is used to decrease baking time and reduce costs. Only problem is, it’s linked to kidney damage, cancer, and nervous system damage.
Where it’s banned: Europe, Canada, and China."

We have become pretty cautious shoppers over the years.  Healthy, nutrient dense food is too rare to try and find and pretty expensive!  What we grow in the garden can rarely be topped in the Kroger Garden we normally shop at.

Take a look at the list.  Do you use those food additives?  It's about impossible not to in the states unless you have a very individualized program going.  I don't know anyone who really does except for avoidance of most of this "bad list" which is very difficult to do.  Do you think it's important to avoid them?

LuAnn froze another batch of our big tomato crop yesterday.  I sprayed Crossbow on a few noxious weeds I have left, is this a conflict of interest?

It is not a conflict of interest on a modern day farm or about any property out here in the country.  Residents will have a chance to discuss these things at the Farm Science Review near London, Ohio starting early tomorrow morning.  I might sneak up for a day but the main priority this week is to be at Keith Schlapkohl's farm at Stockton, Iowa for his field day Thursday come rain or shine.  Some of the speakers there are very knowledgeable about healthy nutrient dense food and crops.

I am having computer problems again probably thanks to the huge volume of material I run through each day and not enough time managing it.  I am old school and I store too much stuff.  One good reader prints it out and puts it in a notebook.  I also have notebooks full of these topics.

Hope to see some of you at Farm Science Review or Stockton Iowa Thursday.

Ed Winkle

The Scarecrow

I've heard Rain on the Scarecrow by John Mellencamp in the height of the Farm Crisis in the 80's but Chipolte has hired some outfit to take a whole new twist on it in this new YouTube Video.    It may  surpass 2 million views in a very short time(24 hours?) since it was just released.  LuAnn found it in her daily Google marketing links when it had 25,000 views.

What do you think of it?  I think I know most of you think it is a sad disconnect from the way most US farmers farm and what the liberals say they want farming to be.

I think it is so far out there, futuristic and produced in such a way I wonder how some people on this earth really think.  LuAnn shared it in her Marketing Class this week and even the younger local folks attending community college didn't know what to think of it, either.  She said it is a low cost marketing ploy to see if Millenials will help them use it to help their "marketing war" of fresh home grown restaurant food versus the factory farm fast food that has made a few companies billions.  She said it is very notable that Chipotle was started by McDonald's Corporation and spun them off a few years ago.

So why did Chipotle have this video made?

"Way to pull on our heartstrings, Chipotle. We know we should all be making better food choices, but now we're feeling an overwhelming amount of sadness and guilt after watching this new short film.

Today, the burrito chain has announced a new mobile game, titled The Scarecrow, for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The game aims to educate and engage the public about food issues. The above film, which coincides with the game's launch, features Fiona Apple singing "Pure Imagination," originally from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."

LuAnn says it's all a big marketing ploy.  She's usually right and this just fits into her new college marketing class.

Ed

Ship Soybeans By Air?

Really?  How could this be cost competitive???

"Turkish farms grow wheat, peaches, pomegranate, figs, chick peas, lentils, nectarines, olives, cucumbers and onions, among other items. It's possible that one day, Turkish olive oil - which is often traded to Italy, packed there as Italian Olive Oil and sold in U.S. stores that way - could be imported through Wilmington. While Turkey is interested in exporting items, leaders and farmers also need to export items such as soybeans - a crop Cinton County and Ohio have in abundance. But Turkish businesses want beans that are not genetically modified (often referred to as non-GMO). Clinton County and Ohio are able to provide non-GMO products, but Turkish government leaders are concerned non-GMO products could be contaminated by GMO crops. On this, issue, Curry played the lead. A farmer himself, Curry worked to explain to officials how containerized beans can be sealed up at a Clinton County farm, and not unsealed until the container hits its final location. And, of course, all of that can be shipped at the Wilmington Air Park. Containerized shipments of beans is already happening in Fayette County, Curry said, so he knows it can be done. There, beans are being shipped to Japan for tofu. "The Minister of Agriculture is concerned that even if two containers are side-by-side, the dust can get into it from another - that's how nervous he is," Curry said. "We need to work with the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture and see if we can get some people over there to discuss that." Dixon said Curry is on the verge of a break-through. "What he knows right now can probably open the door for the whole country if he can get this solved," Dixon said. "It's not a big thing to get solved, but it takes knowing the right people and he knows them." With much of these ideas, it may be just a matter of time before they take off, Dixon said. Clinton County has a lot to offer in the industry of global trade. "We have companies saying they're ready and we have vast resources," he said. "It's amazing how proud you can be from a county in Ohio. You can be 7,000 miles away and so proud of all the things we can do." Can anyone please explain this to me?  I would think it would be so specialized we aren't talking about much trade? Officials still wrestle with our empty, huge, modern airport. Thanks, Ed Winkle

No More Sidedress?

I read this article in the FHR Newsletter and it made me ask the question, will there someday be no more need for sidedress nitrogen for corn?

The University of Nottingham gave this press release regarding Azotic Technologies

Revolutionary Technology Allows Crops to Harvest Nitrogen From the Air Instead of Fertilizers

by Lidija Grozdanic, 07/26/13

filed under: green technology, News

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Photo via Shutterstock

Have you ever thought of air as the ultimate crop fertilizer? We haven’t either, but researchers at the University of Nottingham have developed a technology—termed nitrogen fixation—that allows plant to take nitrogen directly from the air. A special bacteria takes up nitrogen from the air and applies it to plant seeds as coating, enabling each plant cell to spontaneously ‘fix’ nitrogen. The new technology could be commercially available within the next couple of years and it has the potential to replace environmentally damaging fertilizers.

Read more: Revolutionary Technology Allows Crops to Harvest Nitrogen From the Air Instead of Fertilizers | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

Wouldn't this change the playing field!  Can you imagine corn making it's own nitrogen thanks to the help of bacteria?  How low would corn prices go?

I have no idea how good the science or if it even works yet.  I am sure the news would travel like wildfire if it were true.

Ed Winkle

Top Five

A young fellow asked on Crop Talk what the Top Five things that we have brought to the farm since 1995.  That must be the year he graduated or something, I don't know why you would choose that year.

1994 I remember, Leon Bird came to me with this new inoculant called America's Best.  Everything I put it on increased yield about 3 bushels.  That is pretty significant for a biological product to have that much impact.  I can't imagine the amount of money that one little finding has done for agriculture.  Dr. David Kuykendall should be proud and I hope he is.

A whole new company was born from those findings and a whole new way of life for me and many of my friends.  I would never plant soybeans without an ABM Inoculant on it it.  It was not very long after that, I read of a new fungi discovered by another scientist that also improves plant roots.  It is a fungi that is found in healthy soil called trichoderma.  I told Leon about that discovery and that product was added to the company inventory.  I would never plant a seed without an ABM trichoderma on it now, either.

Another fellow posted a picture of his radish root he planted in August.  No wonder he is impressed with its growth.  Radish came to our farm about ten years after the inoculants.  I even plant it with my wheat seed now because "something magical happens when a radish sprouts."  It's about healthy soil fungi,too like I get with SabrEx on the seed.

I would have to agree with 9670guy on his post.
"Managing compaction.
tile
Internet
scale. you have to be able to measure differences, you can't always see them.
changing the way you fertilize."

Some people have used four of those practices all their life but it's amazing when you realize the value of them for yourself.  The other one is brand new technology that has changed every one's life whether they realize it or not.  That is the Internet.

My blog and my whole post today came about after the invention of the Internet.  I use it almost every day of my life and did find it when I bought my first computer and modem in the year the original poster cited, 1995.

I wonder what the next big thing will be "down on the farm?"

Ed Winkle

Ed Winkle Soil

One of you sent me a link of your Google Search entitled, Ed Winkle, Soil.  I looked it up and was amazed of the links that I wrote or was quoted on.  You can get the same type of links if you Google Ed Winkle, No-Till, or Ed Winkle, Cover Crop.  Modern technology has really enhanced the spreading of what you say so you better be careful every time you type!

Ed Winkle, soil, enjoyed seeing his friends at the Goodwin Farms Pioneer Field Day last night.  I was shocked to find one of my dear friends is 80 years young now.  You don't associate age with that man, he is so young in his thinking and work.  We have traded no-till and soil fertility ideas for 25 years now.  He did what I should have done with his wheat this year and that is use a stripper head to cut his wheat for his double crop soybeans.

He has some of the rarest soils in Ohio, Crider Silt Loam like you find in Kentucky.  Neither glacier quite got to that high spot, it has a really deep sand lens in it that is perfect for drainage yet there is enough silt on top of it to really hold the water.  It is very productive soil.  He was able to buy the old farm I wanted to own years ago right on I-71.  That farm couldn't have a better owner.  There is only 333 acres of it where he lives and he has a piece of it.  One neighbor has grown vegetables for years.

I was also surprised to see one of my former student's son is technology leader now for Pioneer.  I showed him the Goss's Wilt all over the plot which shocked him so I hope he takes my challenge up to have it tested.  The plot was full of  pink leaves under big ears.  Everyone just looks at the big ears but I would like to make the plant a little healthier.  Could we get another 20 bushels out of it?  I think so and more, Keith has proved that tome.

Next week is his field day, a week from tomorrow to be exact.  I hope I can go witness it first hand.  They have a terrific lineup of speakers and three of them have been to our farm this year.  Dr. Cooper will be sharing his knowledge of breeding semi dwarf soybeans he came up with early in his career to try and raise soybean yields.  The podding of his Apex beans has been also terrific for me this year.

It is hot here like it usually is in July.  With no rain, the crops are maturing very quickly.  For most of us, this is a good thing but you don't have to go far to see some disasters.  A half mile south of me is poorly drained soil that was never fit to plant into this year.  I am right on the glacial moraine and I have a crop right next door to fields that struggled all year.

Such is farming!  I really hope you all have a good day!

Ed Winkle

Really Turning Now

The crops are really turning here.  I see my 3.7 food grade beans planted May 21 will be ready to harvest by the end of the month.  I need to get ready for that and get my help lined up.

I inspected a field of food grade soybeans yesterday.  They have to have 70% leaf drop for inspection and they were more like 90 plus percent.  Sable enjoyed running through the beans with no weeds in them.

If I can get my first beans off by then, do I plant wheat on that farm?  You know I like wheat because it throws the pests out of sync with nature because wheat is a minor crop in this region.  I can control Marestail and other serious pests more easily in wheat.

If I plant wheat, I need to get seed ordered now.  I've seen a lot of high yields and a lot of good varieties the last two crops, so which one should I choose?  Thankfully, I have a seed neighbor who raised a good crop of a brand new wheat from Ohio Certified Seed called Lion.  I know I can get that seed at the last minute but I have let him know already.

It may be more important for me to make the effort to spread Cal Phos or soft rock phosphate on my fields.  I could do that after the wheat is planted.  It costs $300 a ton just to get it here so it is a long term investment.  I am hoping potash comes down in price but I don't think so.  I think the Russian potash deal was over blown.

Tonight is Bruce Goodwin's Pioneer Field Day on SR 28.  He always does a great job and tells it like it is.  He is the CCA go to guy around Pleasant Plain, Ohio.  I always laugh at Pleasant Plain because the original name was Plumsock.  One of the original settlers got off the train and sunk to his socks so he named it Plumsock.

I have to include this picture of little Joshua.  Remember him asleep on the seed bags?  I think he left some magic dust where he was sleeping!

You have a great day, "ya hear?"

Ed Winkle

Non GMO Feed Demand Soaring

"Demand for non-GMO feed is growing significantly according to feed suppliers.  They say that increased consumer awareness of GMOs and growing demand for healthier foods is driving demand.

“Growing by leaps and bounds”

Several feed suppliers report exponential growth with requests for feed coming from all over the country.
“The demand is huge,” says Dan Masters, president of Ohio-based Hiland Naturals, which supplies non-GMO and organic soy- and non-soy feeds. Masters says his company is seeing 40% growth per month and will open three more facilities by the end of the year.

“It’s growing by leaps and bounds,” says John Yantis, owner and manager, Texas Natural Feeds, which sells non-GMO feeds primarily for chickens. Yantis has seen his sales have increased from 20 tons per month to 100 this year and says it could soon reach 150 tons.

"Diana Ambauen-Meade, owner of Washington state-based Scratch and Peck Feeds, sees similar growth. “We see it growing exponentially every month. This time last year we were selling 100 tons a month and now it’s pushing 270 tons per month,” she says.

“In the past two years we have seen a 150% growth in customers and demand for all of our non-GMO feed products,” says Spencer Sorenson, mill manager for Oregon-based Buxton Feed Company.

Will non-GMO displace organic?

Steve Chambers, president of Montana Specialty Mills, sees stronger demand for organic feed than non-GMO. “The organic feed market is developed while non-GMO is transitioning to become more established,” he says.

In fact, Chambers is concerned that the growth of non-GMO could hurt organic farmers. “Will it displace organic farming? Non-GMO could come at the expense of farmers who are trying to do everything right. It is one aspect of crop production but allows farmers to continue using chemicals. Organic is the whole package?”  Montana Specialty Mills, Hiland Naturals, and Texas Natural Feeds also sell organic feeds; all Scratch and Peck feeds are non-GMO and organic.

Non-GMO feeds are made from a range of ingredients including corn and soybeans, field peas, alfalfa, grains such as wheat, oats, barley, and milo, and protein meals from soy, canola, safflower, camelina, flax, and peanut. Some feeds will have one or two ingredients while others will have many. Non-GMO feeds are given to hogs, dairy and beef cattle, chickens, turkeys, goats, horses, rabbits, and even elk and deer.

Increased consumer awareness driving demand

Suppliers say that growing consumer awareness of GMOs is driving demand.  “There is an increased awareness of GMO and non-GMO in the past year or so with states trying to pass GMO labeling laws,” says Darwin Rader, international sales manager, Zeeland Farm Services, Inc.

“There’s more awareness of what GMOs to do humans and animals,” says Sheldon Swartzentruber, sales representative with Missouri-based Hostetler’s Feed and Farm Supply, which supplies non-GMO feeds for hogs, dairy cows, and chickens.  “People are getting the connection that what people feed their animals is very important,” says Ambauen-Meade.

She and Yantis also attribute the strong non-GMO demand to the growing backyard chicken raising trend.
Whole Foods’ announcement last spring that they would require GMO labels on products in their stores by 2018 is also driving demand for non-GMO feed.  “I had a lot of supply before Whole Foods’ announcement but now we’re moving product,” says James Frantzen, who recently launched a non-GMO feed operation in Riceville, Iowa."

These statements are supporting the demand for more non GMO crops.  Many of my friends are asking me about my non GMO program to see if they can develop one for their farm.

What do you think?

Ed Winkle

Sampson County North Carolina

From the 1700s' tar/turpentine tapping...

Driving east on Interstate 40 you can't miss Sampson County, North Carolina.  "The largest county in North Carolina, Sampson County stretches sixty miles long and thirty-five miles wide. At 963 square miles, our county is just about the size of the State of Rhode Island. Tucked into the southeast corner of the state known as the coastal plains, our picturesque county boasts gently rolling hills, rich farmland and friendly, bustling communities. Our climate is temperate, without winter and summer extremes, so it’s perfectly suited to our relaxed lifestyle. We’re conveniently located between the beautiful beaches of the east coast and the majestic Appalachian mountains of the west, and we are but an hour’s drive from our state capital.

Served by Interstate 40 east and west, and Interstate 95 north and south, Sampson County has an ideal transportation network to get you and your business where you need to go. Locally, there is a broad range of cultural and recreational activities from a performing arts series and community theatre to the best golf, hunting and fishing to be found.

More than 61,000 people reside in Sampson County and its eight incorporated municipalities of Autryville, Clinton (the county seat), Garland, Harrells, Newton Grove, Roseboro, Salemburg and Turkey. We are a hard-working people with a work ethic born in the fields of our agricultural heritage. Early settlers were drawn to Sampson County for its vast cropland and abundant timber, and over the years agriculture has grown into a $357 million dollar business. Sampson County is one of the State’s largest producers of poultry and vegetables and one of the nation’s largest producers of pork. We take pride in our heritage, but celebrate our recent prosperity as well. 

... to the 2000s' Sampson 4-H program.

Today, industries have realized that Sampson County enjoys not only a seasonal climate conducive to agricultural growth but also a progressive business climate that encourages diverse industrial growth as well. Our traditional values and strong work ethic ensure our business have a large, stable and productive work force. Our schools and community college system and our employment and training programs guarantee our workers are well trained."

We saw a Smithfield Chicken and BBQ Restaurant so we had to stop and taste the goodies.  We tried some chicken tenders and mustard sauce and boy were they good!  The tenders were huge pieces of white meat in a seasoning that rivals or surpasses the Colonel's special recipe.

I believe at one time they were the largest hog producing county in the United States.  I think my friends in Washington County, Iowa have been near the top ten producing counties.

Ed Winkle

Alternate crops

The stars of TV shows are more often than not meat or fish/seafood products. Vegetables and pulses are usually the side dish, only wheat seems to fare better, with pasta or baked desserts. This naturally translates into a similar orientation in farming, with most row crops grown for animal feed, oil, beer, fabric (cotton). Only a few of these crops are food grade, like sweet corn, wheat or peanuts.

A farmer on newagtalk asked if he could feed oat groats to his livestock, because he could get them cheap from the processing plant as a by-product. What the heck, I eat oat groats almost every morning for breakfast! This is a great human food, not a by-product or feed!
Another reacted to a post on lentils, asking what they were. Maybe we should have had a Michelle Obama long ago to educate kids about food. Just not the egg white sandwiches, please, Michelle!  ;)

On the other hand, some adventurous farmers try their hands at unusual crops such as chickpea (garbanzo beans) or sesame. Chickpeas especially seem to be the rage now, with Pepsi and Kraft's hummus sales progressing at 18% last year (for Pepsico's Sabra, at least).

Production progressed 51% last year to reach 332 million pounds. This year saw a smaller 3% increase in acreage, but the 214,300 acres of chickpeas is still a record high. There's something to be said about growing humus and hummus...


http://www.roanoke.com/news/business/2114070-12/chickpeas-becoming-a-hot-crop-for-virginia-farmers.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=growing+chickpea+for+hummus
By the way, hummus is a healthy Oriental dip made of pureed boiled chickpeas, ground sesame, olive oil, garlic and lemon juice. Chickpeas are also an integral part of North African couscous, and ground chickpeas can also be added to flour for savory pies.

So I wanted to thank those farmers who grow human food or other uncommon crops like spearmint for the chewing gum industry, and ask if there are other farmers around who grow such alternate or minor fun crops.

On another unrelated note, this week was the start of the Jewish New Year, in two months it's the Islamic New Year. The Western world comes yet another two months later but not latest, as the Chinese are riding the Year of the Horse for an extra month!  ;)

Chimel.

Final Plans

Going to family funerals makes you think of your final plans.  No one wants to think about that but I do think most of us would like to have our final plans in order before the big day.

It's easier and much more fun to live in today.  I have so much to live in it would be easy to put final plans off and let someone else make the decisions.  That would be LuAnn for me but I don't think it would be very kind to her to not do for myself what I would like to happen.

Most of us don't care that much what they do with us at that day.  Most farmers want to be scattered or buried on their farm or someplace nice like a farm or the family burial plot.  Since we don't have a family burial plot, I need to do a bit more planning than that.  I don't even know what the rules are about being scattered so that might be out or put someone like LuAnn in a bad place trying to exercise our final wishes.

We are where our oldest grandson Liam was born nearly eight years ago.  Just driving here and being here brings back a lot of good memories.  We remember the beaches and eating out with Will and Becky.  We will never forget Will's platoon members being here for the birth of their first child.  Now they have four children!

Do you have your final plans made?  I doubt it and it's a very personal question but it is good to talk to you about it here on a very informal basis.  Whatever your plans are or aren't, I think we ought to set some time aside to take care of those plans.

We have will and testaments but no final resting place.  I am going to do some more research on that when I get home.  I would rather spend my time planning next year's crop but I need to spend some time on this subject, too.

It is beautiful here in North Carolina and I hope it is wherever this finds you today, too.  Have a great day and weekend!

Ed Winkle