Goss's Wilt?

The aerial pictures from my friend Paul near Macon, Illinois got a lot of people thinking. Just how bad is this crop? Is it Goss's Wilt or something more?

Early harvest reports in Illinois are not good, 100-120 bushels per acre where they expect closer to 200 bushels.

Two other friends Jeff and Keith took their own crop tour from Iowa across Illinois through Indiana into Ohio then turned north into northwest Ohio and Michigan. They cut below the lake and looked at southern Wisconsin and Minnesota before returning home.

Their opinion is this crop is worse than the Pro Farmer tour reports and they pegged US corn production below 150 bushels. We were all working for a 160 bu plus crop when we planted.

The floods and record heat and drought have taken a toll and Goss's Wilt may even be worse. The bacterium has not been identified in Ohio according to Pierce Paul, Extension Pathologist but Keith and Jeff said they saw it in Ohio. We all admit there are more bacteriums out their and they could look like Goss's Wilt but be a little different.

Some friends think we will see a lot of planes flying next summer but they may not be applying fungicide, they may be foliar feeding the corn to help the plant outgrow the bacteria. Procidic or other acids may be part of the solution, we don't know yet.

This will be an interesting fall and winter trying to figure out "what happened?" and what our next step is.

I have been scouting every day and wondering if the wilts will damage our corn in Ohio or will Jack Frost or both? I doubt I could get anyone to spray a foliar with an ammonium form of nitrogen and citric acid on many acres but it really needs to be done. Ohio farmers are still wore out from planting three months ago and trying to maintain a crop with two months less growing time.

We have a whole lot to learn. The picture was taken yesterday. We have a long way to go and it is September.

Ed

Lynchburg Farm and Feed

This summer has been interesting visiting various stores seeking donations for our church festival silent auction this Sunday. It's given me the opportunity to learn more about the people and the businesses I deal with and don't deal with.

The other day I was finishing my soybean flower inspection for Ohio Seed Improvement and Bobby Young was bush hogging the field across the road. I have known Bob since we moved into his dad's Sears and Roebuck house on Canada Road in 1983. Bob is named after his dad and was raised in that house we lived in for four years.

He mentioned being busy at their feed store so I inquired about it and Sable and I paid a visit today. I didn't know they had a protective little pug inside but Sable and I found out in a hurry! No damage done and I put her in the Dakota.

They have a nice little farm and feed store for all of us country and town folks. They have garden tools, farm tools and all kinds of feed. They have some neat birdhouses built by a local man with all kinds of animal shapes. They donated a raccoon bird house for the silent auction but Dawn wouldn't give up the moose bird house. I told her LuAnn loves moose and we hoped to get some pictures of some close up. I had to tell her the Bull Winkle and Bow Winkle story I have told very few people.

I drive by their store after banking at Liberty Savings Bank in Lynchburg and their store is on Panhandle and SR 134 north of town, on my way to the new farm on Horseshoe Road.

They told me they opened in March of 2010 so they have made it over the one year hump so many businesses fail in. I hope they make it. I like little stores and friendly people and I sure believe in entrepreneurism.

If you are ever in Lynchburg, Ohio, stop in and say Hi!

Ed

40 Years

It's been 40 years since I started my career as agricultural education instructor at Blanchester Local School District. The superintendent and school board took a risk on a young guy who didn't even have his degree yet. I did "student teaching on the job" that fall and taught school in the morning and then watched my mentor, Al Cramton teach at Lynchburg Clay nearby, in the afternoon.

It was 1971 and the Viet Nam war was still raging. My birthday, December 19, came up number 340 of the 365 days in the Viet Nam draft lottery so I had to work. I really wanted to farm and I wasn't sure I wanted to teach.

The teacher before me rented a farm on the south side of town on Fayetteville Road so I could teach and "farm." We had a brand new Allis Chalmers D-15 Series IV and 4 row cultivator purchased with state matching funds, a used disk and a John Deere 494 corn planter. One of my first jobs was the Clinton County Fair and then cultivating the FFA Chapter soybeans.

I soon found out the chapter was broke with no operating funds and people he had borrowed money from starting looking me up hoping to get paid. We even owed the cafeteria milk shake fund nearly $1,000. I became a professional fund raiser as most ag teachers do, very quickly.

It was hard learning how to teach, really hard. I was 5 foot 11 inches and 160 lbs and most of the students were as big or bigger than I was. I quickly learned to love freshmen as they were smaller and more naive than older students and hadn't been prejudiced too much by that age. Freshmen are still my favorite class to teach.

I got married December 3 and got my Bachelor of Science Degree two weeks later. Things were changing fast. By Christmas I did not want to go back to the classroom. I was ready to quit but I didn't have anywhere to go so I stuck it out. It was that hard and every class was a constant battle.

I got addicted to the paycheck. My salary was $5000 and you got paid once a month. It was Big Boy hamburgers at the first of the month and peanut butter by the end of it.

Slowly, over time, I got a little better and a little smarter and teaching became easier. By year five I was selected as Teacher of the Year by the National Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association.

But it was no picnic and definitely hands on learning in the school of hard knocks.

Today I thank Dick McKinnis and the members of the Board of Education for taking a chance on a big idea, wild eyed farm boy.

Ed Winkle

My Friend Dutch

We have been fortunate to make many friends over the years on the Internet. You have to read this story about our friend Dutch or Maarten from Holland. It will make you appreciate being born in America.

I met Maarten known as Dutch in the Internet back in the 90's on agonline. We both moved to NewAgTalk in 2001. On one of our camping trips heading for the big caverns in New Mexico and Arches National Park we stopped and saw Dutch and Katie and the boys. We had a wonderful dinner Katie cooked and talked and camped outside their house. We ate Mexican at town and they sent us home witha big bag of Texas peanuts I will never forget.

Maarten Van Zielst was born in New Tong, or New Tongue Holland, a 500 year old part of the Netherlands reclaimed from the ocean. The Netherlands is often referred to as Holland.

I am missing part of the story from the PDF file I can't convert but will add it if I can.

Maarten moved with his parents to Texas in 1982. They had great difficulty with Immigration. It alone is quite a story.

Maarten met his wife Katy through a church meeting. They soon began dating.

Meanwhile, Maarten's battle with the immigration authorities was just
beginning. He was doing everything he knew to do to get permanent residents
papers, and it seemed they were doing everything in their power to have him
deported. They told him he was an illegal alien. When it was time to renew his
visa he went to Dallas and had it renewed, only to be told by the peopie out
here they had no record of rt. He hired a iawyer in Lubbock who eventually cost
him over $30,000, and did him no good.

He and Katy were married on November 24th, 1986. While he didn't marry for
this reason, he hoped it would settle his problem, thinking his marriage to a
citizen would automatically make him a citizen. His lawyer told him this rule
went out two or three days before their wedding, saying, "immigrations laws
change daily." Maarten said, "Katy married a wet-back!"

He formed a partnership with a farmer, who, without Maarten's knowledge, was
stealing tractors in Texas and selling them in Mexico. He was caught, and
committed suicide before he could go on trial. Maarten was relieved the man
didn't steal his expensive equipment he had for raising flowers.

The border patrol tried to pick Maarten up twice but he was able to avoid
them. He had a large stack of papers which showed he was trying get his legal
visa. He finally gave up trying, and turned his attention to farming, but with his
partner gone, the farm went broke.

He said, "Myoid neighbor from east Texas, Jerry Hall, felt sorry for me and
invited us to move back to Ravanna. Together we were going to farm 1400
acres and ranch about as many acres."

In Ravanna, Maarten raised peanuts, a~alfa and soy beans. They, also, raised
about 60 head of their own, mix-breed cattle, and ran cattle for other
people. Hall taught Maarten the catUe business.

After Hall's daughter married, his son-in-law wanted the farm so Maarten and
his family moved back to West Texas.

He met a Nephew of Alvin Forbis who told him Forbis was looking for hands on
his fann. He wanted someone who was a hard worker. Maarten went to work
for Forbis/Cheuvront Farms in Seminole in 1990.

Maarten and Katy have two boys, William and Andrew. William was about six
months old when they left for Ravanna. He is now 24, lives in Seminole and
works for Birdsong Peanuts.

Andrew was born just before they moved to Seminole. He is 20, and will
graduate from South Plains College in Levelland in December with an
associate degree in Animal Science. He plans to go back to South Plains and
study Diesel Technology.

Katy's parents are Wayne and Jean Crittenden. Her dad used to own a Ford
Tractor Shop, in Muleshoe, and ran a Conoco Service Station. He worked in
Texas Sesame Grain Elevators from 1982 until 1990. Her mother is a
homemaker, but kept books for the Conoco station. They are now retired and
living in Lubbock.

Maarten's dad passed away in 2010, his mom lives by herself in Holland, she is
82.

Katy became friends with a lady in Andrews whose mother was a retired
Immigrations Judge in EI Paso. She helped get Maarten's legalization efforts
going again. She put them in touch with Family Catholic Services in Lubbock
who helped greatly.

Maarten came very close to being deported. He received a letter from a judge
ordering him to show up in Dallas with one suitcase weighing no more than 40
pounds. He was being sent baclk to Holland and his family wasn't going with
him.

When he arrived, a large, gruff officer took him baclk to a little office surrounded
by several small holding cells. The officer seemed impatient, perhaps angry at
having to be bothered with this case. Maarten handed him his stack of papers
which he hurriedly thumbed through. Surprisingly, he located one peper with a
number on it which proved Maarten had been working to get cleared to stay in
the U.S.A. He was allowed to go back home.

Gloria, from Family Catholic Services, made many trips to Dallas and went to
many hearings. Finally Maarten had to go before the judge to decide if he
could have permanent residence or be deported.

The judge chatted with him briefly, and then "chewed out", (reprimanded), the
people who were bloclking his claim for permanent residency. He was finally
granted his claim. It took five more years to get his citizenship, but he received
it in 2000. Altogether, this cost him about $50,000.

Maarten's hobbies are watching auto racing, hunting and fishing and
farming. He also likes to cook outside.

In school Katy played basketball, ran track, (the two mile run and discus), and
played clarinet in the band in Muleshoe.

She lists reading, and doing crafts among her hobbies. She works at the First
United Methodist Church, where they are members, cooking on Wednesday
nights and she does volunteer work at Gaines County Library.
They enjoyed going to the stock shows with their boys.
They both like fishing, and there is a pond with fish in it on their place. In
Ravanna, the Red River was at the back of the ranch.

The Dutch people still wear wooden shoes called, klompen, (or
Clogs). Maarten says they feel good on your feet when you get used to
them. Their boys learned to wear them and Andrew loves wearing them. Katy
doesn't care so much for them. Maarten has a pair he called, 'fake klompens,"
wooden soles and leather uppers.

The vanliels!'s really like living in Seminole. Maarten said, "The people in
Texas are very friendly and we have been welcomed with open arms." He
added, "Seminole is a great place to raise children. I wasn't born here, but I got
here as quick as I could!"

Author: Leo Copeland

Everyone has a story, and this is a good one.

Ed

Poof!

It seems like life goes by like these candles, poof and it's gone! Isn't that a beautiful picture of Brynne on her 5th birthday? Three of the grandchildren have passed the grand age of five already. Where did it go?

This summer has flown by just like the candles. It's been a good summer for us but very busy. I never really caught up from the rain in April and May. The yard got behind, the garden got behind and farming took main stage. The crops grew faster than I have ever seen and we are blessed with a good crop if Jack Frost comes around his normal appearance date.

At least the ProFarmer Crop Tour has farmers looking at their fields and thinking about harvest. Paul Butler posted some nasty looking aerial photo's on Crop Talk of the Decatur Illinois area where Farm Progress starts Tuesday.

Early harvest reports there show corn around 100 where they are used to closer to 200 bushels per acre. This news has the market in a tizzy and demand is so great that if corn is that short, demand will go right down the tubes. Then no one will be able to meet their corn or cash needs. It hurts the whole industry and corn touches every single person from fuel to feed to corn flakes.

The US needs every bushel of corn that farmers can harvest and the projections of 147.9 bushels and soybeans at 41.8 bushels. We can sell more bushels than that if we had them to harvest and too little grain drives demand away so they aren't bidding on that crop as much.

It's a mixed bag this year for sure and another one for the history books. It looks like Irene could be Obama's Katrina Bush went through.

All we can do is our best and enjoy every candle and morsel on that cake.

Ed

Used

Ever felt used? Body feel worn out? You just described almost every piece of machinery I ever drove or used since I was a child. New was special, it never happened very often in my life. We never farmed that way.

Today I had a blast at the Miami Trace FFA Machinery Auction. It was a big one with even the R-75 in it. I helped young farmers start farming today or expand their operation. You could have started farming a few hundred acres for $20,000 worth of machinery I know and trust.

It was good to see good machinery get into some good young hands. The Mennonites were there bidding and picked up some nice pieces of older machinery. I am known as the notill man in some of those churches so I answered lots of questions. I can speak with experience about White planters and many other planters and drills.

The buy of the day was a White 2-135 for $6,000. I should have run it up but the man who got it got a good deal. It would work here for me. I had one 30 years ago and it would still work well today. A nice 7720 John Deere combine brought less than $10,000 and was a decent deal but the two New Holland TR-70's for around $3000 were better deals.

Maybe the real deal of the day was the 6 row White 5100 no-till planter for $4200 but I couldn't bid against the young Mennonite farmer who was bidding on it after I had showed him some in's and out's on it. It has been always shedded and looked like new and had liquid fertilizer tanks on it that had never been used!

Some money changed hands today and some retired farmers machinery will get new life. That makes me feel good.

Ed

Rain

We got a much needed rain during the middle of the night and when we woke up this morning. Sable and I had just walked our best soybeans yesterday and I was thinking of how much rain it needed or if it rained how much yield it would add.

I looked up the water requirements for soybeans and this chart says they need .2 to .3 inches of water per day right now during pod fill. That's why even a good and sometimes rare one inch rain only lasts a week for a soybean crop.

Since we have pretty much maximized vegetative growth in our area more water is needed for pod formation and fill. I would say we got a few tenths and there was band of rain across the county that produced one inch so it varies a lot as usual. No wonder so many people ask how much rain did you get?

We often judge the rainfall during the season by how green the grass is in the yard and how often we have to mow it. I mowed some tall grass yesterday after letting it go two weeks and now it has enough water to grow again. Our yard is greener than the picture yesterday where Ford Baldwin is standing in front of the brown corn but not as green as the picture at Lower Gwynn.

Kip Cullers broke the world record for soybean production twice using irrigation on sandy loam. He said cooling the crop down had as much benefit for flowering as the water does to produce pods and beans.

I think I could have challenged his yield last year with 160k plants with 60 pods but by the time the summer was over, I only had 45 pods per plant and they only had one really good bean in them. Soybeans will "shuck pods" to fill the other pods depending on how much water and heat there is.

Crops need water and most of the US depends on Mother Nature for that. That has never stopped since the beginning of time.

Ed