Day 8: Other Fertilizers

This is an anhydrous ammonia tank.  As temperatures drop this fall, you will see more and more of these out and about as those farmer's without access to manure fertilize their fields for next year.  Anhydrous is a pressurized liquid form of nitrogen that is the most common nitrogen fertilizer used by farmers.  As it is under extreme pressure, it is also dangerous, so make sure to be careful when following one of these on the road.

Since the application of lime takes big equipment, most farmers hire it done by the local cooperative.  Here, the spreading machine waits for the truck to bring a load of lime that will dump into the bottom of the conveyor, which will be used to load the spreader.

I also had the ability to show you how farmers fertilize their fields using a dry product.  In this case, the local cooperative was preparing to haul lime onto the field across from our house.  "Lime" is simply a form of limestone that we apply to fields to increase the pH.  We test soils every 4 years, and test for several things, including pH, Phosphorous and Potassium levels.  We use the results to add products as necessary to provide optimal growing conditions for our crops.

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Day 9: Chiselplow

If you live on flat ground, chiselplowing is one of the 1st jobs you get to do as a kid.  It's pretty simple - drive across the field with the tillage implement in tow.  It doesn't matter if you overlap, or even skip a little here and there...just remember to turn at the end of the field and not get too close to the fencerow.  I've also heard of it being a date night and a way to pick up guys, but that is certainly a secondary purpose.

It can take a lot of horsepower to pull some of these implements across the field, as evidenced by the big tractor here. (and, no, it isn't ours, it was parked next to our field, and was therefore handy for a picture!)

The smell of tilled ground is in the air as farmer's work to beat this weekend's rain.

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Day 7: Starting for Next Year

The crop is home, safely dried, and in the bin. Now is the time of year when we start fertilizing the fields for next year's crop.  Just like vegetables and other crops, corn and soybeans need some form of fertilizer.  Will they grow without fertilizer?....Sure, but not very well.  I'm guessing they would end up looking like the jungle my one year attempt at sweet corn evolved into, which in my mind isn't a very productive use of the land. 
For livestock farmers, its time to empty the pits.  Manure is organic fertilizer.  When you buy organic, its fertilized with, more likely than not, manure. No, its not particularly glamorous, but incredibly sustainable.  Farmers are the original recyclers; we've just evolved beyond the pitchfork, wheelbarrow, and garden.
We now have bigger pitchforks and bigger wheelbarrows

a drag hose manure applicator

a tanker manure wagon

and bigger gardens (corn fields).

For better or worse, I am somewhat of an expert in this area. I've spent a LOT of time calculating and helping farmers put a plan in place for how to rotate this fertilizer around the farm.  I've been called the Manure Queen.  When worked into a rotation, livestock farmers can fertilize the ground that they need to feed the livestock with the livestock themselves. Its truly one of the most natural cycles out there.  Manure contains Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium (N, P, and K), and these are the 3 main nutrients we need to grow corn.  We analyze the manure, and use that analysis to figure how much goes where in order to properly furnish next year's corn crop with what it needs to grow. 
Brent is spending his time going back and forth with the big orange wagon between our manure storage and an alfalfa field that will be rotated back to corn next spring.  It will take him 3 good weeks to finish the job, so here's hoping the weather cooperates enough to get this job finished before the ground freezes.

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Day 6: We're not done yet!

The crop is out of the field, but we aren't done yet! There is still a step (or two) to go. 
If the corn seed still had some moisture in it when it was harvested, then it needs to be dried before it can be stored.  Imagine if you took wet corn and put it in a closed tupperware container in the back of the cabinet.  In a very short time, you'd grow a beautiful blue mold on top, which is exactly what would happen to our corn in the bin, if we didn't dry it down first. Sometimes, we can let the corn simply stand (literally) in the field until it dries out naturally (like drying clothes on a clothesline), and some years that isn't possible - we must harvest the corn before snow falls, or the stalk begins to deteriorate enough that it can't support the weight of the corn ear, and we must harvest it before it falls down.  When the corn isn't dry enough for storage (preferably somewhere around 16% moisture or below), it must go through a drying process first.  The concept is pretty similar to the clothes dryer - heat it up enough to evaporate the water out. This can be pretty low tech - just using fans to blow air across/through the corn after its in the bin, and sometimes, we have to run it through the actual grain dryer - today's "What's That" item.  Here in northern Illinois, we end up having to dry our corn more years than not.  We have a limited window after the corn has matured and before snow comes to get the harvest safely in, and so we usually don't have time to let the corn dry naturally. 

We auger the wet corn in, dry it, and then auger the dry corn out into another bin.  It can even be hooked up to iPhones and computers.  Ours isn't quite that savvy. 

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Day 5: Harvest Equipment - Not Just a Combine

A combine isn't the only thing that is required to get the crop from the field to the bin.
Typically, most farmers use what is called a grain cart to speed up the process.  While Person #1 runs the combine, Person #2 runs the grain cart, virtually chasing the combine across the field, & catching the corn (or beans) from the combine's auger as the combine keeps going down the row.  This requires communication between the two operators (which can be the subject of another whole post, as this is a language unique to each set of operators, and if incorrectly interpreted by husband and wife, can lead to one person sleeping on the couch that night, or grain being dropped on the ground instead of being stowed safely in the wagon & bin).  My grandpa's signal for "stop" & "go faster" was the same signal.....thank god for cell phones & radios!

Hers's a great video

A grain cart is virtually a big wagon with an auger on it, so that it can be unloaded into a semi or another wagon for transport back to the bin (Person #3).

Here the grain cart unloads into the waiting wagon

Then, its back to the bin:

 

where an auger takes the corn from the wagon up into the bin.

It's not just as simple as running the combine or unloading a wagon, it takes a lot of time, people, and equipment to run all this equipment and harvest a crop.

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Day 4: Harvest Equipment, pt. 1 - The Combine

The combine - it is the monster of all farm equipment.  It is the most expensive thing that a farmer owns, and can cost more than our house!  This is my parent's combine outside our house in Little York, harvesting a corn field.  Not only is the machine itself expensive, but it requires 2 different front end attachments to harvest corn or soybeans (and another if you raise cotton).
                                                         
         Combining corn                                                                                     Combining soybeans

The combine actually cuts the stem of either plant close to the ground, and shells the seed from either the pod (soybeans) or the stalk/cob (corn).
As a child, I spent many hours with my Grandpa being absolutely mesmerized by the augers and action of the   combine head.  There was a bar that ran across the front of the cab that I was just tall enough to get my chin over to stare at the motion of this monster machine.
(In full disclosure, I have to admit that I grew up with a yellow (New Holland) combine, and the Pollard's have a red (Case) combine, but our combine was on the back half of the Seward farm, and I decided that I didn't need to run the car across the stalks to get pictures, so I'll try to get some red pictures to even out the scales in another post; though I am partial to green....)

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Day 3: Straw - the stuff clean pens are made of

Straw is another baled product, but instead of a foodsource (though it can be added in small amounts chopped up really fine into a cow's diet to give them extra fiber) it is used primarily for bedding.

Cows, and other animals, make a mess - there is no way around it.  But, if they are not given clean, dry bedding, then they can get cold and wet; usually leading to them becoming sick.  So, it is in our best interest to keep our animals as clean and dry as possible.  Straw is one of the main bedding sources used to do this.  It is lightweight and absorbent.

Straw is typically made from the "leftover" plant after harvesting wheat.  We don't grow any wheat on our farm, but instead, buy straw bales from other area farmers.  Wheat is a plant that grows over the winter.  It is planted in the fall, and grows green right now, and then goes dormant over the winter, awaking again in the spring.  It grows about 3-4' tall, and is harvested in the summer.  The seed head is contains the grain, and the remainder of the plant stem, can be raked and baled-just like hay.

 

Once on our farm, it is primarily used to bed our cows about to calve and young heifers.  We utilize what are called big square bales.  

Bales in storage

In the youngest calf pens, they also serve as windbreaks for the calves to hide behind.

 Here's hoping for another calm winter to make our straw supply last until next summer!

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