Independence

Do we really understand independence? I don't think we do. Here is what my Senator Brown sent to his constituents.

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Celebrating Our Nation’s Independence
Their names may not be remembered in the same vein as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, or George Washington, but Ohioans Hiram Powers, William Henry Powell, and Howard Chandler Christy each played a role in telling the story of our nation’s history.

Hiram Powers’ eight-foot high statue of Benjamin Franklin has stood a few feet from the entrance of the U.S. Senate Chamber for nearly 150 years. Directly across from this towering statue is another work-of-art crafted by an Ohioan. William Henry Powell’s 16 foot by 26 foot painting, “The Battle of Lake Erie,” depicts a pivotal moment during the War of 1812. It captures the moment when a U.S. victory protected the Great Lakes and our state from British invasion.

It was at the end of this battle when Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry notified General William Henry Harrison, future Ohio Senator and U.S. President, that “we have met the enemy and they are ours.” Both Powers and Powell were from Cincinnati. On the other side of the Capitol, just a few feet from the entrance to the floor of the House of Representatives, our Presidents have passed by Powers’ statue of Thomas Jefferson. Directly across the statue is a painting by another Ohioan, Morgan County’s Howard Chandler Christy. His 18 foot by 26 foot “Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States” depicts George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, among other founding fathers, enumerating the laws of our Constitution in Independence Hall in Philadelphia 1787.

This year, we celebrate the 234th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, preserved in the Constitution that George Washington first swore to uphold and defend. In doing so, we celebrate all Americans who have told the story of our nation – whether in sculpture or paint in the U.S. Capitol, on battlefields in foreign lands, or in factories and firehouses in our communities. In doing so, we reflect on the sacrifice of those who make our independence possible.

To all the men and women of our armed services, our veterans, and all of our military families – we owe you our gratitude and thanks. We know there are great challenges confronting our state and our nation – an economy to rebuild, national security to protect, an oil spill to be contained.

But this weekend’s celebrations embody the vibrant American spirit and rock solid patriotism that I see in communities across Ohio. As it has done throughout our nation’s history, Ohio’s talented workforce is building the cars and appliances of the 21st Century. Ohio workers are building the infrastructure – ports and bridges and highways and railways – that will connect our shores and expand our commerce. Ohio’s manufacturers, farmers, small businesses, and entrepreneurs pushed the boundaries of ingenuity and innovation to help turn our nation into an economic superpower.

Workers’ wages climbed as productivity increased and the ticket to the middle class – a stable, well-paying manufacturing job – built prosperous communities around the state. Today, we are re-tooling our manufacturers to compete in the 21st Century clean energy economy – and rebuilding our middle class communities along the way. The entrepreneurial spirit of our great state sent humankind into flight and space. It built the cannonballs and tanks to defend our nation. It helped navigate our great rivers and cultivate our vast fields.

And it will once again lead our nation toward a path for economic prosperity. And throughout our nation’s history, that path has always come through Ohio. Marietta was the first official town in the newly established Northwest Territory. The official public celebration occurred on Independence Day 1788, marking our state’s role as a gateway to westward expansion. For the more than two hundred years since Thomas Jefferson granted our statehood, our state’s history has helped tell the story of our nation’s history. One is reminded of this walking past Hiram Power’s sculptures or the paintings of William Henry Powell and Howard Chandler Christy.

And I am reminded of it as I meet Ohioans across our state, knowing that our nation and Ohio’s history have been, and will continue to be, shaped by everyday heroes in our communities. It’s an honor serving as your U.S. Senator and I thank you for being active participants in the story of our great state and upholding the ideals and limitless promise of our great nation. I wish you and your family a safe 4th of July holiday. "

Sounds real good, doesn't it? If you read it aloud it doesn 't make much sense, too many ands. I guess he is trying to be an orator. Everything he votes for goes against what he is praising here. He is a democrat but the republicans are no better. The power and the corruption of the two party system.

I am really giving up on our political process as no good person wants this job if he is in his right mind. I guess things really have to get bad before we straighten this mess out.

I have great hope in our country but none in the people elected to guide us.

Too many laws and too many lawyets and not enough common sense.

Ed

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

Perfect

Yesterday was the picture perfect day. The weather was absolutely perfect with clear skies and warm sunshine. Everything I did seemed to go right with it.

My last field of double crop soybeans were popping through the ground and it is still moist under that blanket of wheat straw. I got the 170 acres of tofu soybeans for Japan sprayed. Everything is "laid by" except for the double crops if they are worth spraying in a few weeks from now. I sure hope they are.

Kenny came and I got him splitting and sawing wood for the winter. The wood was really still to wet to split, the rest will split much better this fall.

We loaded up a tank of spray mixture with Banvel, Ignite and glyphosate and sprayed my beautiful corn borders. They were wilted down already when we took Sable for ice cream.

I finished mowing around the old farmstead of the farm we bought and Kenny pulled soil samples on the field I plan to add to it next year. It hasn't been farmed in years. The white thistle flowers raised to the sky like cotton and I sneezed and wheezed. I hate weeds.

They took our beautiful garden, we just couldn't keep up. I got propane for the grill and steaks and burgers for Monday or whenever. That sweet corn will taste real good with them. You can tell when you are trying to do too much and weeds take your garden but the survivors will be tasty. The apple crop is huge and so are the tomatoes. The lettuce and peas are shot.

There is this most beautiful sun rise coming I wish you could see it. A camera would never do it justice. Hard to believe it is going to be 90 tomorrow when it is below 60 right now.

I didn't get enough sunblock on this week and my ears, face and arms are burned to a crisp. You would think an old dude would know better.

Let the fireworks begin.

Ed

July 2

Today is dad's birthday. Happy birthday, Dad!

Yesterday was Caolin's birthday, happy birthday, Caolin! She had a fun time at the Cincinnati Zoo with Liam and family.

The wheat market closed up 25 cents in harvest! Now that does not happen every day! Markets are so fickle right now it makes my head spin. I just hope I get more corn and soybeans sold at a decent price. Time will tell on that one.

I had a shot at renting another 80 acres for double crop soybeans and turned it down after I saw the soil test results. It needs 500 pounds of fertilizer per acre to have a chance! We are in another dry spell now so the soil moisture would have to get them out of the ground and pray for rain the rest of the summer. That is just too risky for me.

I think it will end up for sale as the family moves to new things. There are several farms for sale here now in the 3-4000 dollar range and nothing is moving because we are inbetween crop years and the economy is a big question mark.

LuAnn helped me spray the border on our beautiful soybean field behind the house. I have giant ragweeds as tall as the corn on the new farm so I bush hogged all I could yesterday and need to spray some. Thank goodness the chemical program worked and there aren't any inside the field. Nothing worse than weeds as tall as the cab of the tractor or combine!

I am spraying the 170 acres of non GMO soybeans headed for Asia this winter today. They are canopied over with a few weeds sticking out and more under the canopy. I hope that cleans them up for the year. Then there will be one last summer spraying of the double crop soybeans and we should be done except for bush hogging and border spraying of weeds. They sure had a good year but so did the timely planted crops.

Timing was everything this year and there wasn't enough good days for every field so you fantastic crops right beside really sad looking crops. Fortunately we don't have any of the really sad looking crops.

That's it for July 2, 2010. This was a great day in 1915 and 2009.

Ed Winkle

Corn

The USDA report yesterday showed 300 million bushels of stocks disappeared like this fellow's grain bin laying in the neighbors field. I have no idea where the bin came from but was driving down the road and almost sent Sable through the windshield before I could yell "hang on, Sable" and stop for a picture.

At least the corn market has a little hope now as it and wheat traded heavily yesterday but beans were flat as we planted more acres and the South American crop is slowly coming to the market.

I didn't have enough corn sold early so this does give me a little hope. I have my target bids in place so I will be OK if get to them. At least I think we will get close but economies are so poor now it is really hard to judge what anything will do.

All I have to do now is control the weeds in the little beans and hope for the best in weather and markets. I did all I could do. I did pretty well but always strive for better.

I just got my Silverado back from my mechanic and the brakes took a bigger bite out of my checkbook than I expected but it is 8 years old now and only used to haul loads or as a spare vehicle. The caliper was cracked, bad from the factory I am sure but I got 8 years and 70,000 miles out of it.

The pads were still thick but were cracked so I replaced them too. I wish it was a flex fuel truck but I can run 30% E-85 in it with no problems and the mileage doesn't go down and the HP improves. I blend a little E-85 in everything. There is no excuse why every gas engine is not flex fueled in this country. We can grow the corn and improve jobs and economy until the market decides what fuel is best. Ethanol is right here and right now so I use it.

I can't believe the amount of farmers who don't do this or use biodiesel in their tractors. There is another good fuel right here right now. We have no excuse to complain about market prices, we can keep demand high.

It's a beautiful, picture perfect day in southwest Ohio and everyone is enjoying the weather before the fourth. Hamburgers, hot dogs, steak and sweet corn is on the menu.

Stop by and enjoy some.

Ed

Who Dies?

I was reading the Ohio Country Journal this morning and read an article by Les Anderson at the University of Kentucky that sure expresses my life long sentiment. Who decides who dies?

It surely isn't the American Farmer who busts his tail producing the cheapest and best source of food in the world. It surely isn't Francis Childs who grew the best corn I ever saw in this picture. It sure wasn't me or any farmer I have met.

Why would we work in a profession that harms us let alone or fellow man? It never happened and isn't going to.

"Working in an academic environment is interesting for an "aggie". I grew up in the middle-of-nowhere Missouri on a family farm. My father worked his rear end off every day trying to forge a living from the soil; both crops and forage. Life was tough and we didn't have any "extra spending money". Life was also good and I wouldn't have traded my childhood for any other.

My background and love for agriculture makes my life a bit stressful today. Agriculture is under attack. We have the cheapest and safest food supply in the world; yet, our society seems to take exception to our methods of production. The media constantly bombards the public with "factory farm" concepts, mistreatment of animals, and how our current methods of agriculture are destroying the environment. The current trends in "thought" from the national media are that agriculture needs to return to its roots with the production of more "organic" foods and more "sustainable" methods of production. Many universities seem to support these ideas. Is there anything wrong with organic/alternative methods of agriculture?

No, I support any method farmers can use to help improve their profitability. But alternative methods of production most often reduce productivity. Basically, the prevailing theories seem to indicate that the world would be better off if we would go back to the methods of production in the 1940's, 50's and 60's. Hmmm. Let's think about this for a minute.What will happen if we do return to the levels and methods of production from that era of agriculture?

Without the use of current methods of production, our ability to produce food will drop 50-60%. As Dr. Burris indicated in the previous article, one mechanized farmer in the 1960's could feed about 29 people whereas today's farmer can feed 129 people. The population of the world in 1960 was about 3 billion people, and today is nearly 7 billion people. What will happen if we return to the production levels of 1960? What will happen to food prices when availability decreases?

Currently, the US population spends the least amount of their yearly income on food than any country in the world. How many people could afford milk if the price went to $7 per gallon? How would your spending change if you had to use 30-40% of your salary to just cover food? According to the USDA, only 19 countries in the world spend less than 20% of their income on food; only 4 spend less than 10%.

If your food costs doubled, could you pay your mortgage, car payments, or go on vacation?Finally, what is nature's method of population control? Starvation. If we reduce the food supply, who suffers? Where will we get the food we need to survive? The Chinese have already stated that they will fight for food. Will you? A limited food supply will support a limited population. Who decides who dies?

Source: Dr. Les Anderson, Beef Cattle Specialist, University of Kentucky

That expresses the ag sentiment very well. Kyle and Matt and crew do a good job of reporting these things as well as all of my ag reporting friends. Kyle wrote and editorial on The USDA's report of what it costs to raise a child now, $222,000. Now that takes into account the house and expenses a couple would have anyway but raising a family does take all your energy and ability to make money, no doubt.

We have a vested interest here because we have six children and grandchild number eight is coming in October. We have all done everything in our power to do it right. Our farm roots run deep and it shows in our family. I am very happy about that but all we hear, too often, is the plight of the people due to their own stupidity. Ignorance can be fixed but stupid is forever.

Who decides who dies? You better ponder that one real closely!

Ed Winkle

Alice Musser at NoTill Farmer sent me a new video from Great Plains on how they will help meet the growing need for food with their new twin row planting system. It looks good across the country where I have seen it. At least this video is interesting and addresses the issue I discussed today.

We were so blessed to get rain again this weekend. This farm had 1.2 inches in one gauge, 1.5 in another and 2 inches in another. Some had 3-4 inches, most received around an ince.

This wheat is in the hands of the miller who will mill it into flour for Nabisco and beome Oreo cookies and the like. That field is sprouting double crop soybeans today, the earliest I have got that accomplished. This weather is 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule.

I like the old windmill in the background, I got a few pictures of it Saturday. The weather is a lot less oppresive than it was Saturday. The rain broke that heat wave and the cooler weather is here.

I have met so many new people this last week with the harvest, grain delivery, soybean planting, and just driving from one place to the other. The chemical tuck driver was raised on a dairy farm near Wooster and we knew some of the same people. He was another displaced driver from the closing of DHL.

One man I met had just lost his wife, both in their seventies, and is taking it very hard. I pray for the greiving and confused people of the world.

The longer you work with the same person the more you get to know one another. I reinforced the fact that I live in a very good place and work with very good people I like.

I was invited to speak and participate in midsouth meeting next month and it will be a great opportunity to meet more people and learn and share ideas. One thing is for sure, I don't miss classroom teaching anymore, paid my dues and glad I turned it over to the younger generation.

I think all of you younger folks are doing a good job and I wish you well.

In two days it is July, this year is just flying by too quickly. I hope we can see some of the family this weekend.

Ed