To start the week, we ran a few calves through the chute to give them their booster shot. It's very similar to the shots and booster shots you give your kids to prevent sickness for them.
And for the recipe...again I haven't actually made this recipe, but I can attest to its yumminess. I babysat the Slipke girls (the ones we went sledding with a while ago) and got banana bread from Phyllis! Food is the best payment! It's absolutely wonderful and I'm going to make it sometime soon!
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| Matt on the left and Henry giving the shot. |
Next, fertilizing. Like I said I'm going to do a blog about fertilizing and the reasons for it, but I'd like to talk to Matt before I publish it so it will be coming in the future. Stay tuned! But, this is a picture (below) of the view from the seat of the tractor when spreading. We invested in Auto Steer this year. Inputs are becoming more and more expensive. Farmers need to be very efficient to reduce inputs, increase output, which should increase profitability so that we can stay engaged in this industry. With urban sprawl increasing, land that used to be used for farming is now being used to accommodate the growing cities. The world population is set to reach 9 billion by 2050. Therefore, putting the two of these factors together, producers need to produce more food by 2050 while using less ground. Hence, the much improved technology in recent years. Auto steer can be used year round. We can spread fertilizer, plant and much more with the same system.
So what does auto steer do? Well, as the name suggests, it automatically steers the tractor. Based on what the operator inputs, it drives the tractor in the precise path so there is no overlap or skips. This decreases the cost for the producer, but also requires less inputs due to the preciseness of the application. Therefore, producers are being more efficient and are well on the path to being successful in the quest to feed the world. In 1960 one has farmer fed 25 people, today one Kansas farmer feeds 155 + you! It keeps increasing! Good things are happening in agriculture.
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This is a picture of the fertilizer spreader. It gets hooked on to the back of the tractor. The PTO turns and runs the fertilizer out. There are "spreaders" on the back that spreads the fertilizer 40' wide. (20' in each direction). Not sure if I gave the correct mechanical terms. That's not my thing. I just know how to run them and what to watch for to make sure something isn't broke and to make sure the machine is running correctly. Exact names of things and fixing things is NOT my responsibility. (Hopefully, Matt reads this one! He's trying to get me to be more into maintenance of equipment. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! Do you think that's too subtle for him to get the hint?)
Next, we're still working on hauling grain to the elevator. Normally, Henry takes it, but I got to haul a couple loads this week. Another future blog will be about marketing of grain, but this will provide a little insight into the logistics of hauling grain. Yes, that's a stop light. I'm sitting at the probe station. Probes get a sample of the grain in each truck. There is dockage for certain things, test weight, moisture and several more things. These are all calculated on the sample that is taken at this stop. Also, while the probe is being taken, you send the card to the office. It's a system like banks have, that you put the card into the tube and then it sucks it down to the office. This card has the name, address, phone number, what you're doing with the grain, the split and the commodity. The office processes that as you move along in the process. You can almost see, the semi in front of me is on the scale. You weigh in, dump, then weigh out. Payment is based on bushels which comes from the weight.
This is a little closer to the dump. I'm sitting right in front of the scale after weighing. You can see on the left side of the picture is a semi getting his ticket. The ticket has all the information about your grain on it. You don't get paid on the spot so being able to match up the ticket with the check and stub is always a good idea. On the right side there is a semi dumping and one more in front of me to dump. We don't have a semi, just a straight truck which means the bed raises up rather than the grain coming out the bottom. During harvest there is always a line at the elevators and there is always an employee there to help dump. During the off season (like we're in now) there normally isn't. Since I'm a young female, somebody normally comes out of the office to help me dump. This time, they were short on personnel. I was having a little trouble getting the door open on the back (my maintenance man...Matt...needs to do some work on the door so I could get it open.) Thankfully, the driver behind me took pity on me and helped me do it. There are good people still in the world! I think it's just because I was taking forever and a line was starting to form, but whatever the reason I'm VERY thankful! There is a scale right as you come off the dump. A circle drive and you loop around back to pick up your ticket and your on the way back to the farm.
The last big project we did was spread another form of fertilizer, manure! Again, this will be in the fertilizer blog. Many producers that have both cattle and crop ground, use the manure from the cattle to cut down on the amount of fertilizer that needs to be bought and used. There will be more details in the fertilizer blog I promise, but it looks like this one is getting long enough.
Just a few fun pictures, I went down to my mom and dad's and helped put out some hay and was playing with their replacement heifers. It's all in the way that cattle are managed. Mom likes to have fun with her cattle and so they are very friendly. Sorry about the bad picture. The calves were running and I was running and it was on my phone so that equals blurry photo, but we were having fun!
I'm so blessed with many things in my life, but the friends I have are phenomenal! Several of them are going to be getting married this summer which means bridal showers, bachelorette parties and weddings! One of my particularly good friends (I've gone to school with her since 1st grade) is getting married this summer. She has asked myself and another really great friend to be candle lighters. Who knows what she was thinking letting Janae and I be in charge of fire. These two friends are really great. I guess they are friends with me so that I can be "that friend" and they can feel really great about themselves when they are around me because they let me wear my dress inside out all morning at Annie's shower! If you ever need an ego boost, just let me know and I can be of assistance to you! I'm honored and humbled to be asked to be in her wedding. Janae you can't be a bad influence on me and let us be late to the wedding or burn the church down! Annie and Abe I'm super excited about this next phase in your lives and thank you for letting me be a part of your special day.
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| Myself, Annie (the bride) and Janae Doesn't the dress look great inside out! |
Banana Bread:
1 c. sugar
½ c. oil
3 eggs
1 tbsp. water
1 tsp. baking soda
3 overripe, mashed bananas
2 c. flour
½ c. walnuts….but we prefer chocolate chips
Grease 2 loaf pans and divide dough evenly. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes. When I make a double batch, I divide dough between 3 loaf pans.
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| Amazing recipe! Be sure to try it! |
Have a great week! Hopefully this cold we've been having will pass soon! Next blog next Sunday! Keep giving me blog suggestions and comments in general. I enjoy hearing from all of you!
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