Farm Beautiful Contest

I would love to see one of you readers win the Successful Farming Farm Beautiful Contest.

"HOW TO ENTER: There are two (2) ways to enter during the Contest Period:
Online: Visit www.agriculture.com/farmbeautiful and follow the instructions provided to complete the entry form and upload up to twelve (12) color photos and a written description of the farmstead, including the history, what was done to develop the landscape and how the layout accommodates farming activities in 500 words or less. Photos must be in .jpeg format and cannot be larger than 5MB in size. Or

Mail: In an envelope with proper postage affixed, include: up to twelve (12) 4"x6" color photos of your farmstead, a written description of the farmstead, including the history, what was done to develop the landscape and how the layout accommodates farming activities (in 500 words or less), and your name, address, and telephone number and send to Successful Farming – Farm Beautiful Contest, 1716 Locust St., LS-257, Des Moines, IA 50309-3023 (each, an "Entry"). (Photos will not be returned.)

All Entries are final upon submission. Entering the Contest online will automatically register entrant at www.agriculture.com if entrant has not already registered. Entries generated by script, mechanical, macro or other automated means or practices, or by any means which subvert the entry process will be void. Online Entries must be submitted by 10:59 p.m. C.T. on July 1, 2014, and mail Entries must be postmarked on or before July 1, 2014, and received by July 9, 2014 to be eligible. All Entries become the property of Sponsor and will not be returned."

We have seen some beautiful farms in our travels and some of you own them!  Pennsylvania and Iowa have some of the most beautiful farmsteads we have seen but Ohio has its share.  Every state has beautiful farms and we have been privileged to see some of them.

This would be a good title to hand down to the grand children, you know?

Ed

We think the old windmill on the Ertl farm is gone now since they tiled that farm.  It's not in our view anymore.  So much fencerow is gone we can see a house from our back porch on Doak Road we couldn't see before.

Get Your Lang Diesel Hat Right Here!

Lang Diesel in Kansas is offering a free hat for every review of their website.  I am offering you that hat through my entry right here.

I would love to win the Gleaner pedal combine for my grand children.  They like to ride the Oliver 1755 and John Deere looking IH M imitation pedal tractor I have from the 50's.  I hope a good customer with kids or grand kids gets it but if Lang Diesel was down the road, I would be a customer.

I have read their doings on Facebook thanks to my friend Reid Hamre from AGCO for sometime.  He speaks very highly of them and I trust him.  He knows his equipment and he knows people.

"LDI has 11 locations in Kansas: Hays, Smith Center, Colby, Ellinwood, Sabetha, Salina, Hillsboro, Topeka, Chanute, Garden City and Dodge City.

 

Founded in 1988, Lang Diesel, Inc. started in Hays, Kansas when Brian Lang, president, literally opened a repair shop out of his tool box. Since then, LDI has grown to a full-service equipment dealership with extensive sales and product support. Throughout its history, LDI has represented numerous AGCO brands, including AGCO Tractors, Massey Ferguson, Gleaner, Sunflower, Hesston and others.

 

LDI will continue to offer these brands in addition to adding a full-line of Challenger ag equipment as well as RoGator and TerraGator application equipment. LDI is dedicated to "doing what it takes" to provide our customers with the best quality products, parts and service. From the sales process to full-service product support, we are committed to delivering an ownership experience that matches the professional-level performance you've come to expect from AGCO. "

 

Make a post on their Facebook page to enter or send it to Shelly Macumber at marketing@langdiesel.com

 

They have a very nice website but I am sure Shelly will answer your questions or make note of your review of their website!

 

At least you get a free hat!

 

Ed Winkle

 

 

Just How Rich Are We?

A map released by AEI-Ideas, consisting of U.S. states and correlating countries gives insight on just how much wealth America packs.

The map was created by pairing economic output in the U.S. in 2012 to foreign countries with comparable gross domestic products, using Beta data and Wikipedia for GDP by country. The states were matched with the country closest in economic size since 2012.

America’s total GDP of $16.2 trillion in 2012 is represented in the map by an astounding compilation of countries, also noting that the U.S. produced 22.3% of world GDP in 2012, while only making up 4.4% of the world’s population.

MP: Overall, the US produced 22.3% of world GDP in 2012, with only 4.4% of the world’s population. Three of America’s states (California, Texas and New York) – as separate countries – would rank in the world’s top 15 largest economies. And one of those states – California – produced more than $2 trillion in economic output in 2012 – and the other two (Texas and New York) produced more than $1 trillion of GDP in 2012. The map and these statistics help remind us of the enormity of the economic powerhouse we live in. So let’s not lose sight of how ridiculously large and powerful the US economy is, and how much wealth and prosperity is being created all the time in the world’s largest economic engine.

According to AEI-Ideas:
1. America’s largest state economy is California, which produced $2.003 trillion of economic output in 2012, just slightly below Italy’s GDP in the same year of $2.013 trillion. In 2012, California would have been tied with Italy as the 9th largest economy in the world. And California’s population is only 38 million compared to Italy’s population of 61 million, which means California produces the same economic output as Italy with 37% fewer people. That’s a testament to the superior, world-class productivity of the American worker.

2. America’s second largest state economy – Texas –produced $1.4 trillion of economic output in 2012, placing it just slightly behind the world’s 13th largest country by GDP – Australia – with $1.56 trillion of economic output.

3. Even with all of its oil wealth, Saudi Arabia’s GDP in 2012 at $711 billion was less than GDP in Florida ($777 billion) and just slightly more than the GDP in Illinois ($695 billion).

4. New York’s GDP in 2012 of $1.205 trillion was slightly more than Mexico’s GDP of $1.18 trillion, even though Mexico’s population of 120.8 million people is 6.2 times larger than the number of people living in New York (19.6 million). Another example of the world-class productivity of the American workforce.

5. Washington state produces almost as much economic output ($375.7 billion) as Venezuela ($382 billion), even though Venezuela’s population (30 million) is more than four times larger than Washington’s (6.9 million).

6. Likewise, capitalist West Virginia produces about the same GDP as communist Cuba, even though Cuba’s population is more than six times larger than West Virginia’s.

Ohio is up there with Sweden?  Hey Matts, where are you?

What is the implications of owing as a country, just over one year's GDP?

Ed Winkle

Coffee Rust, Royal Fungus

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is stepping up efforts to help Central American farmers fight a devastating coffee disease — and hold down the price of your morning cup.

At issue is a fungus called coffee rust that has caused more than $1 billion in damage across Latin American region. The fungus is especially deadly to Arabica coffee, the bean that makes up most high-end, specialty coffees.

 

Already, it is affecting the price of some of those coffees in the U.S.  "We are concerned because we know coffee rust is already causing massive amounts of devastation," said Raj Shah, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
 

He is expected to announce a $5 million partnership with Texas A&M University's World Coffee Research center to try to eliminate the fungus.
 

But the government isn't doing this just to protect our $4 specialty coffees, as much as Americans love them. The chief concern is about the economic security of these small farms abroad. If farmers lose their jobs, it increases hunger and poverty in the region and contributes to violence and drug trafficking.

 

Washington estimates that production could be down anywhere from 15 percent to 40 percent in coming years, and that those losses could mean as many as 500,000 people could lose their jobs. Though some countries have brought the fungus under control, many of the poorer coffee-producing countries in Latin America don't see the rust problem getting better anytime soon.

 

Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama and Costa Rica have all been hard hit.

Much of the blander, mass-produced coffee in this country comes from Asia and other regions. Most of the richer, more expensive coffees are from small, high altitude farms in Central America. Because the farms are smaller, farmers there often don't have enough money to buy the fungicides needed or lack the training to plant in ways that could avoid contamination.

 

The rust, called roya in Spanish, is a fungus that is highly contagious due to airborne fungal spores. It affects different varieties, but the Arabica beans are especially susceptible. Rainy weather worsens the problem.

 I wonder how Kona Joe's is doing on the big island?  Bruno did an impressive job with our tour.

Ed Winkle

Divorce Rate 50%?

I listened to Family Sanctuary on St. Gabriel radio 820 AM after lunch.  Catherine Wood said that highest divorce has ever been was 40% in 1979.  She said the media took the divorce rate one year (1981) compared to the number of new marriages one year to get 50%!  Divorce rate has declined ever since 1979 and is normally 30%.  70% of couples never divorce!  One in 1000 marriages divorce if the couple prays together!  The family that prays together actually stays together!

Shocking statistics, aren't they?  Those numbers made my day but made me shook my head at what we are told.  Much of what we are told isn't true!

"Recent studies on marriage show that, while their rates of divorce are significant, U.S. Catholics are less likely to divorce than people of other religious affiliations.

“Although the Catholic ‘divorce rate’ is lower than the U.S. average, it is still a daunting figure,” said the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

 

In a Sept. 26 blog post, the research group explained that divorce among Catholics “represents more than 11 million individuals,” many of whom “are likely in need of more outreach and ongoing ministry from the Church.”

In its article, the organization explained that different ways of tallying divorce and marriage rates create a range of different divorce figures, including the oft-quoted statistic that “half of all marriages fail.”

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/catholics-continue-to-have-lowest-divorce-rates/#ixzz33WwCv7Dn

Many of my friends have been divorced, many have not.  People don't stick through marriage like our parents did.  I am sure there is good and bad to that.

Divorce is hard enough on most people involved but it is devastating to the children from the marriage.  Even if one or both partners are very difficult people, it is natural for children to want both parents.  It must be embarrassing at school to be one of the few children going through divorce.

The radio program today gave me hope.  I have quoted the wrong numbers for divorce rate too long.

Ed

Is Our Soil Being Squandered?

"British soils are reaching crisis point.” Don't take my word for it – this is a quote from a loyal friend of the farming industry, Farmers' Weekly.

You would expect farmers to try to protect their soils, which are the foundations of their livelihood, and many do. There are some excellent farmers in Britain, careful, well-informed and always thinking of the future.

But across large areas of land, short-termism now triumphs over common sense. Farmers are often in debt to the banks, and seek to clear that debt as quickly as they can. Many are growing crops that are simply incompatible with protecting the soil. Some don't seem to know very much about soil erosion and why it happens. Others – especially contract farmers working on other people's land – don't seem to care.

Sensible land use is giving way to smash-and grab-exploitation.

I always flinch at the name given to soil in the US: dirt. Here there's a similar conflation: something dirty is said to have been soiled.

But soil is a remarkable substance, a delicately-structured cushion between rock and air, formed from thousands of years of physical and biological processes. It supports an ecosystem that turns unusable materials into plant food, it stores carbon, filters water and protects us from floods. Oh, and there's the small consideration that without it we would starve. It is, as it takes so long to re-form once it is lost, effectively non-renewable."

Chimel sent me this article.  It describes what we've done to Ohio in the 40 years or so before 2008 when everything came to a screeching halt.  I am sure that can be said for many places around the world, but especially in the Midwest.

Midwest soils have been squandered.  Many soils have reached the crisis point.

Do you agree?

Ed Winkle

Wheat Pollination

I think my wheat pollinated without problems.  It was cooler and not too rainy which is ideal for wheat pollination.  I watched the Penn State Wheat Scab Predictor every day and their meter never got over the Low Risk scale.  I was happy to see that 3-5 days pass without incident.  Heavy rains fell before and after that five day period.

"By the time heading occurs, the development of all shoots (main stem and tillers) on the same plant is in synchronization even though there were large differences as to when the initiation of the various shoots occurred (i.e. tiller initiation occurs later than the main stem). However, throughout the pre-heading period, differences also occur in the duration of the various developmental phases among the shoots (i.e. developmental phases for tillers are shortened), which serves to synchronize tiller development with the main stem so that tiller head emergence and flowering occurs soon after the main stem has headed and flowered.

The heading stage begins when the tip of the spike (head) can be seen emerging from the flag leaf sheath (Feekes 10.1; Zadoks 50), and emergence continues until the head is completely emerged (Feekes 10.5; Zadoks 58). The heading date in most wheat varieties is determined by temperature (accumulation of heat units). In some varieties, a combination of heat accumulation and day length determines heading date.

Shortly after the wheat head has fully emerged, flowering (anthesis) occurs. However, flowering and pollination in cereals may occur either before or after head emergence, depending on plant species and variety. Thus, cereals are classified as either open-flowering or closed-flowering types. Flowering occurs in open-flowering types shortly after head emergence. Most varieties of wheat are of the open-flowering type. Generally, flowering in wheat begins within three or four days after head emergence. Open flowering is characterized by extrusion of the anther (reproductive portion of the flower which produces pollen) from each floret on the head. In contrast, closed-flowering types of varieties or cereals (i.e. barley) flower prior to head emergence and the anthers remain inside each floret.

Photo2.4 Many wheat varieties have awns and are called "bearded" wheat, while other varieties are awnless.

Flowering and pollination of wheat normally begins in the center of the head and progresses to the top and bottom of the head. Pollination is normally very quick, lasting only about three to five days. Pollination occurs slightly later on tillers than on the main stem, but all heads on a plant pollinate within a few days of each other. Wheat is largely self-pollinated, and pollination and fertilization has already occurred before the pollen-bearing anthers are extruded from the florets. Kernels per head are determined by the number of flowers that are pollinated. Pollen formation and pollination are very sensitive to environmental conditions. High temperatures and drought stress during heading and flowering can reduce pollen viability and thus reduce kernel numbers.

 

Flowering is the transition between two broadly categorized growth stages in wheat. In the first stage, vegetative growth, reproductive initiation, and reproductive development occur and determine the final yield potential of the crop and also provide the photosynthetic factory necessary for maximum yield. The second stage is the grain-filling period in which the potential yield created in the first stage is realized. The extent to which the potential yield is realized will depend on the environment and on management inputs prior to and after anthesis.

Return to Growth and Development :: Table of Contents

 

Ed