Community Garden

My organization, Turning Point Applied Learning Center in Hillsboro Ohio made the first cut in a nationwide competition sponsored by Edy's Fruit Bars and the Fruit Tree foundation.

To receive a fruit orchard we must earn enough votes in an online competition. We need your vote every day to become in winner! Winners will receive fruit trees and fruit bearing bushes to create a community orchard.

This orchard will complement our existing community garden that is part of our employment training program. Our garden and the future orchard provide fresh fruit and vegetables for several area foodbanks and homeless shelters.

To vote for Turning Point:

Please go to www.CommunitiesTakeRoot.com

Click on the “Vote Now” tab

Click on “List by State” and scroll down to Ohio and find Hillsboro….Turning Point

Then register to vote and vote EVERY DAY until May 31st!

We would love to get the most votes across the country to earn an orchard for our community.

You can help us by passing this request on to your email contacts and your Facebook Friends.

Thank you!

LuAnn

There isn't much of anything planted in Ohio, a few acres here and there and maybe some really try gardens. We are over 15 inches since the first of April!

Date Total 05/02/2011 05/03/2011 05/04/2011 05/05/2011 05/06/2011 05/07/2011 05/08/2011
B Farm 3.61 0.20 2.30 0.41 0.28 0.00 0.00 0.42
Hershey Farm 2.70 0.18 1.47 0.48 0.17 0.00 0.00 0.40
New Farm 2.58 0.17 1.53 0.41 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.47
Home Farm 2.67 0.26 1.48 0.46 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.45
Ledford Farm 2.57 0.29 1.41 0.43 0.04 0.00 0.00 0.40

From SpatialRainfallConsulting.com You can look your rainfall totals up there too!

Hugs

Mother's Day is a good time to talk about hugs. Some people give them freely and others don't. My friends are pretty much a big group of huggers. Thankfully my family is too.

I wasn't raised with hugs and kisses and I love you but I could feel it. Touch is an important sense for me. It gives me a lot of security. When I am not in a hugging mood I am probably not in a very good mood for me.

Dad rolled around with us when we were little and that was better than a hug. I know I hugged my kids alot and still do. That sense of closeness is imprortant to me, especially in this crazy world we live in.

I always thought days other than Christmas and Easter were made up holidays to sell greeting cards. They do mean more to me now in my older years as every minute is more valuable to me then when I was younger and thought I didn't have time for such nonsense.

Father's Day was always awkward to me because I thought every day was Father's Day. I respected my dad every day and wanted my kids to feel the same way about me. I bet some mom's are the same way, this is just another day and every day is mother's day. It's nice to get some special recognition, though.

So here's to hugs on Mother's Day. Give someone you love a great big hug. That means more to me than about anything else today and I hope it does for you, too.

Flowers and candy and dinners and such are nice but there is nothing than a sincere hug. It shows openess and feelings we take for granted.

Even Sable likes hugs but she would rather roll around with me like a kid.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there.

Ed

Kid Seeds

Our friend Sally on NewAgTalk posted a real winner of a picture on the Cafe last night. I always said kids are the best crop you will ever grow and now I have some proof!

You can vote for the picture here. It's a 10 in my book, no doubt. It took me awhile to get my vote in, I can't see well enough to get those encrypted passwords on the first try.

I got a message from Liam last night on Facebook, Papaw I miss you! No more than I miss you, Liam. Liam and his brother and sister moved to Lake Erie the first of March. He is coming down to visit this week and I can't wait to see him.

The little ones grow up so quickly. Madison, Brynn, Liam, Corbin, Claire, Caolin, Tyler, Finn, and baby Cleveland are growing so fast, too fast for Grandpa.

I always said kids are the best crop you will ever grow and these children and they are proof of that fact. Sowing seeds for the future is another good title a farmer gave this picture.

My friend Brad graduates from Wilmington College today. The first time I met him was seven years ago when we bought his grandpa's place. He was just a tall stringy kid then with big eyes and boy how he has grown in seven years! Now he is a young farmer with a college degree, a farm and machinery and a real estate license.

He's got a big challenge with his first big year of farming with no college involved. I never dreamed that he would graduate before he got to turn a wheel this year. God works in mysterious ways.

I wish every parent could give the attention to these little ones most farmers do. The world would be such a better place.

So here is hat's off to you responsible parents. You are the key to our society thriving and surviving! Parenting is no easy job but many of you make it look easy.

Mother's Day couldn't come at a better time.

Happy Mother's Day to all my readers who are mom's. I hope you enjoy your special day.

Ed Winkle

Corn Progress

This weather is something else. I am glad I am not in seed sales anymore.

A year ago Tyler and I were looking at my baby beans. This year they are still in the bag!

The USDA released its weekly planting progress report. Corn planting progress is very behind last year’s outstanding pace, with only 4% of the crop being planted last week, 13% of the total corn crop is in the ground for the 18 primary producing states. This compares with a 5 year historical average of 40% in similar time periods, and 2010’s estimate of 66%. Top corn producing states Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Dakota, and Ohio, all reported no progress in corn planting over the past week due to the record amounts of precipitation.

From Informa:
Corn, down 300 thousand acres at 91.9 million,
Sorghum, down 200 thousand acres at 5.46 million,
Soybeans, down 600 thousand acres at 76.0 million,
Other Spring Wheat, down 360 thousand at 14.0 million, and
All cotton, up 515 thousand at 13.1 million.


"As rain continues to push corn planting back and soybeans after that, growers may be starting to reconsider crop choices. Other guys who got some corn in the ground 10 to 12 days ago before the rains must have their fingers crossed hoping the seed won't rot in the cold and saturated soils. And others are probably happy they watched the forecast and waited.

One worry is now being replaced with another as growers wonder if they should switch varieties to shorter season numbers or switch from corn to soybeans as the clock keeps ticking and the optimal planting window closes.

While it is easy to conclude that the window is closing, there is still time. Most growers want to have their corn planted by April 20 or 25 or no later than May 1. With the rush to plant early many of us believe that there is a really big benefit with early-planted corn. However, the optimal window for planting corn really doesn't close until about May 10 and yield losses of 1 bushel per acre per day really don't kick in until May 8 to 10.

Mid-April to early May is the optimal window for planting corn from Indiana to Nebraska. Sure there is nothing wrong with planting early and nothing wrong with planting later either as you won't lose any yield before May 10. Remember, the final yield is not just determined by planting within the window. It is also impacted by weather conditions over the summer and the length of fall before the first frost occurs -- along with stresses that occur during the season. Most farmers need only 10 to 14 good days to plant corn. If the rains end this week and it dries up fairly quick, there may still have enough time to get corn planted within the optimal window.

What about switching hybrid numbers to shorter relative maturity? If it is May and you stick with corn, it doesn't pay to switch to shorter season hybrids. First, the shorter season hybrids will yield no better than planting the longer season hybrid planted at a later date. And second, if you go looking to switch out hybrids at this late date you will probably not be happy with what you get.
So there is no hurry to switch to soybeans for probably another 20 to 30 days. Optimum planting date for beans begins in late April through mid-May. But let's not worry about soybeans just yet until the corn is planted.

Lastly, and very important, it never pays to mud in corn. The compaction and sidewall smearing you create will have a more negative effect on yield then any planting delay ever will."

We can mud in corn as well as anyone, successfully with lighter tractors and the Martin planter setup. We can tip toe across fields and may have too.

It just hasn't been good growing weather yet, too cool to be this wet.

I am figuring 25% of my yield and income potential at this point is lost but all is not lost yet.

Ed

Consequences

We are exoeriencing consequences from all this rain. The fall tilled fields are about washed away and very few weeds. The notill fields are weedy. The taller cover crops like rye are getting out of hand and I expect they will be by planting time.

The rivers ran brown all month. I didn't even think there were that many tilled fields around this area but there must be because they have been nilk chocolate brown all spring.

These are the kinds of years that drive seed people nuts. The farmer makes a plan, it's in the shed and you can't plant the maturity you planned on in time so the seed man has to start switching maturities. I won't have any trouble in that area because I planned for this. If I had a barn full of that new 115 day hybrid with the big pearly kernals that did so well last year, it would be heading back to the warehouse. I didn't take delivery on any though I had planned to a month ago.

I tried to mow some 2 foot tall orchardgrass that is in our barnyard lawn. My little diesel mower wasn't designed for that. If you didn't have new sharp blades and and the tractor ready to go and mowed every chance little chance there was your lawn is clear out of control. Our's is and we were ready for it. It rained almost every day in April like it did in May last year but this is much worse than last year.

The tile holes I planned to repair got bigger with all the flooding. I have a big pile of soil to move on the new farm and now I have half as much to move. The windrow is half the size it was before April and probably won't get spread before planting.

"These are the times that try men's soul's" is appropriate this year. We have four dollar fuel and the only place to burn it is on a paved highway.

Life is full of consequences and this one is out of our control.

Sure makes a farmer wonder how this year is going to turn out.

We went to church grateful for what we have anyway. We can't do much about the weather, only how we react to it.

Ed

Rainfall data

Bill Northcutt at Spatial Rainfall Consulting sent me my updated rainfall data for April. It's not as much as Cincinnati reports but it is enough to keep us out of the fields all month and the upcoming days in May.

"I ran your report and said Holy Mackerel! I hadn't paid that much attention to rain in your territory - no planting anytime soon.

Here is your report and I'm attaching a map from NWS on a visual - I noticed they screwed up on the scale - but your area is in the 8-10" range and some in the 10-15" range and the numbers below support it.

Bill

Date B Farm H Farm New Farm Home Farm L Farm/M Farm
4/1/2011 0 0 0 0 0
4/2/2011 0.12 0.09 0.13 0.28 0.29
4/3/2011 0.02 0.01 0.02 0 0.01
4/4/2011 0 0 0 0 0
4/5/2011 1.34 1.43 1.51 1.63 1.49
4/6/2011 0.01 0 0.01 0 0
4/7/2011 0 0 0 0 0
4/8/2011 0.05 0.07 0.06 0.01 0.01
4/9/2011 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01
4/10/2011 0.29 0.35 0.35 0.37 0.4
4/11/2011 0 0 0 0 0
4/12/2011 1.18 1.31 1.23 1.34 1.32
4/13/2011 0.79 0.36 0.38 0.11 0.14
4/14/2011 0 0 0 0 0
4/15/2011 0 0 0 0 0
4/16/2011 0.67 0.48 0.49 0.51 0.51
4/17/2011 0.06 0.04 0.03 0.03 0.04
4/18/2011 0 0 0 0 0
4/19/2011 1.23 0.74 1.52 0.61 0.76
4/20/2011 1.09 1.29 1.96 1.73 1.76
4/21/2011 0.04 0.03 0.03 0.04 0.07
4/22/2011 0 0.02 0 0.01 0.02
4/23/2011 0.82 0.75 1.14 0.93 0.92
4/24/2011 0.69 0.73 0.44 0.49 0.52
4/25/2011 0.33 0.37 0.17 0.31 0.37
4/26/2011 0 0.04 0.04 0.13 0.18
4/27/2011 0.11 0.06 0.11 0.15 0.16
4/28/2011 0.63 0.52 0.56 0.29 0.25
4/29/2011 0.13 0.11 0.16 0.18 0.27

Total 9.66 8.83 10.38 9.19 9.53

Every year is a challange for farmers and this one is no different but different in the amount in one month. We received 1/4 of the year's rainfall in one month!

Ed

I Am Still Alive

Yes friends, I am still alive.

Sorry I have not written for awhile but I have been away from the computer for 30 days. I am setting some new priorities in my life and the computer was not one of them.

I know, strange for me but it was needed. I made 10,000 posts in 10 years on NewAgTalk and that figures around 3 a day average. That's obsession.

I have learned a lot about myself after 61 years of living and it was time to reassess where I am at.

I suppose you know we broke the record for rainfall for the month of April for the Cincinnati region and third time wettest month in recorded history. That's bad for farmers but I didn't use it to sit behind the computer.

Some of our wheat looks good and some of it is sitting in water. I am not sure we will keep that and may plant it to soybeans. I have to go ove the crop adjustors report and I haven't had time too yet. Pretty soon it will be as tall as the wheat in the picture.

Here is an article I participated in you might enjoy.

I have had some amazing classes and experiences in the past month and will have some more before I get active again. LuAnn tried to help keep the blog going but we just had too much going on in our business and in our lives to keep up my goal of a blog a day. It's been good for me.

Thanks for all the calls and email and letters, they are greatly appreciated.

I am still alive and doing well.

I hope you are too.

Ed