Winkle Speedway

We have a new speedway at our farm. It's hundreds of years old and newly paved for high speed. It's called Ohio State Route 28 or the old Cincinnati Chillicothe Pike.

It's paved and striped and ready for racing. I have to really watch my speed now heading west to Blanchester as I could do a 100 in a heartbeat going down our hill from the Wisconsin Glacial Till to the old Illinoian Glacial Till. This is especially true in the Grand Prix which is for sale or my trusted Silverado.

I haven't felt the need for that much speed though. I am more likely to be poking along, window crop scouting and backing up traffic and trying to "keep it between the ditches."

One problem, there is a gently curve at the bottom but it's not dead man's curve. It's even banked a little to keep your speed up. The local law enforcement officers have taken notice and are sitting on the straightaways.

Speaking of racing, NASCAR finally made it to Kentucky. This weekend is the big NASCAR sprint car race at Sparta, Ky, just down I-75 near the I-71 split. The local news channels have been featuring the race this week showing the cars, drivers and all the campers of fans camping at the race track.

I would love to watch the race but don't want near all that traffic and that many people. So we will be at the Clinton County Fair just up the road in Wilmington. The little girls show there Monday and LuAnn's photography exhibits are going in right now as I type and will be judged on the opening day Saturday.

I just read that my dad's cousin Roma Jane passed away at age 93. She was our family historian and we have all pretty much lost contact with her. I have the family tree she gave me years ago and it needs updating.

My cousin Michelle's son is getting married Friday night in Worthington, Ohio so we can do some crop scouting up Interstate 71 and spend some quality time with Michelle and Uncle Roy.

It sure is going to be hot at either place but that's what is going on in southwest Ohio.

Ed

Huitlacoche

There has been a long standing joke among some farmers when they find corn smut in their fields. That ugly gray fungus that grows on corn in certain conditions is edible.

It looks like a brain full of gray matter and of course is really slimy. I have had to deal with it in sweet corn patches where you get "up close and dirty" with your corn.

Now some enterprising entrepreneurs are selling it or serving it. It's been analyzed for food value and turns out it has nutrients in it the corn doesn't even have.

It's popular enough in Mexican culture that it is worth more than the corn it ruins. Now I would hate to set up my corn fields for failure but someone has figured out how to market and make a profit off "fungus among us." Consider it no worse than boring holes in logs and trees to grow rare delicacies called mushrooms. I don't think that business took off very well around here either because we don't really have the proper growing conditions for it and they must be man made to imitate when "nature throws us a curve ball."

She sure threw me one this year. I wasn't prepared for the wettest spring in recent history as Cincinnati is 18 inches above normal rainfall. Now when we need it most we aren't getting it.

Even conservative weathermen are forecasting a hot dry July already. That dome of hot air has engulfed most of the continent and has spread to Ohio. If your crop hasn't canopied or covered the ground by now, it is getting hurt by the lack of moisture.

Steve Horstmeyer showed the big ridge on the 11 o'clock channel 12 Cincinnati Weather Authority news last night and it verifies what I thought those first hot days in June. Fortunately we have had some showers since then but now it's hot and muggy again an no relief in sight.

Dr. Elwynn Taylor, my climatologist friend from Iowa State thinks we will get enough moisture this summer for above trend line yields in the midwest.

I hope he is right but you have to remember we are a month to six weeks behind the midwest in crop planting date so even if our crop has caught up some this month, it's way behind normal and parts of the country.

There isn't a thing I can do about it but write about it right now so if Mother Nature throws you a lemon, figure out how to made lemonade from it. Or, that's huitlacoche down south.

Ed

Sweet Corn

Have any of you had any fresh sweet corn yet? We won't be having any for a couple of weeks. And if we do, it is going to be highly prized, I wouldn't sell it for anything less than $5 a dozen.

I have to hand it to our local experts, Shaw Farms. They have eared out sweet corn on 5 acres or so of Clermont soil just west of us, the wettest soil you can imagine. How they did that is by working with the grace of God himself.

We have seen some tassled out in gardens but no ears. I commend those gardeners, too, they are way ahead of us. We just watched it rain every day.

There is a little band south of us that didn't get quite as drowned as we did, somehow they kept their heads above water long enough and the corn will be in tassle there first. I should say south and east of us.

If the grandkids were a little older, I would let it be their project. I raise it, they harvest and sell it and keep all the money. The oldest are big enough but are so busy I don't think they would have time for it.

The county fair starts Saturday and those two older grandchildren will be living at the fair showing their pigs, I think a week from today. It's way too early for a fair here but it is fair time since they changed fair weeks in Ohio a few decades ago. The August and September fairs are so much better. There are hardly any crops to display because of the wet weather.

If you get a really good ear of corn, remember me. I am ready for a big, fresh ear of corn and a hamburger deluxe.

Ed

Happy Fourth

A happy fourth of July to you all! Today lots of cities have festivals and celebrations on limited budgets but some didn't make it.

We used to go to Sardinia's Founder's Day celebration but this year they aren't having it because they still have unpaid bills from last year's. Blanchester is having a small celebration for the local folks but it has been bigger in than past.

I guess we are lucky to have any celebration with the economy and the debt load this country is carrying.

Most of the wheat is off around here and planted into double crop soybeans. It is hot and muggy and I hope it brings a good shower. It's pretty unbearable outside and the air conditioner ran all night and the thermostat is set at 74 degrees.

We have plenty to do inside as I have my IRM project to work on while trying to help LuAnn with her church festival booth project. We both need to contact a lot of farmers and businesses in the next few weeks.

We were cooped inside for most of the spring with all the rain and would rather be outside as much as possible. The crops are growing pretty fast with all the summer heat but now we need rain showers to help them catch up a little bit.

The weeds are ahead of the race as usual so there is a lot of hoeing and tilling to be done in gardens and spraying and fertilizing to be done to the field crops. Some corn is not knee high but some is waist high so it varies a good bit in the region but it is all far behind last year's progress at this time.

Today I thank all the soldiers who have kept us free, sometimes I think the freedom to do the wrong thing but it's still a great country and all we have. It is much to be thankful for.

Happy Fourth of July,

Ed Winkle

Wrenching

This weekend has become one to work on equipment. I have a lot of equipment to repair and get back "up to snuff." Lots of them are easier as two men jobs so I found a former student to help me as he is a pretty good mechanic and works part time.

The first thing we found is 5 dead batteries. There goes my repair budget for the month. It's been a few years since I bought any so now I will probably go through 10 or so this year. These usually run in streaks because I replace them in streaks.

I found I have a lot of missing parts and tools that got robbed for another job or misplaced or broken so there will be more trips to the parts stores. It's amazing what you go through in a year but I must admit it gets a little better all the time since I have harped on this for so long. We covered a lot of acres with minimal equipment and no major breakdowns.

Patrick was in my class many years ago and I was shocked to hear he is 47 because he doesn't look it and I forgot how long it was since we had been in the classroom together. It's good to hear the funny stories of the past while working on stuff.

I had him and his three brothers in my classes at Blanchester almost 40 years ago. One brother has side dressed corn for me and another serves on the school board where I did. The youngest has hauled gravel for me and is the go to guy around here if you need gravel fast.

He moved just down the road a year or two ago so I finally got hold of him for help. I caught him at the right time, too as the county fair is next week and he will be pulling his classic tractors in the antique pull. Once again I have nothing to pull but I guess that hasn't been a priority for me.

He needed a jug of glyphosate so we are doing some bartering or trading as we call it around here. I won't be able to do that on five batteries but I'll try.

Happy fourth to all, we watched fireworks from the front and back porches last night.

Ed

Buckeye Ag Testing

Yesterday we made a quick trip 70 miles north to meet Leon to pick up extra inoculant and radish seed to finish up double cropping. The new America's Best inoculant will have Molydenum in it for soybeans because the response to it is excellent in soybeans in many fields across the US, especially in the east and south.

I haven't seen so many bright young people working on a farm in a long while. The owners of Buckeye Ag Testing and Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Roeth near Troy, Ohio. Jeff was the first FFA State Degree winner at Miami East FFA and serves as chair on their Ag Advisory Board. His pride and belief in FFA showed with all the Miami East students working on his farm.

Crews were pulling leaf tissue for analysis, baling straw and hay, planting double crop soybeans and finishing up their wheat plot harvest testing. Two young men pulled up in their Gleaner F3 combine from the plots while others were in hot greenhouse stacking hay and straw.

Jeff was visibly as proud of his chapter as I am of the young teachers and students at Fayetteville, Blanchester and Wilmington here. "The teacher makes the program" was obvioius in our experiences and reminded me of myself 40 years ago this fall when I started teaching at Blanchester.

He said Miami East has 400 students and 170 are enrolled in Ag and members of FFA while Fayetteville has 200 students and half of them are enrolled in Ag and FFA.

There were something like 4 young farmers to take the place of a retiring farmer when I started teaching and only one half of one farmer to start farming today. That means most young farmers holds two jobs and there is lots of opportunity to start farming today if they could only get the opportunity and most of that is financial since the cost of farming is so overwhelming today. That alone inhibits many start up farmers.

No wonder BTO's have taken over farming, that is big time operators. They have an easier time expanding than a young farmer does starting farming.

Yesterday was little Caolin's second birthday and today is dad's 96th. They are forever in our hearts.

Ed

Holiday Stress

I feel some Holiday Stress this morning and I shouldn't. We are behind on planting double crop soybeans and the ground baked out on me yesterday. I should have held up the combine a day to let the drill catch up but it was time to cut the wheat. I am glad it is done and will be glad when its gone and settled up.

The drill is hung up in wires again and all I can do is sit here and let the guys get it out and wait for the last load of seed to finish up planting. DP&L sent a bill for $7000 for the pole we pulled down last fall in the same situation and we are just over legal heighth by an inch but they were were under their legal heighth by a foot.

John Deere invented this contraption for seeding in the great wide open west. Though it migrated to Ohio, I imagine the drill will be getting a new owner in the near future. There are so many wires strung across highways around here they don't keep them up to standards.

Yesterday I posted an idea a friend of mine and I have on putting radish seed into the double crop soybean seed to try and loosen up these compacted soils. They are really beat down this year with a year's rainfall in half a year. Just the weight of 40 plus inches of water is enough to really pack the ground.

So I am trying another new experiment today, radishes in double crop soybeans. It should be interesting and I will keep you posted. I want no more than a pound or two per acre and that is hard to do with a bulk tank on an air drill but I am going to try.

The radishes increased my wheat yield again this year and I have been getting 12 bushels more wheat every time I interseed the radishes into the wheat planting. I am more out for soil improvement in the double crop soybeans but don't want to interfere with harvesting. I don't think they will, especially if I spray the beans late this summer to clean up any weeds I miss now.

I won't know unless I try.

Ed