Farm Updates
Harvest is very close. Every day I look out over the fields and I can see them progress. We have a few farmers who have started harvesting. I would say we will be going strong within 2 weeks (and probably sooner).
We have finished selling this group of pigs. It was a challenge due to the weather. The pigs slowed their growth during the hot and humid days, but once it cooled down, we couldn’t keep up with how fast they grew. Needless to say, we sold a number of them that were too big, which reflects on the pay we receive. Hormel has a standard weight range that they prefer to harvest from, and if you are outside that range, they will deduct $ from the check.
Currently, we have our newly weaned pigs. They arrived about a week ago, weighing about 13-15 pounds.
A Topic I Would Like To Not Talk About
How can I not help but talk about the Charlie Kirk assassination? I was horrified. What is happening to our country?
Honestly, I don’t know. Why can’t we agree to disagree? I always say, neither side has all the answers. It takes all of us. But killing someone is incomprehensible. Unfortunately, I saw the video and questioned whether it was edited. It was horrific.
Can we just stop? Let’s spread a little kindness. Pray to God. Got to church. Respect others who may have a different view than you do. Take a moment to reflect on how we can change. Even little changes.
Okay, Back to Farming
So what does harvest look for us? We harvest soybeans and corn. Typically, we start with soybeans and then move on to corn. Once we have finished harvesting the crops, our next steps are hauling and applying manure and till the fields
Every farming operation is different. On our farm, I do most of the combining. I LOVE to combine! It’s the easiest job too (and maybe that’s why I love it!) Once I am done with combining, I move to tillage. For our farm, the whole harvest process takes about 5 weeks.
I wrote a blog post about the 10 Things Non-Ag People Don’t Know About Harvest. Check it out!
Farm Aid
This Saturday, Farm Aid will be held in Minneapolis. I remember when it was first held in 1985. The Farm Aid concert was held because of the 1980s farm crisis. Farming was tough back then. In fact, the one thing I still remember is land values went from $4000 per acre to $1000 an acre.
Not a good situation if you borrowed money on land at the higher amounts. Farmers went bankrupt. Personally, we weren’t affected at that level as we were just starting to farm. However, we definitely knew farmers who were, and many of them went out of business. A tough time.
So, back to Farm Aid, several singers (John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, and Willie Nelson) came together to raise money to help family farmers. This concert is held annually to raise money for “family farms.”
While the gesture is nice and appreciated, the Farm Aid organization do not know who family farmers are. They would not consider my farm a family farm because we use genetically modified technology.
While I support all types of farms, I believe they still don’t understand that family farms do use technology. There are more types of family farms other than organic.
On the Personal Side of Life . . .
Family Tradition . . .
My brothers (3) and I are going to the Vikings game this Sunday. We also invite other extended family to go if they want to attend. We started this family tradition a number of years ago after our parents passed away. My dad was a big Vikings fan so in their honor, we make the effort to attend an annual Vikings football game as a family. This year there will be 14 of us attending.
I am definitely looking forward to the game and family time. Sometimes we don’t spend enough time with family.
Let Me Leave You With This . . .
Please pray for our country
