A Bit More Than Just Planting Seeds

I will admit that prior to three weeks ago, I never had much experience with planting crops – I grew up on a cattle farm – and I still don’t a lot of experience with it now. But after submitting a project for my crop science class, I have a deeper respect for those that grow crops for a living. 

Let's see, the rows have 15 inches between them and three inches between each plant. Wait, why is there so much math in farming?

photo courtesy: SumaGroulX

For my project, a few of my classmates and I were assigned a field and were given a description of what the farmer has done in the past, as well as problems that he has run into recently. Our group had to take on the role of consultants to the farmer and provide educated suggestions for what he should do in the coming year. While none of us were experts on the subject, we ended up submitting a 12-page proposal, highlighting as much information as we could. 

Among the most important information, we had to detail:

• Different types of soil in the field
• Varieties of seeds for the crops that we were planting
• How much fertilizer should be used to keep the plants growing and healthy
• How we should plant the seeds in the ground, how far apart the rows of crops would be and how many seeds we planned to use
• Estimated costs for everything that we would use

I don’t know about you, but what I knew about growing crops was just a fraction of what we covered in this assignment. I even called a family friend that sells different types of seed, asking for his advice and recommendations.

At times, I think it can be easy to assume that the typical procedure for growing crops is to stick the seed in the ground and pray for rain. That might be the most simplistic view of it, at least. When looking at every angle of it, however, it really looks like a science. Farmers have to know what they are doing to ensure that everything on the farm will work out day to day, month to month and year to year. They also have to be able to adapt, which I found out as I had to provide backup solutions to our group’s original suggestions just in case they would not work out.

Have you ever seen a planting season or harvest? Have you seen the farm equipment going down the road early in the morning? Just imagine how long farmers spend out in the field, and then think about how much time is spent out of the field, double and triple-checking everything to make sure that their plants and land not only survive, but thrive.

I may not find myself plowing up the ground or applying fertilizer any time soon, but when I see a farmer out in the field I will know that he has been up for longer than me, and will probably stay up longer than me, more than likely thinking of what more he could do than just putting seeds in the dirt and praying for rain.

Until next time,

Chance

Wheat Harvest Report

Here in southwest Kansas, wheat harvest is buzzing. Not only is this a huge time of year for agriculturists, but I see an increase in local economy as business is also good at the grocery, gas station and local restaurants. 

As of June 18th, the Kansas Wheat Commission reported that harvest had begun in nearly all of the southern counties in Kansas. Harvest will begin to creep into the northern counties as the days go by and the crop becomes ready.

This is a combine with a wheat header on it. The wheat header is the attachment that protrudes from the front of the machine that allows a combine to harvest different crops for farmers. This combine is cutting wheat while also dumping grain through an auger into a grain cart that is being pulled by a tractor. Photo courtesy of Kansas Ag Network

Due to statewide rainfall, harvest came to a halt on June 24th for a short break, but on my way to work this morning I saw some headers down ready to cut!

In 2013, Kansas farmers planted 9,500,000 acres of wheat. An acre is equal to 43,560 square feet, or in a little different terms it is equal to about 1.3 times an American football field! The state of Kansas is the largest wheat producer in the US, that's why we are often called America's Breadbasket! About half of the wheat that is grown in the US is used domestically.

We have a few more posts about wheat harvest that you might enjoy: Story of Wheat, Amber Waves of Grain, Wheat Harvest in Kansas.

Stay up to date on harvest through Twitter by following #wheatharvest14

Do you have any questions about wheat harvest? We would be happy to answer them!

The Great American Wheat Harvest

Check out this phenomenal short documentary about family farming and wheat harvest crews during a summer of wheat harvest - called The Great American Wheat Harvest.

 

Wheat Harvest in Kansas

My brother harvested his first wheat crop this summer and finished up right before the 4th of July. It wasn't the first crop on our family's farm, he is now the 4th generation of farmers in the family!

This year was the first year we had our own combine and harvested our own crop. We normally hire what is referred to as a custom grain harvesting crew. They travel from the Southern US to the Northern US following the ripening of the wheat crop to harvest wheat for farmers at a set fee. Farmers call these people, "Custom Cutters." Farmers often hire custom cutters because you don't have to invest in all of the harvest equipment and incur the repair costs that it requires to maintain all of the machinery needed for harvest.

Even though it is still extremely dry in Southwest Kansas, the wheat was better than we had expected. We got a few late freezes in April and May that really set back the wheat and made my dad and brother nervous about the yields.  It was no bumper crop, but it just wasn't as terrible as they had expected.

Want to learn more about harvest? Check out this video from the Peterson Farm Bros!

Want to learn even more about harvest? I thought of some of the vocabulary that we use on the farm and you might find it useful to learn more about these words.

• Yield: this is a term we use to describe how much of a crop we harvest per acre of the crop planted. We usually talk about yield using bushels and acres. Some other countries use tons per hectares. 
• Combine: a piece of machinery specifically used for harvesting grain. It operates to reap, thresh and winnow the plants in order to gather just the grain for transport to the nearest grain elevator, barge or train. Crops that are harvested with a combine are wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn, soybeans and flax.
• Bushel: a bushel is a volume measurement used by farmers to describe an amount of grain. It is equal to 1.244 cubic feet or 32 quarts. 
• Test weight: this is a measure that farmers will use a lot in conversation. It is the measure of the weight of grain in pounds per volume in bushels. Wheat has a standard weight at a specific moisture content and it is 60 pounds per bushel at 13.5% moisture. 

Sometimes we forget that, in agriculture, we have our own lingo. I like to post about that lingo so that you can get a better understanding of what it is we do on a family farm.  Heck, there are even multiple words that all mean "Harvest" and are used with different crops. Many of these terms are regional, but it's interesting to hear people talk about how they all harvest their crops.

Synonyms for Harvest: 

Corn: shell, pick, shuck
Beans: run, cut
Wheat: cut, thresh
Cotton: pick, strip
Silage or Hay: lay down, cut, chop

Enjoy!

Tera

      

Welcome To My Sister's Family Farm

Celebrating harvest time for some people = apple cider, football, mums, pumpkins and craft fairs.

Celebrating harvest time for farmers = late nights, early mornings and hopeful wishes for a bountiful crop.

With corn harvest over in my neck of the woods, I thought I'd share a few photos from my sister's farm in Illinois. She married a man she met in college who is originally from the central part of Illinois. Transplanting a Kansas girl into Illinois wasn't an easy task, but seeing as they transplanted her to a farm made it that much easier.

Their family raises corn, soybeans, a little bit of wheat and for fun, a few vegetables (my favorite are their green beans). My brother-in-law is fortunate enough to work on his farm with two brothers and his father. They are a team in every sense of the word and have a very successful farming business. What I think is even more special about their farm is that for many years, the boys were able to learn from both of their grandparents who farmed in the area before they took over.

 These are some aerial shots of the 3 combines running through the field. I think these are beautiful shots of harvest time in Illinois.

These photos were taken by their agronomist. Their agronomist works for Pioneer Hi-Bred and offers her services to collaborate with the farmers and the seed companies to continuously improve products that Pioneer offers its customers. Pioneer Hi-Bred is a seed company that breeds different lines of corn seed for farmers to plant. Picking a seed company is a lot like choosing a bank. Farmers make their decisions on who to purchase seed from based on the data behind the specific breeds of corn that a company offers.

This is a really neat site that shows the various crop reports as they are coming in across the country. You can see different states by changing which view you are in. The data is presented in bushels per acre. That means that for every acre of farm ground planted to corn this is how may bushels of corn is yielded. You can also see the soybean harvest reports. If you forgot what a bushel is you can check out this post.

 I have to leave you with my favorite photo: 

With three combines running at the same time, my brother-in-law wanted a way to distinguish his combine from the other two. Proudly sporting a chrome powercat, his combine was out in the field this weekend during the big win for the Wildcats! During harvest, farmers are working around the clock since it is the most important time of the year for them. They are feeding the world, though, so even K-State football can wait.

Best,

Tera

What goes into your bread?

Brandon Harder and Howard Lehner in a Kansas Wheat Field

Want to know what goes into your bread? Straight from the farm, I'm bringing you a combine-driving farmer from Reno County, KS via Food For Thought's first video blog! Check out the video below -

If my video post did not answer all of your questions about wheat harvest in Kansas, please let me know and I would be happy to fill you in!

My best,

Brandon Harder

How much is a bushel?

The air is getting cooler, the grass is browning and the mood is changing. It's that time of year.

You may be thinking, yes it is football season. Get on your gear, hop on the couch and pop open a cold beverage! But I'm talking about a different kind of season - corn harvest. Since corn is the main crop we produce, this time of year is our Super Bowl!

My family produces irrigated corn, which was especially strenuous this summer because of the amount of days over 100 degrees. When it is that hot out for that long, it's hard to keep up on the irrigation and keep the corn plants from being compromised. We're hoping for a good harvest and awaiting the yields.

You will hear the term bushel thrown around a lot this time of year in the agriculture industry. What exactly is a bushel?

• a bushel is a unit of measurement used to describe dry ingredients
• it is used to describe agricultural products like wheat, corn, apples, etc.
  
• it contains 4 pecks or about 8 local gallons (you have to say local because UK gallons are larger than US gallons, thus UK bushels are also larger)
• it measures volume not weight
• bushels can help you understand yield, but you have to be careful with weights because it is probably clear that a bushel of apples weighs out differently than a bushel of corn
  
• the USDA has a set of standard bushel weights that I have listed below
• a lot of farmers will talk about wanting "250 bushel corn" and that just translates to the goal of producing 250 bushels of corn per acre planted
• while you may see traditional bushel baskets in the grocery store holding apples or peaches; corn is harvested, taken to an elevator or barge in large trailers and weighed out on large scales
  

USDA Standard Bushel Weights

Crop	Lb.
Soybeans, wheat	60
Flax, rye, shelled corn, grain sorghum	56
Corn-and-cob meal (ground ear corn)	45
Cracked corn, corn meal	50
Barley	48
Oats	32
Apples (Eastern)	42
Apples (Colorado)	40
Peaches	50

Enjoy your football season and think about the farmers in harvest!

Tera Rooney