Corn

The market was bidding for more corn acres this year but Mother Nature didn't cooperate. It was too late and too wet for farmers to plant as much corn as they wanted to in many parts of the country, at least that was true here. Still, many planted full season hybrids the first week of June when they could take Preventive Planting or plant beans. Most planted beans.

I was sitting in the cab of a farmer in Iowa combining beans with 3 ethanol plants in the horizon. I asked why he didn't plant more corn and he said I grow good soybeans so I can raise good corn. That is exactly what he does.

The yield monitor was sitting on 75 bushels in 30 inch rows, like my other friends in Iowa although most are on 15 inch rows.

Now that corn is under $6 and beans are under $11, it is easy to play "what if." What if I had planted more corn or sold more beans? Moderate yield corn easily out profits excellent soybean yields.

The yields are excellent in many places, too, I think our first farm will come out near 80 bu but I won't have the actual bushels for awhile.

Right now I have to figure out how to get a load of cereal rye from Bryan Ohio to Martinsville. Frieght on it is about $3 per mile for the 164 mile trip.

The weather is gorgeous, hope you have a great weekend.

Ed

Followers

I see I lost a follower. Now what would I say to cause someone to intentionally take the time to choose to delete followship? I have not taken the time to see who follows and who doesn't, I just write.

I see I have almost 50,000 pageviews from all over the world, and about 100 per day. That's awesome, thanks!

We have had a great 4,000 mile trip to Yellowstone and back. We finally took the time to walk a little of the Grand Tetons, they are beyond words but they are more for the serious hikers, not an old geezer like me. Just five years ago I could walk about anywhere I wanted but those steep mountains were a challenge this time.

The best thing was the weather. It was miserable here the first week we were gone but we had great weather as soon as we got out of Ohio. The pork medallions at the Machine Shed in Davenport the first night were "to die for." That sauce and the sauce I had last night are as good as they come. Watch out Rich Werner, they are on to you!

LuAnn just caught the weather forecast and they are calling for another nice week of weather at home! The first beans can come out and the first wheat, rye and barley can be sown.

Maybe we will get the weather we missed in April and May.

Could that be possible?

Ed

Cody's

We just had dinner at Cody's Road House in Mattoon, Illinois. It was excellent. I had the Smokey Mountain Barbeque and LuAnn had the cod dinner. My pork and barbeque sauce was really good, a great buy at $11. The young crew did a great job from the front door to the cash register, I especially liked the young no nonense male waiter's work. I told the manager the same and he and the waiter both looked frightened like I was going to complain. I think some people give retaurant people too much of a hard time.

I must confess we have been on the road for two weeks, something I don't like to publicize until after the fact. The people who need to know knew where we were.

We went to the Custer State Park Buffalo RoundUp ten days ago in South Dakota. They round up the buffalo in the park and sell of the herd to keep around a thousand head they can feed on the 72,000 acre park range. The culls bring about a quarter of a million dollars that helps keep the park open.

They charge $15 minimum for a week pass to the park and 14,000 people come watch the round up each year. People get up in the middle of the night to go sit in line to get inside the area before the gates open at 6:30 AM then wait till the cowboys push the buffalo over the ridge to the corral in front of the crowd. It's a pretty neat experience and highly photographed.

The herd looked very healthy to me as the range looked more lush than when we passed through the area two years ago. They vaccinate them and take care of them like cattle.

The fall colors are really showing more each day as we round third heading for home.

Harvest is nearing half done in places across the country as we wait to start in Ohio. The first beans have come off at home.

Ed

Cover Crops

I have seen more cover crops this year than since I was a kid. We used to sow clover with a cyclone seeder by hand when I was little, in fact all the years I was on the farm. We could sow with no compaction to the soil compared to livestock or machinery.

Now we are using cover crops to erase a lot of the compaction caused by machinery today but for a whole lot more. Soil was meant to be covered and Mother Nature does it very well. Where there is bare ground there is no soil or there is a catastrophe like a glacier or a stone faced mountain.

Today a friend and I looked at cover crop plots replicated in his harvested wheat field. They all looked good but the grasses, radishes, buckwheat and peas stood out. They lopoked really good.

Near the edge there were weeds where there were no cover crops from last year and no weeds where volunteer covers had grown along the field edge. It is quite impressive to visually see some of the cover crop advantages we know to be true.

I talked to my supplier also today and he said he is hanging on to mine but had farmers who drove 200 miles to buy his seed.

Cover crops are hot and this is no passing fancy. Cover crops are here to stay in mainstream farming.

Ed

Soybeans

We have friends in Webster and Calhoun Counties in Iowa who also raise soybeans. They grow them a little differently than we do. They raise them in 30 inch rows just like their corn. They have a big problem with white mold or schlerotinia white mold as I call it but I wonder if they couldn't narrow down their rows and just cut the population for more light interception.

They also use a stalk plucker which is a tool that pinches the corn stalk row off just below the top of the ground to increase stalk rotting and digestion back into the soil. That's an extra pass that I am not sure would pay.

But they are very good farmers and average 58 bushel soybeans, way more than their county state or national averages. I am always looking for a way to increase yields while holding costs in line for more net profit.

But they have soils I can only dream of, 4-6% organic matter and you can see 14 miles from their front porch. There are 3 ethanol plants in thier view so I imagine they couldjustify corn on corn. Like me, they like to grow soybeans.

They said their moisture got down to 9% today and I like to cut at 13%, the point where the buyer doesn't dock for moisture. To do that, I have to cut a lot of acres above 13% because they dry down so quickly below 15% moisture.

Our first fields will be ready before too long and thankfully we have a streak of good weather coming after weeks of clouds and showers.

Iowa will be well on their way to finishing before we get started.

Ed

Oak

Who Radio in Des Moines has a catchy song each day about corn, corn, corn. All you can see is corn, is that a tree?

Trees are pretty few and far between in most of Iowa where they grow annual trees that are called corn or maize. There are some oak trees in Iowa, though.

The mighty oak stands tall today but it was a nut yesterday that stood it's ground!

I don't feel too mighty anymore but I did stand my ground. I was born a Buckeye, too, that poisnous nut that makes you real sick just before you die, if you try to eat it. I remember dad commenting about that crazy cow we had that ate from a Buckeye tree. It eventually died.

Yogi Bera said a lot of people are on third base and they think they hit a triple to get there. Someone posted his experience on the Cafe of new ag talk how he tuned up a young farmer who was born on third base thanks to the work of his dad and grandpa and thought he had to cut in line in front of this poster at the parts counter.

If you look around America, it looks like we were all born on third base. In contrast to the world, we were. I am thankful for that, very thankful and want to preserve and expand it.

I recommend RCIA for all Christians, aeithists and agnostics. You can learn how the Christian faith was founded two thousand years ago and how it helps us today and will for Eternity.

RCIA is Rite for Christian Initiation for the Catholic or Universal church and fatih but adds the Sacred Tradition from the early believers through Christ and how it applies today. You can take it or leave it but you owe it to yourself to listen to it once. I started 3 years last month.

I pray for my teacher and her new class in Cincinati. She is a lady and they are all men.

Amen.

Ed Winkle

Olive Garden

LuAnn's mom usually gets us a gift certificate to Darden Restaurant's which includes Red Lobster and Olive Garden. We thought we might have some left on the gift card and stopped by one last night.

It turned out we didn't need the gift cetificate. We didn't need our credit card or cash either.

We got the little thingy that tells you when it's your turn to eat. It was rush our with a big crowd just like Outback and every other restaurant in town.

We sat and waited and talked to people and LuAnn read email and websites from her droid. We waited and waited. We waited nearly an hour for a 30-40 minute wait right in front of the desk so I finally asked the gal if she was close to 39. She looked and looked and asked us our name again and suddenly we were rushed to a big open booth near the entrance. They had forgot to call us.

The assistant manager came and apologized for missing us and offered a free appetizer. We got the shrimp appetizer and ordered our meal. We ate the salad, and the appetizer finally came. Then we waited and waited for our meal. Near another hour went by when it finally came. The crowd was pretty much gone by now. Our server was embarrased so she had the assistant manager come by and she offered to pay for our meal.

The food was good but we couldn't get seated and we couldn't get our food when it was served. Our patience paid off because we didn't have to pay a thing though we tipped the waitress well. It wasn't her fault.

I guess this happens everywhere but I can't remember it ever happening to us. It turned out OK. It won't stop us from eating at Olive Garden.

Ed