Sable is Home

Remember the first day you brought home your new dog? Sable came home today.

We picked her up at the breeder's after church. Her father is Haus Von Fasanlauf and her mother is Heidi Von Koch II. What do you like better, Sable Von HyMark or Sable Von Winkle? Winkle is definitely German, pronounced Vinckel.

LuAnn bought a cage to house a monster like Haus or Hoss like her dad. Good thing, she is going to fill it up quickly!

She is very attentive and is learning quickly. I think she will make a great dog.

Like all of us, she had a cold week outside with her siblings. The black male sold yesterday so only the black female sister is left in the pen. I am sure someone will buy that dog because they have good breeding and aren't charging that much in this bad economy.

Empty nesters have a new baby. This one with 4 legs not quite as busy as the ones with two!

Madison and Brynne and their cousins Zach and Cameron came to meet Sable and just left. Now Tara and Erik are here so it is almost dinner time.

Turkey tetrazinni anyone? Not sure if I spelled that correctly, need to learn to use the spellcheck on Google's BogSpot and start checking my posts a little closer. I see some mistakes.

Thanks for all the email on the last and previous posts and keep the comments and email coming!

Another question for you, do you like links or not? The wife says use less links so I never used any in this post, personally I love links to learn and see what the writer is thinking and referring to.

Here is hoping for a much warmer week for all of us!

Got my new QST magazine in the mail while I was gone so 73 to all of you. That means Best Regards in voice or Morse Code.

Ed Winkle

Just what I imagined...

I finally made it home from NNTC. What a great conference!

It was so good to see my friends and make many new ones. I can't start mentioning names or I will leave someone out! I will mention some of the presenters who caught my attention.

I finally got to meet Neil Kinsey after reading Hands On Agronomy several times and meet Dr. Darrell Norton, soil scientist at the National Soil Erosion and Research Laboratory housed at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

They were just what I imagined! Neil is a southern Missouri farm boy who after many decades of practicing soil fertility consulting is hot on the lecture circuit and busy with his clients all over the world. He showed crops and places most of us have never seen, let alone understand.

He showed how he learned to feed the soil that feeds the plants that sustains all animal life on this planet. Feeding the soil, not just the crop takes in the physical, chemical and biological aspects of soil. He learned the concepts from Dr. Albrecht at the University of Missouri.

The theory has been much discussed, much misunderstood and even disputed. Still, many farmers and those who work with farmers have seen the effects of these principles in farm fields.

Dr. Norton, on the othe hand, is a true scientist. His presentation fit right in with Neil Kinsey's showing what gypsum is, how it is made synthetically to clean our air and feed our soil. His room was so packed farmers were standing anywhere they could stand and sitting cross-legged on the floor and in the aisles. Good thing the fire marshall didn't show up!

Many people don't like his dry, scientific method of presenting the facts as he has discovered them but I found myself writing as fast as I could, ready to order the audio CD, and waiting for the show in the CD Lessiter Publications will send in coming weeks. After the first annual meetings, the conference offered audio tapes, then CD's and now shared copies of power points thanks to exhibitors, sponsors and requests of lots of attendees.

The most powerful points that hit home to me was when Ken Rulon of Rulon Farms in Indiana told the audience that we worry too much about the top end of the crop which is 20% of farm income and not enough about farm management which is 80% of farm income(or something close to that, this is what I came away with.) Another gasp came when Marion Calmer of Alpha Illinois shared data from a farm he purchesed in 1983 and how all the fertilizer he applied in broadcast phosphorous and potassium never showed a good rate of return, yet his corn yields started going up when he quit spreading all that dry fertilizer. Folks will be talking about this one for weeks, months, and probably years!

It will be interesting to see what is reported on NewAgTalk. You wouldn't believe how many people read this page! Everyone will have their take on the presentations and you can't possibly see all the sessions because some on are on-going.

I will be curious to see what others learned from David Hula, champion corn grower from Charles City, Virginia. I had a good visit with David and we had dinner together at the Brazilian Steak House. How unique that setting was with all the different salads and sides and 15 different meats brought out hot off the grill on skewers.

Specialty Fertilizer Products was a big part of the conference and taped interviews and other shots for the upcoming no-till video to be shown on RFD TV on February 16. The young people at Osborn and Barr did an excellent job setting up and hosting those interviews. They are some of the sharpest folks I have met in awhile! It will be very interesting to see how this turns out!

It seems like this is often the coldest week of the year and I hope it turns out that way again! Record cold across our country was NOT enjoyed this week! Hats off to all the spouses who "kept the fires burning" at home while farmers joined to learn and share and hopefully bring home some tips to make more money in this and future years!

I had a great week and hope you did too, even with all the problems from the weather. Now it's time to get back to work!

Have a better week,

Ed Winkle

Farmers and Markets

Whew, yesterday was a BAD day! Here is what one of my grain buyers sent by email yesterday afternoon:

CBOT CHANGE

CORN - 30.00 CENTS

BEANS - 70.00 CENTS

WHEAT - 60.00 CENTS

Now that is a really bad day for farmers! Fuel went out the roof last summer but drug the grain markets with it. Some prognosticators predicted a new era in prices and we would see $10 corn and blah, blah, blah!

By harvest, prices were nearly half the summer price. Fertilizer is priced behind fuel and never came down. We were looking at $4 corn and double the ferilizer price at harvest.

Now we are less than that and fertilizer has come down a little. Too many of our suppliers bought at the high price and are now sitting on it. Rivers full of barges and no where to go because wholesalers and retailers couldn't take it because farmers said they couldn't pay that price. It all happened in a matter of weeks.

Landlords want the same or higher rent, seed price doubled, causing a really tight squeeze for the farmer. Remember, most farmers can't afford to own all their land so they rent it. Talk about red ink, look at any online 2009 crop budget!

Farmers are the source of eternal hope with the famous saying "it will be better next year." Well, next year is here and it is worse! It looks bleak if you dwell on the negative.

The big thing is no one can see the future. So much as happened in such a short period of time. Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, droughts all in the same country in a very short time. Housing crashed, financial markets crashed, banks are hurting, too much credit card debt, presidential election, the list is huge.

Here we sit trying to figure out how we are going to pay the bills this year.

Should be interesting!

Stay tuned,

Ed Winkle

NNTC

Acronyms everywhere! Acronyms have become the trademark of today's specialization. What is NNTC? NNTC stands for National NoTillage Conference and the 17th annual version is coming this week to the Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis.

I wandered across my first one in the mid-nineties when I was in St. Louis for an IPSA meeting. IPSA stands for Independent Professional Seedsman Association. I watched a few presentations and was hooked.

What is no-till farming anyhow? Every farmer knows what it is and has probably tried it. Now over 70% of the soybeans in the United States are planted no-till but only 24% of the corn acres are.

No-till was started as a way to conserve soil and prevent erosion in the late fifties and earely sixties. The first commercial no-till planter I ever saw was the Allis Chalmers 400 planter. Soon farmers learned no-till crops could take the heat of summer better because of the mulch between the rows.

The problem was weed control. There were few or no chemicals available to farmers in those days. Ortho paraquat was one of the first products out for no-till and farmers would spray paraquat and no-till into the dead mulch. It worked with some success but never really caught on until better machinery was developed to plant with.

We started no-tilling in 1976 when dad rented a White 5100 no-till planter and we planted our first no-till corn. I still have a six row 5100 planter today and it works as well as any no-till planter out there.

John Deere came out with their 750 no-till drill in the early nineties and drilling cereal crops like wheat and soybeans took off to the acres we have today. No one really made a great no-till planter so Howard Martin in Kentucky worked with Eugene Keeton in Tennessee and the Reed Brothers and their cousin David Moeller in Iowa to develop the first successful "system" of no-till parts added to a corn planter. That system has caught on and thousands of farmers have adopted this system.

These changes have been part of the information shared at the NNTC in recent years. The conference was started and is put on annually by Frank Lessiter of Lessiter publications and his great staff out of Wisconsin. With their sponsors like Syngenta they award national no-till awards to farmers, consultants, companies and groups who have earned recognition helping spread the no-till message.

Recently more and more farmers have adopted no-till farming as a way to cut costs with increasing fuel prices yet get comparable yields to the best conventional farming yields. Yields of over 300 bushel corn and 100 bushel wheat and soybeans have been achieved by no-till "innovators." Frank is shown presenting me an award at the conference in my bio(until I upload a different picture.)

As I have mentioned, this is a very innovative group of farmers and those who supply them and work with them. Many of us look forward to the conference each year and there are many repeat attendees.

The 17th annual conference is entitled "Charging Ahead With No-Till" and starts Wednesday at the Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis.

I look forward to meeting some of you there and seeing my friends there whom I have already had the pleasure of meeting. I will report more of what we learn and talk about in future posts.

See you in Indianapolis!

Ed Winkle

Farm Dogs

When we bought this farm in 2004 the farmer was retiring to town. He asked if we could keep his dog until he got a fence built. Sure, no problem, we will take good care of her. She was quite a famous dog in their family and this community anyhow.

A few weeks go by and he stops in one day and told me he wasn't allowed to build a fence and of course she was an outdoor dog on the farm here. He looked at her and then looked at me and said you talk to her just like I do. Could she stay here?

By that time she was about my best buddy, old Trixy. Trixy was Phil's black lab he had bought as a puppy and she had always lived here. She was had a great demeanor, loved corn, followed you everywhere and would walk behind the tractor or combine. We truly became good friends.

She was getting quite feeble in her old age last year and finally I found her on her doggy pillow on the side porch one morning. She had passed away in her sleep.

I called my tile man and he came over and dug a big hole for her in the back yard. She was a BIG dog. It's always a sad time when a pet dies, different than people but very sad.

LuAnn and I vowed we would not get a pup during the winter and would get one next spring. She wanted one like Alex, that special dog of hers that made the move to Ohio in 2001. Alex was a best friend too, a golden or yellow lab from a litter of black labs. He died before we moved in 2004 so Trixy was a welcome site to the new farm. She knew this place like the back of her paws. You know dogs, they lick their paws clean and she loved to do that.

I was given a trained police German Shepherd a long time ago because the man couldn't keep her in town and we lived in the country. Silver was the smartest dog I ever met and would rival Rin Tin Tin. So I have always been a little partial to Shepherds but love labs, too.

Last night after visiting Becky, Will and Liam, we stopped for gas in Clarksville. There was a rough looking character with a beautiful black German Shepherd sitting in the front seat. I said boy I would like to have a dog like that and he said my daughter has 3 left. He talked about their parents, $800 registered stock with straight backs, not the hip problems some Shepherd lines have. Somehow I knew right then we had found our new dog.

LuAnn kept asking me when I was going to call so I called the girl after lunch. She had two black Shepherds and one sable Shepherd left. We went down to see them and I could tell LuAnn liked that dog and I did too. She got it out and and we watched it run and how it acted then we both held it and talked to it and knew it would be our new dog, Sable. We asked her to keep it a week so we could get a crate to crate train it.

So next week we start that ordeal of training a pup to be a farm dog. We want Sable to be a good watch dog and a friend to us, our kids, grandkids, friends and neighbors. I know she can do it if we take the time to do it right. It should be an exciting end of winter and start of spring!

I will bet you have stories and pictures of your dog, too. I would love to hear and see them.

Have a great week, I know I am planning on one.

Ed Winkle

An Uneventful Day

Those are good, aren't they?

I heard the rain falling on the frozen ground this morning and remembered I never parked the last load of firewood inside. Ran outside to get it in and about got drenched in the few minutes I was out there.

Rain on frozen ground. Not good. Why couldn't it have come in August when the beans needed a drink?

LuAnn helped me finish my powerpoint for next week. Can't wait to see all those guys and ladies in Indianapolis. Seems like I have been thinking and working on it for months. No-till soybeans looks easy but it is no simple task raising really good yielding and profitable soybeans when the national yields have been declining or not keeping up with corn.

Ah, but life is good. We are empty nesters with all the kids married off and now raising their own families. Fortunately they are all close enough to visit but seems like we see them less more and more.

Did go get to visit with Liam, though. I love talking to that three year old. Oh, I love them all but that one reminds me of me and dad and my son Mark. Blond, skinny and smart as a tack, not saying any of us three set any world records.

An apple lover like dad and I, he would get out of the car and run to the apple trees the last two summers. Apples, apples everywhere he would say and run full speed for the trees. We would throw the bad ones into the field behind the house and say that's a bad one, this one we will keep and eat. Sometimes he would eat three before dinner, not a wise idea on my part.

You folks with children, take time and treasure them. You get so busy making a living you can forget about your kids. Farmers have the time and incentive to spend lots of time with their kids where others may not. I love it when I see guys talk about their kids on NewAgTalk or wherever. I just love kids. Guess that is why I stuck with teaching. Not the same but good if you like it.

Can't believe we have four grandkids and three more coming this summer. Wow! I feel blessed and privileged! Can't wait to see and hold those new ones. Makes me forget about this unpredictable economy and these crazy times.

Well won't be long 'til we end the day. The Ravens beat the Titans in a good game, hated to see either team lose. Tomorrow is God's day and we have a lot to be thankful for and some to offer up in prayer like so many have done for me.

Just makes you want to say Thanks!

Have a good Sabbath,

Ed Winkle

From Ham Radio to Teaching to Farming

I always wondered why I got into ham radio as a kid. I had dipoles strung across the farm, a homebuilt transmitter and receiver for Morse Code.

It was intriguing to me and let me communicate with people around the world from all walks of life. I wanted to go to electronics school but that wasn't a formal university setting so let's say I was highly discouraged from doing that. I entered Ohio State in June 1968 because I didn't get my application in on time. "We will take you summer quarter or winter quarter but fall quarter is full."

Doing research with punch cards wasn't my cup of tea so at the end of my sixth quarter my parents get a letter basically saying we love taking your money but your son lacks .02 accumulative grades to continue here. The Viet Nam war was raging and many classmates joined the services, dropped out or flunked out and served there. Dad took me aside and said you better declare a major in agriculture where you know something. I had taken every requirement required to graduate except my major. I walked across the Olentangy on the coldest day from you know where and declared my major. I never got less than a B after that.

I had really always wanted to farm or be a scientist when I was little and the ham radio bit seemed like a good launch into a career as a teenager. It didn't turn out that way. Ag teachers were badly needed during the war and that seemed like a good inbetween. I was offered a job teaching agriculture doing student teaching "on the job." I would get paid a salary, $5,000 paid monthly while completing student teaching by actually teaching!

I was hired in August and one of my first chores was cultivating the school farm soybean fields. They had been let go and it was too late to cultivate but they were weedy so I cultivated. That was a far cry from what I would soon be doing, notilling the whole farm. When school started I tried to teach 4 classes in the morning and then watched Al Cramton teach at neighboring Lynchburg Clay. I planned and I tried and I planned and tried some more.

By November I was ready to quit. One day the largest class was totally out of control and I mean it was pure chaos. Class full of hoods to farm boys. Finally one got so fed up he stood up and pulled a switch blade out and snapped it open. I gulped. He said Winkle, you wanna die? I feebally said No, Curt I was hired to try and help you boys. If I could get order here I will try my best. Curt was one of those slicked haird duck tailed hoods and turned to the class and said everybody shut up. If you don't listen to Winkle you are going to answer to me! From that day on things changed. I slowly convinced them to trust me and my lessons got longer and a little better each day.

It was a tough way to learn to teach but I did it. We had fund raisers, paid off the FFA debt(they owed everyone from the milk shake fund to the local bank and fertilizer dealer.) Ohio started the now famous annual Fruit Sale and we sold Florida organges everywhere. My son, also an ag teacher at Fayetteville, still buys from Florida Fruit, the same outfit I dealt with when I retired in 02. Teaching is like farming and ham radio. You learn a whole new concept and practice and practice until you master it enough to just do it. You learn more teaching than you ever did as a student. I will always admire and respect the great teachers. They change lives like good ham operators and good farmers. They all do good for mankind.

I have a lot of stories of learning to share in this 59 years if you care to follow along and provoke me with comments and questions. Blogging is fun for me right now but ask me during planting season and I might answer differently.

Next week is the National NoTillage Conference so I might miss a few days but I would really like to share what I learn there. I always learn much, like Jules says you come home to rest and ponder because your head is hurting so bad from all the information.

You have a good one now, you hear?

Ed