Big Picture

This is a photo of the Farm Bureau Young Farmer and Rancher State Committee.  We represent different parts of the state.  We recently met to plan events for other young farmers and ranchers in the state.  I love this opportunity to meet with other farmers.  I'm so impressed with what others do and how they manage their farm.  I know next to nothing and learn so much from these people.  I admire other farm wifes and appreciate that bond.  Joel and I came home from this all day meeting re-energized to do good things on the farm.  We've got big picture stuff in our sights again.  But more imprtantly, these type of events remind me why we do this farm thing with long, long hours and hard work and paychecks that aren't like from the Bank.  We farm because we love the lifestlye. 

 

If you've eaten today, thank a farmer.

Field Update

Here's the progress on the fields.  It's starting to warm up.  Within a month the alfalfa should be knee high and the wheat should be waist high.

If you've eaten today, thank a farmer.

Spring in the yard

Joel's mom, Teri,  has the most amazing yard.  It is a pleasure to watch her create such beauty.  The first flowers Joel ever brought me were Cosmos from his mom's yard.  Here are the beginnings of the Garden of Eden.

 

Moving Cows

  John is moving cows today.

 

 This is Little Mountain.  The cows gave birth here.  Or if you want to talk like a legit rancher, you say the cows calved out here.  It is a nice and protected spot, but does not have good grazing for the mamas.  So they move the cows to pastures as soon as they can.  They only move the cows a mile or two a day and then give them a rest.  Today was a big move.

 

 

 Here come the mamas and their babies.  Or if you want to talk like a legit rancher, here come the cow/calf pairs. 

 And actually, they all just move on their own and get sorted out in the pasture.  Mostly mamas in the front, and mostly babies in the back.

 Joel, his cousin Doug and uncle Ben are all strategically positioned to direct the cows into the correct pasture, and not some one's yard.  This is a rural community for sure, but there's still people who don't want cows tromping through their grass.

 This baby doesn't know what to think of me. 

 This was so loud.  Hooves running and cows mooing.  B got scared and thought the cows were going to eat his stick.  His precious stick.

 Babies bringing up the rear.

 They are going to make a turn to the right and then almost immediately a turn to the left.

 

 

 The cows had to go past this alfalfa field to get to the pasture grass.  Of course they decided to stop and eat.  John is in the back putting them back on the path. 

Here they are in their new pasture.  It'll take them a little while to settle down but they made it.  No cows lost, no yards destroyed.

If you've eaten today, thank a farmer.

Earth Day

As noted all over the Internet, everyday is Earth Day for farmers and ranchers.  I've been impressed with the conservation efforts of farmers.  Not to mention the fact that farms are good for the environment. Fun Fact: An acre of corn removes 8 tons of harmful greenhouse gas, more than your car produces annually.

 

Here's what Earth Day looked like for us:

Joel was working on laying a pipe that will be used for irrigation.  It was cold and windy. It was rainy and sunny. 

The fields are growing. The cows are growing.  Work continues.  Everyday.

 

If you've eaten today, thank a farmer.

10 days later

I am enjoying chronicling the growth of our crops.  Here's the wheat field.

You'll notice that the old corn stalks have almost disappeared.  You can see a tumbleweed out there too.  We've had a lot of wind and some very cold days.  There was even a day with snow on the ground.  The light green color is where the wheat was damaged by the snow.  Wheat is resilient enough that freezing temperatures won't stunt its growth too much.  Alfalfa has a harder time with the cold but can make it. 

 

Here is the alfalfa field.

All this bright green is an indication of frost damage.  So the alfalfa made it through the snow, but it did stunt the growth.  Corn can't handle cold temperatures at all.  If we would have planted already the snow would have killed the plant entirely and we would have had to replant all the fields.  We'll wait just a couple more weeks to plant.  I can't wait to watch the transformation of those fields.  I love the tall corn in the summer.

 

If you've eaten today, thank a farmer.

Birds on the farm

One of Joel's main responsibilities on the farm is wetland development and conservation.  He's done some amazing things the past few years to create habitats for birds.  I was driving out to the farm today and had to stop and take photos of these pelicans landing in the pond.

This is the same pond my boys were throwing rocks into last week.  

I thought it looked really cool to have all these pelicans fishing on our pond.

Here are some other birds I've seen the past few weeks.  This little inlet is always full of birds.

 

Snow geese landing in an alfalfa field.

Sandhill cranes picking through the last of the corn stalks before the new corn is planted.

I've become much more aware of birds now and appreciate their beauty.

 

If you've eaten today, thank a farmer.



Laser Leveling

When we lived in the city people would ask Joel about how hard it was to plow a field by hand.  I think they were imagining Joel shoveling each little hole and putting a corn seed in one by one.  We're lucky to have tools that not only make our job easier but help us be more efficient and produce more and better crops. 

 

Would you guess that farmers use GPS and have automatic driving tractors? This is a field Joel is working on lasering to the correct slope.  They will plant pasture grass here for the cows to graze.  When they irrigate they need the field to slope steadily down so that the crops will be watered evenly.  This field may look flat but it slopes 5 feet from top to bottom and has a large hole in the middle of the field.  Running irrigation water through this field has been a mess.

Joel is using this stationary laser (the yellow tower next to the white truck),

and this GPS device (left) and laser readings (right) inside the tractor,

to tell this scraper (with a red signal up top to pick up the laser from the yellow tower),

how much dirt to cut off the top of the field (see it scooping up dirt?)

 and where to put it in the middle of the field.

We took a couple turns going down the field.  It was a bumpy ride.  Joel spends hours getting a field lasered.  This was just an average laser-leveling day for a farmer. 

 

If you've eaten today, thank a farmer.