Ten Things To Know Before Buying Farm Ground

On AgTalk we get a lot of questions just like the one I had when I graduated college.  How in the world will a poor guy like me ever own any farm ground?

I waited too long and passed up a lot of good opportunities.  I blamed it on my support system.  I never had anyone behind me who agreed with my goal and passion until I met LuAnn in 1999.

One poster gave what I thought was some really sound advice last week on Crop Talk.

1. Start looking now and get connected quietly
2. Pile the cash away
3. Study soil maps and drainage
4. Identify and verify property lines
5. Make sure you know about all easements and liabilities and contracts and leases connected to the land
6. Pay the first one off fast
7. Be offensive but set your limits and obey them and don't be afraid to low ball or walk away as appropriate
8. Keep off farm income rolling in as long as it makes sense
9. Have a plan or at least discuss thing with your father. You have a chance to grow the entire pie which helps the entire operation especially if he is on board
10. Start looking now, yes I said it twice

FWIW. Have bought several hundred acres in the last 18 months. Deals are out there, just gotta be patient and look and be ready. The deals never make it to the headline internet chat. The record high ones do. Picked up one piece last year for under 4K and pulled 200 bushel corn and 70 bushel beans off it this year. Just gotta look and be patient.

This is one of those really good threads that appear from time to time and worth your reading if you are interested in farm ground.  I bet my readers could write some really good stories if I could just get you to comment!

Many of you younger readers I've talked to could really benefit from this list.  Actually doing it and applying it to your own situation may require the support I felt I never had.

My door and email is open to you and I might even talk on the phone with you.

Ed

Bird Agronomics

You've heard me mention my friend Leon Bird here on HyMark High Spots many times.  I thought I would direct you to his latest venture, Bird Agronomics.  It's a pretty interesting website with lots of information on it.  I am interested in every product discussed on his website as it is all cutting edge technology.  Inoculation is important to the farmer and the gardener and so are cover crops.

Leon just had both knees replaced so we call to check up on each other.  He has been a good friend for over 20 years.  He is the most honest, humble man I've dealt with and I enjoy talking to him.  We say more in 5 minutes than other conversations converse in an hour.  We are on the same level, though he has a mind for numbers and statistics far beyond my capabilities.

He taught me all about hybrid seed corn and the seed corn industry in the early 90's.  It changed the way I look at seed.  I look for quality as much as I look at pedigree.  Quality is so important and often overlooked.  A problem with the big companies is they are so big and handle so much seed, the dollar can become more important than the seed.The larger the quantity, the larger the chance for error and do they ever make errors.

The small company cannot afford to do that.  They have to pay close attention to quality and follow through on every sale.  One bad comment on the Internet could ruin a year's sales.  Leon has never had to worry about that and one time someone asked about Leon on Crop Talk and about 20 guys gave him more praise than I ever heard one man given on Crop Talk.

I miss the old Bird Hybrid signs pictured above. Now I have signs in the barn that are no longer up to date.   He sold his seed corn business to Mark Denzler in Indiana and that became 1st Choice Seeds.  That farm where the sign was became my favorite corn crop of all time and I still show pictures of it on Ag Talk when we are talking about what good corn should look like.

The reason I mention Leon today is a friend from Nebraska asked me who to buy inoculant from and I recommended Leon.  He will make sure my friend gets fresh product that can be stored cool to keep every "bug" alive in the inoculant.

If you need any of the products listed on his website, you already know I highly recommend you deal with Leon.  He has helped some of my Crop Talk friends immensely and helped change the way they farm.  From corn to cabbage, Leon has helped many farmers.  I have no doubt his products will increase your return on investment in this very tight year.  I have 20 years of experience to prove that.

You might want to be the next one.

Sincerely,

Ed Winkle

Considerations On Inoculants

"The benefit from using rhizobium-containing inoculants is not as clear cut as are the benefits from using fungicide and insecticide seed treatments, according to the Mississippi Soybean Promotion Board (MSPB). We all know that these bacteria must be present in the soil in sufficient numbers for proper nodulation on soybean roots to occur. What we don’t know in such a hard-and-fast fashion is just when to expect an economic or agronomic response when inoculants are applied.
Points to consider in the decision of whether or not to use an inoculant are:

• An appropriate inoculant is cheap, generally less than $3/acre. Thus, cost is not a factor in deciding whether or not to inoculate.
• Do not apply inoculants to gain a yield increase. Rather, apply them to ensure that nitrogen fixation will be sufficient for the crop to realize the yield potential from the planted site.
• Inoculants are generally not compatible with fungicide seed treatments, so inoculant application must be made at planting. This will slow the planting operation.
• There is overwhelming evidence that applying inoculants to soils that have recently been cropped to soybeans provides no yield benefit.
• The cheapness of inoculants warrants their application when soybeans have not been grown recently on a site and the risk of insufficient native soil inoculum is high. The importance of this fact is because there is no option after planting but to apply expensive nitrogen fertilizer to overcome the effects of poor nodulation.
• With the change in cropping systems that is occurring in Mississippi, it is a good idea to inoculate when soybeans are planted on a site that has had continuous cotton or corn or if the site has not been cropped to soybeans in the last 4 to 5 years.
• There is a potential advantage from choosing inoculant products that contain more than one strain of bacteria.
• Results from a study that was planted behind the 2011 flood in Mississippi showed no advantage for applying inoculants even though the flood period was several weeks.

For more information, read MSPB’s “Soybean Seed Treatments and Inoculants.”

I started inoculating soybeans again in 1994 when the USDA strain came out.  I've not seen a year since I didn't think it paid.

Ed Winkle

Analyzing Plants With Google Glass

Scientists from UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute have developed a Google Glass app that, when paired with a handheld device, enables the wearer to quickly analyze the health of a plant without damaging it.

The app analyzes the concentration of chlorophyll — the substance in plants responsible for converting sunlight into energy. Reduced chlorophyll production in plants can indicate degradation of water, soil or air quality.

One current method for measuring chlorophyll concentration requires removing some of the plant’s leaves, dissolving them in a chemical solvent and then performing the chemical analysis. With the new system, leaves are examined and then left functional and intact.

The research, led by Aydogan Ozcan, associate director of the UCLA California NanoSystems Institute and Chancellor’s Professor of Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, was published online by the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Lab on a Chip.

The system developed by Ozcan’s lab uses an image captured by the Google Glass camera to measure the chlorophyll’s light absorption in the green part of the optical spectrum.

The main body of the handheld illuminator unit can be produced using 3-D printing and it runs on three AAA batteries; with a small circuit board added, it can be assembled for less than $30. Held behind the leaf, facing the Glass wearer, the illuminator emits light that enhances the leaf’s transmission image contrast, indoors or out, regardless of environmental lighting conditions.
The wearer can control the device using the Google Glass touch control pad or with the voice command, “Okay, Glass, image a leaf.” The Glass photographs the leaf and sends an enhanced image wirelessly to a remote server, which processes the data from the image and sends back a chlorophyll concentration reading, all in less than 10 seconds.

“One pleasant surprise we found was that we used five leaf species to calibrate our system, and that this same calibration worked to accurately detect chlorophyll concentration in 15 different leaf species without having to recalibrate the app,” Ozcan said. “This will allow a scientist to get readings walking from plant to plant in a field of crops, or look at many different plants in a drought-plagued area and accumulate plant health data very quickly.”

The Google Glass app and illuminator unit could replace relatively costly and bulky laboratory instruments. Ozcan said that the convenience, speed and cost-effectiveness of the new system could aid scientists studying the effects of droughts and climate change in remote areas.

Ed

Chemo Week

Every 21 days I get another round of chemo.  Besides going to the same clinic 40 miles away, it is a hard week to manage.  Nausea is the main problem so it's the only week I take nausea pills.

Monday is the long day.  We see the oncologist first, they pull a blood sample and see if you are strong enough to take another dose.  We talk a bit and he tries to reassure you and answer any questions.  I have to take my notes and questions and still forget to ask things.

Then they give me, through "infusion" through my port, a bag of sterile water, a bag of nausea medicine like I take in the pill form and then the chemo.  My chemo is used for patients for lung cancer although I don't have it.

Tuesday and Wednesday is the same thing but a smaller dose.  By Tuesday or Wednesday I am so sick it is uncomfortable to ride that far and I wish it was in Wilmington, not Cincinnati.  Thursday is a trip down for Neulasta to try and keep my platelet counts up.  It takes longer to get there than it does to get vitals and get the shot.  They give it to you in your fatty part of your arm under your bicep.  My biceps are about gone, I hate to even look.

That week starts again Monday.  I am not looking forward to it so I must build myself up for the end goal of getting better.  I want to get better so I don't have to go through this anymore, at least not for now.

This is Tuesday morning so I made it through the big Monday.  That's the best I've felt when I got home after getting the infusion.  I have no idea why, though we have worked hard at learning how to manage the pills and the pain and the food and the oncoming constipation.  Walking more Sunday may have helped.

That ended after dinner last night and the pain started to set in.  LuAnn asked why my stomach always gets hit first which I thought we both understood but I guess we really don't.  I took a nausea pill and it didn't get much better.  By bedtime the pain or nausea was pretty strong.  I got a pain in my left leg like I had pulled something but I don't think I did.  My whole leg hurt from my hip to my toes.  I wrestled with it for an hour and finally had to get up and come downstairs.

I tried to loosen it up and put some topical treatments on.  I gave up and took an extra pain pill and laid down and prayed, watching EWTN.  The pain went away enough I fell asleep and I just woke up at 4 AM.  I didn't sleep until 6 like I wanted to but it is below zero again and gives me time to stoke the insert again.  I feel pretty good compared to the pain I had last night.

I am not looking forward to another trip down there for another dose of "pain" but you do what you have to do.  I am not thinking bad thoughts so if I can keep the pain down until I get home it will be another successful day.  I am taking so much laxative to avoid constipation that alone could have caused some of the stomach pain.  It is really challenging to manage for me and I never had so much trouble riding in the Rendezvous as I did yesterday.  I sure hope it's better today.

I got enough protein down yesterday I hope it gets me through today, tomorrow and Thursday just for the ride.  It's miserable trying to ride to Cincinnati when you are doubled over in pain.  It comes and goes so unpredictably you wonder what is causing what.

I wrote this for my close family and friends just to keep you updated.  Yesterday overall was a good day compared to others when I almost called the infusion off I hurt so bad.  It's for all of my readers too, as I hope you never have to go through this yourself or a close loved one.

We all have our cross to bear and this is a hard one for me but I am still here.

Ed Winkle

National FFA Week and Grain Bin Safety Week

February 22 marks the beginning of National FFA Week and National Grain Bin Safety Week.  FFA week has been around as long as I have but it's only the second year for National Grain Bin Safety Week.

"Each year, FFA chapters around the country celebrate National FFA Week. The week-long tradition began in 1947 when the National FFA Board of Directors designated the week of George Washington's birthday as National FFA Week in recognition of his legacy as an agriculturist and farmer. The first National FFA Week was held in 1948. Today, FFA Week always runs Saturday to Saturday and encompasses Feb. 22, Washington's birthday.

National FFA Week did not start out as a week-long event. At first it was National FFA Day. The 1933 National FFA Convention Proceedings records the beginning of FFA Day in this way: "Stewart of Montana requested the floor at this time to present a matter of general interest. He suggested the idea of having a special Future Farmer Day some time during 1934, preferably on one of the regular national FFA broadcasting days.

 It was pointed out that the various state associations could perhaps plan special state broadcasts also on that day and that chapters might plan their father and son banquets on the date specified. The idea seemed to meet with general delegate approval and after some discussion it was moved by Stewart that the Board of Trustees arrange for such a day; motion passed."  The week long tradition started in 1948.

Every chapter does something different for FFA week from breakfasts to any kind of activity you can think of.  We tried many different activities over my tenure as agricultural educator but everyone enjoys good food and good leadership.  FFA is famous for both.

Grain bin safety gained national attention with too many tragic deaths hitting the newswire every year.  Many farmers are moving grain this time of the year so this week is as good as any.  31 farmers and helpers lost their lives in grain bin accidents so safety is needed and must come first.

Ohio Country Journal had a real good quote on safety from Richard Flax in Clark County and his near death experience last month.  I have never read a story quite like his and he does a good job explaining what went wrong.

Be careful near the bins this week and every week and take time out to help your local FFA chapter celebrate National FFA Week.

They are both very worthwhile activities.

Ed Winkle

First Sunday Of Lent

It's another Sunday but not just any Sunday, it's the first Sunday of Lent 2015.  We had a great visit with Father Mike Halloran from Wilmington Friday and we got our ashes Wednesday thanks to Rich Burwinkel.

We read the Little Black Book everyday.  It is distributed at most Catholic Churche's across the US.  This week we learned how the famous "Po Boy" sandwiches started in the Great Depression down in New Orleans.  We learned about Luke's Gospel of Compassion.  It is the longest of the Gospels, about 23,000 words.  He added the Acts of the Apostles and those two make up over one fourth of the entire New Testament.

Friday's readings were on Covenants.  Moses and his people made a covenant in blood with God.  It's been honored for centuries.  You did not break a covenant and now you can't even trust many people with their own word.  The US has the most attorneys of any country in the world.

“This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come,
of the covenant between me and you
and every living creature with you:
I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign
of the covenant between me and the earth.
When I bring clouds over the earth,
and the bow appears in the clouds,
I will recall the covenant I have made
between me and you and all living beings,
so that the waters shall never again become a flood
to destroy all mortal beings.”

"I am familiar with covenants, that's what marriage vows are.  I can catch the the implications of the eucharistic covenant if I picture God speaking vows to me.

"I God, take you LuAnn to be my own, to and to hold, from this day forward, for better for worse(including sin), for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health...
and when you die, my Son will walk with you though death and bring you safely home to peace and joy and life... forever.

Remember, a covenant involves both parties.  We have to speak our part.

I Ed, take you God to be my own..."

Pretty powerful stuff, that's what we've been through this week.

We wish you a blessed week and hope this weather turns quickly for all of us.

The 10 day still looks like winter and I guess March could too.

Ed