Brian planted 40 acres of corn at the end of last week. Sunday we planted 25 or 30 acres of soybeans. Brian helps our neighbor farm in exchange for use of some his equipment. The planter he’s using in these pictures is a “no-till drill”. It actually cuts a path and sticks the seeds in the ground without the field being plowed up every year. Last year we had corn in this field, this year we drilled the soybeans right in. The conservation district in our county even owns a drill that can be rented out. No-till farming is easier on the environment. The fields are not as susceptible to erosion. Plus, the practice saves quite a bit of fuel and time, thus reducing our expenses. Planting can be a one man job most of the time. The picture above shows the bins that hold the seed. Ideally we would have just enough seed to plant the field without too much extra to clean out at the ends. As we near the end of planting I stay on the planter and watch the seed level. One person, or even two, can stay pretty busy shuffling seed from one bin to
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The Chickens Have Moved In!
The hens seem to love their new nest boxes!! As soon as I put straw in them they were all about it. There were 3 1/2 hens in one box at one point. Overall, we’re both thrilled with how it turned out, at least so far. I’m not going to post many details tonight because I’m exhausted! Brian and I haven’t been in the house before 10 o’clock since Tuesday night, thus the lack of posts since then. We worked on the eggmobile Wednesday and Thursday nights. Tonight he worked ground while I mulched the garden and cleaned out the old coop. I’ll let it air out tonight and move the new chicks out there in the morning. Have a good one! 🙂
Continue readingVisitors!
I just love it when people come to visit our farm. I hope people take me seriously when I invite them out because having visitors is one of my favorite things about living on the farm. Especially when the visits include children. I get a kick out of their reactions and how their eyes light right up. Today we had our good friends over with a whole group of little ones. The smaller children were a little leery of the lambs at first but I think everyone petted them eventually. Of course the mama sheep were more than happy to be bribed with all of the corn the kids fed them. Next, I brought out a hen for them to feel and passed out eggs to the older kids. That didn’t last too long because of the potential for breakage but they were pretty excited to hold them for a few minutes. Then, everyone trudged out in the cold to pet the horses. Pooh Bear and Pistol stole the show but I believe they were wondering were their treats were. I invited them all back in a month or two when we’ll have baby chicks to see. How fun! Do
Continue readingYou Know You’re A Farm Wife When…
You know you’re a farm wife (or a country girl, or a redneck) when you look down in church and notice the gray heel on your black sock peeking out from your dress shoe. You realize that the only black socks in your dresser are John Deere thermal socks and are very grateful that your pants cover the tops of your shoes. I hope you all had a happy holiday! We had a busy but enjoyable day and got to see both our families. Plus my Mom sent us home with some angel food cake for dessert, my favorite! In fact, I’m eating some for breakfast right now. What little parts of farm life make you laugh? Do you hate getting ready to go someplace nice like I do? I have no fashion sense when it comes to dress clothes and never feel like I look right. I’m perfectly happy with my figure, it is just more comfortable in jeans and a hoodie. What’s your favorite thing to wear? Any fashion faux pas to share?
Continue readingMy Take On Forward Contracting
This is a little more technical than most of my posts and refers to grain farming. Not sure how many readers raise grain but this is something I learned about that I’d like to share. So basically, we grow the corn, we take it to the elevator, and then we either sell it right away (if prices are good) or we start to incur storage costs on it and don’t sell it until prices come back up. Supposedly, this is the first year in the last 10 where a farmer didn’t make money by storing grain until after the 1st of the year. Of course that would happen during our first harvest year, why not!? So since we are beginning field work and need $$$ to buy fertilizer and seed, we really need the money from last year’s corn. Plus, we don’t want to pay to store it much longer. However, prices are still low enough that I’m not convinced they will even cover the cost of growing that corn. So, there is another option available: forward contracting. Basically, we sell the corn today and a check is mailed to us. The check is for the current price ($3.42/bushel) times
Continue readingJoining Farm Bureau
This is another post I’ve been putting off just because I wanted to make it worthwhile. I still don’t have a lot of information to offer you but want to share our experience thus far. We went ahead and joined the bureau 2 weeks ago. We do not carry FB insurance and so joined as “Regular Farmer Members”. Actually we only signed Brian up. The dues were $45 for year and as his wife I can attend all the events anyway. We signed up at the kickoff event. A handful of couples that we’re friends with had already joined and encouraged us to check it out. We actually had a lot of fun at the kickoff. It started off with a couple of short presentations from some of the extension staff. They talked for about 20 minutes on the new A.C.R.E. program which Brian is interested in. It is basically a different type of subsidy program from what I understood. It was good to learn about anyway. The organizers had hired a local company, “A Touch Of Vegas” to come in an do some casino games. Each person was given a ticket to get chips equivalent to, I think, $200.
Continue readingFarm Update
No particular topic today, just thought I’d fill in with the latest happenings in our life. I thought this blog would be more of a day to day journal of the farm but it seems like every time I sit down to type I feel the need to find a specific topic. Well, not today. I considered titling this post “The Downside of Farming” because things haven’t been the greatest around here lately. Brian found 7 baby Holstein calves for sale last week and we bought them. They were cheap and we thought it would be nice to have some calves around again since we still don’t have a place to bring our bigger cattle home to. Anyway, cheap isn’t cheap when they all die on you. Brian’s sister took 2 and we kept 5, but we only have 2 left. The other 3 basically died of scours which is a broad diagnosis in calves. I fought hard to save the last one, taking his temp and tube feeding him milk and electrolytes. Didn’t work. I am pretty sure now that they probably never received any colostrum which gives them very low chances of survival. They remaining two are doing
Continue readingOur Winter in Pictures!
I’m away from home at the Michigan Vet Conference this weekend. I want to get a post up but don’t feel like saying a lot so I thought it would be a good time to post some pictures. These are all from the last few months (some are from fall). I’ll take advantage of the hotel’s wireless and upload these now instead of fighting with my connection at home. Enjoy! Brian’s grader, our grain setup in the background. Our first batch of Seventh Generation TP, Maci apparently wanted it out of the box! The TP neatly stacked in the cabinet. We really like it BTW. Sam doesn’t help much when I’m sewing. Our Christmas tree with all western ornaments this year. It is hard to see but look close: you can see Maci’s paw about to clock Baxter upside the head, and him about to fight back. They box all the time! He crammed himself behind the printer to recuperate. And they’re friends again…usually not this cozy. This is from early fall. Brian built this calf shelter in one day. I had mixed feelings about treated lumber and decided it is better for us than replacing/rebuilding every few years. I
Continue readingHow We Do Bookkeeping (The Basket System)
Although some of my friends find it funny, one of my favorite things about the New Year is that it brings with it a new fiscal year. I am a big Dave Ramsey fan and am definitely the “nerd” in the relationship for those who know what that means. Picture me with a giant pie chart dictating to my husband as though I am the CEO of a giant corporation. Okay, so that hasn’t actually happened yet, but I can see it in my future. Anyway, I thought I would share how we handle bookkeeping here at the farm. It has been a big change for me to go from having my little utility bills and car payment to now having thousands of dollars cross the desk at any given time. It has also been a big change for my husband to shift from his old bookkeeping method: shoving everything in a box and sorting it in to piles at the end of the year. After a couple years of working together we have developed a pretty good system and hope to refine it even more this year. INCOMING:One key part of keeping track of everything is keeping everything. My
Continue readingConferences and Seminars
We have a busy month planned so I thought I would share the long list of conferences going on this winter in my area. I’m not sure how many Michigan readers I have but in any case maybe this will motivate others to look for educational opportunities in their area. I’ve included links when I have them and a little more about why each applies to our operation for those interested. Jan. 3,4: MSBA (MI Sheep Breeders Asso.) Michigan Shepherd’s WeekendWhere: Sheraton Lansing Hotel; Lansing, MICost: $30/person or $40/family + $20 to join if you’re not a member, assuming you didn’t register before Dec. 26th.Highlights: What is the optimum size for YOUR flock?, Recycling nutrients from manure (hoping we can apply what we learn to all our animals), Getting Lambs to Market on Grass.Why it applies: We have 4 Suffolk ewes and expect our very first lambs in late winter/early spring. We’d like to learn a much as possible to help us produce high quality lambs whether they go to 4H kids for show or directly to buyers as meat.More Info: www.misheep.org Jan. 17th: Michigan Family Farms ConferenceWhere: Lakeview High School; Battle Creek, MICost: $35/adult $25/children $30/MIFFS memberHighlights: How to
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