70 And Windy

LuAnn made it home safely and had a great week with her family. I even got a call from her mother thanking me for giving up my wife for "the best week in her life." That is awesome, but it was not easy!

I got by "baching" for a week but I don't like it. I can see why seniors get in trouble when their mate passes. It is hard to make yourself cook for one. I got tired of diners, shopping, and cooking. That's to make me appreicate all she does even more, doesn't it?

LuAnn is off to work and I need to get to work. Looks like a chance for severe weather this evening as another storm system blows through. I hope it isn't too bad for chance for heavy rain and damaging winds. That is never fun here on the hill.

Living on a hill sure has its challenges but so does any place. Some places are just easier to get by with than others. My old house was on the flats and kind of blended in with the topography. This place sticks out like a sore thumb or a proud showplace depending on the weather. 1120 feet is higher than normal elevation around here. Good place for a cell tower or a wind turbine, but we've already been through that in past blogs.

It's Tuesday morning and the storm blew through with walls of water last night. I don't know how much we got yet but I know some places got over an inch.

There were tornado watches out near by. Old saying is "warm fall, no winter at all." I don't know if that will be true or not this winter as it is only a few weeks away by the calendar. Nothing blew away yet that I know of but I guarantee you there are dead Pecan limbs laying in the yard this morning.

Ed Winkle

Five Talents

Todays sermon was from Matthew 25 about the servant who was given five talents. He went out and traded and doubled the gift to ten talents. Another servant was given two talents and also went out and traded and doubled his gift. But the third servant was fearful of his master as he knew he never sowed where he reaped and buried his gift in the ground. He was "tossed to the wolves" where there is weeping and gnashing or grinding of teeth.

The pastor said there were two kinds of people in this story, risk takers and care takers. He asked us which are we?

I have always been a risk taker and I think every farmer is. I took a risk planting those 4.1 soybeans July 2 thinking they would be mature enough to cut by now. They aren't. So I have tried my own patience taking this risk and have to wait a little longer, even risking the entire crop on that farm.

We dare not reap where we have not sown though in a literal sense as we can always do better with what we have and what we plant. I see I could have this year. But nothing ventured is nothing gained. I have gained much by taking calculated risks but risked failure when my calculations were wrong or I just went a did it without thining it through first.

There is much to think about in this parable as there is throughout the Bible. We all bury something in the ground for retirement but what do we have to show for it? If it was stocks or mutual funds, we took a big loss 3 years ago. So is our real God given talents. We dare not hide them under a rock or bury them for no one to see.

The moral of the story for me today is we are all in this together and we can only make it by helping each other. It's almost Thanksgiving and we have much to be thankful for. Our church has barrels at the back of the building to put canned goods and non perishable items in for those less fortunate than us. Most churches have done that in one way or another since their inception and it was never more needed than it is today.

We take risks and the harvest bears its fruit. Some harvests are better than others but we all have something and if we don't, we need to go find it.

I hope we both find ours today and give thanks for it.

Ed

Beans Won't Cut

You would think one of these $400,000 combines would cut anything, wouldn't you? Guess what, they won't!

We are down to 50 acres of double crop soybeans left. I have been waiting for weeks to try and get them out before it gets any wetter because this farm is flat, Clermont Silt Loam, Illinoian Glacial Till, commonly called crawl dad ground around here.

I planted the rest of my 3.9 LL seed and a 4.1 I used last year around July 2. They grew well and looked really good all year but I had problems killing foxtail in all my double crop soybeans. It was sprayed with generic Select or Clethodim herbicide with the Ignite or new foumulation of Liberty herbicide. My fall panicum problem came back on me, too.

It's like the plants froze in time the first frost and all the leaves are still on the plant and they are really tough. The sickle bar will barely cut them off and they won't feed properly through the machine. So I have around 50 acres of valuable soybeans still sitting in the field after waiting and waiting.

I could second guess myself on what I did but they are what they are and I can't change a thing now but wait and get them when they will cut. Another lesson learned and farming is one big lesson after another. No wonder some farmers don't change practices much. I experiment on my farm before I recommend it to someone else.

The combine was able to cut the beans that had the radishes in them when the soybeans were planted and they yielded really well. They were making near 70 bushels per acre on the monitor but I haven't weighed them yet. They loosened up the ground a little but I think they had more impact on plant growth and pod set. I wonder if that was because of some nematode control from their root gases. These radishes never cease to amaze me.

I would rather have the whole farm finished, though. It's been a really tough year and for me it isn't over yet.

Ed

11.11.11

Some are making a big deal of 11.11.11, today's date expressed digitally. This is the first time in history most people connect 11.11.11 with a date in history. I don't even use dots or periods in dates, I use dashes or hyphens when I write the date that way.

11 November or 11 Nov is more like how this date has been written over the centuries. And remember, most people could not even write until very recently in the past 2000 years.

It is an important date to me though as we honor American Veterans today. I would not have the freedom to write this blog today without the sacrifice of millions of soldiers the past 235 years. I don't take that lightly and that is the primary reason I voted Tuesday. I want to keep these freedoms for my children and grandchildren and generations beyond.

It is also a significant day for LuAnn and I. 12 years ago today she made her first trip to my home and we started dating every weekend until we were married June 22, 2001. Happy Anniversary, LuAnn! She has been in Phoenix all week with her mother for her brothers 60th birtday.

So I have been "baching" it all week and trying to leave the place better than she left it Saturday. I think I did pretty well except that big wind blew the smoke out of the chimney into the house and it smells like woodfire inside the house. A friend helped me clean the house yesterday so it doesn't look like the house she first saw in 1999.

It's 29 degrees outside with a breeze so it is really chilly. It was 18 degrees in 1973 and 76 degrees just a few years ago so you can see the highs and lows in this area this time of year.

Election day is over thank goodness and Drew Hastings is now the Mayor of Hillsboro so everything is right in the world(sarcasm intended.)

We hope to finish soybeans today or tomorrow and concentrate on corn. I need to get a picture of two soybeans I saw, one loaded with marestail that probably cost 20 bushels or near half the yield. The other has some marestail in it and shows the problem worsening over clean fields to the tune of around 5 bushels loss per acre.

It looks like the heavily infested field only had glyphosate on it and perhaps the lesser infested field had 2,4-D sprayed this spring or a residual chemical at planting time.

Neither one is acceptable and it confounds me why some farmers keep using the RR soybean system when glyphosate no longer controls their weed problem.

That's the way it is Martinsville, Ohio, November 11, 2011.

Thank you veterans, sincerely, I can never repay your particular sacrifice but I can do my part.

Ed Winkle

Making Amends

The first thing I had to do this morning was go make amends to two dear friends.

I gave an interview this summer to a lady I trusted. I rarely turn down interviews to get out the good message on agriculture, notill, conservation, cover crops or whatever the subject is that I have some experience in.

I haven't seen the article yet but I was informed that it had misinformation in it. I don't know how it happened and it really doesn't matter, it happened and two friends didn't get credit for their ideas.

Another good friend read it and called to congratulate me and thank him for business I sent his way thanks to this blog. I told him to read the big message but some of the details were incorrect.

I really trust my circle of friends and they have to be able to trust in me. When something is not the truth and I find out, I must stop and address it immediately. Is it true, accurate and best for all parties involved?

Life is full of amends because we are humans and we make mistakes. We must see those mistakes when they come to us and try to improve upon them. That is what I do in making amends as I don't want anyone carrying around resentments about me when I can correct the issue when I find out about it.

Amending soil is about the same way. It is not perfect but it is the substance of life. Without soil, we as humbans would have no life as we know it. We haven't perfected aquaculture or space travel yet so our food comes from the soil.

Our spiritual food, peace and happiness comes from doing the right thing.

I did the right thing this morning and I hope you do, too.

Ed

Rain

We have had a few good days now. I got the dirt piles on Horshoe Road flattened out thanks to Jack Ficke at Terra Excavating. There was more sod in there then we expected so some of the piles didn't flatten too well and will need more work. It is amazing what we can do with his Caterpillar style Bobcat.

We got a tree moved and some holes filled but there are several tile holes or "blow outs" to repair. I want to dig into them just to see the soil, how the old tile was installed and which way it runs.

I don't need rain and no one around here does but if I get some, it might get my dormant rye seeding started I sowed with the fertilizer. That could be good or bad but I imagine most of it will peak through in March after the snow melts. If this year is anything like the last two, and it sure acts like it is, there will be snow on at the end of winter.

But who knows, the last thing I can do is predict the weather, I just have to spot trends and work with it. That is why farmers are working so hard to get their late crop out in Ohio. Some have made really good progess and I assume that is most but I don't know anyone who is finished.

The harvest has been slow enough I haven't heard a problem with lines at the elevator anywhere in the country. Of course you guys in the midwest are finished and already planning for next year. We aren't but still doing some planning and not running into any real snafu's.

We are thankful for this decent weather and the low amount of rain predicted this morning then it will get down to freezing again tonight.

Time to fire up the woodstove!

Ed

NoTill and Biology

A college student emailed for permission to use my picture of the Mr. Young NoTill plaque that stands in Kentucky. It is amazing how the Internet and blogging has changed the exchange of information.

A farmer called last night asking if it was OK to put soybean inoculant on his fall cover crop seeding. Some farmers inoculate their winter wheat seedings to help improve inoculation of the double crop soybeans they are going to plant next summer after wheat harvest.

I would prefer to have some soybean seed with the mix to get them up and growing in Virginia or Ohio but it is getting late. Today is our last warm day before the temperatures really drop again.

Our friends in Missouri are having their cover crop field day today. It is raining there so I wish they had better weather but any day is a good day to talk cover crops. Steve Groff had his in SE Pennsylvania last week and I haven't heard a report yet but I know it is always good.

Alan from DelMarVa is in Phoenix for a talk where Dr. Jill Clapperton is speaking. She is a farmer authority on soil microbiology, something farmers know very little about. Her talks are always revolutionary.

Maybe I will add more tonight but the sun is up and it is time to get crackin'.

Ed