*Home

*About Countrylovin

*Contact Countrylovin

*Ag Links

A FARMER'S DIARY DAY#1

  Introduction - Day #1  - Day #2   - Day #3

Tom was up very early. When he is in the fields he is up with the birds or earlier! I stayed in bed until regular time because I know my time is coming when lambs start coming in the winter. Tom went to finish drilling a field of wheat. Wheat is sown in the fall after the beans come off. It is winter wheat and it needs a good freeze so when spring time comes, it comes out of dormancy and continues to grow until harvested in July.

We had a good crop of wheat this summer. Sure wish the prices were as good as the yields. The prices we are getting for crops are at an all time low. In the 1930's the crops reached a low price, but this might be worse. Our expenses are much higher than the expenses were back in the 1930's. I am not sure how we will make out with our income this year. It sure takes a good manager to keep the finances and bills paid. Tom is a great manager! He is even self taught, and for that I am very thankful. Some farmers will go under or sell out. I am concerned for my brother who is raising hogs. He got 6 cents a lb for a 250lb pig. That is only $15 a hog! What really gets my "blood boiled" is that when a consumer goes into the store to buy a ham for the holidays, he must pay $50-$75 for just the ham! Who is getting the money? It is certainly not the farmer. That is the nice part about the breeding sheep. I name the price for them. I do not have someone tell me what they will give me! If someone tells me the price is to high, I say, "Go on down the road!" There is a big difference in the marketing, and I feel in control.

After the wheat is cut, we bale the wheat stems (straw) for bedding, for the livestock. We farm around 1500 acres of corn, beans, and wheat, and a little hay for the sheep. We farm along with Max & Kate (Tom's parents). They live right across the highway from us. It is important that farm families get along well, and we do! We work so close together, that not all families could work that close without fighting. We seem to understand each other pretty well and get along very well.

While Tom was finishing drilling the wheat with the no-till drill, Max was finishing combining the beans at the farm near Vanlue, Ohio,  just east of here. Max just bought a new 30 foot head (the width of the reel) Case IH combine this year. The old one was getting a lot of hours on it and starting to have some problems. So far this new combine ($150,000 combine) is working great! Let's keep our fingers crossed it stays that way. There are about 700 acres of beans, 500 acres of corn, & 300 acres of wheat. We started our harvest season September 25th, and have been working steady ever since. The yields are high this year. Beans are finished for 1998 and yielded about 60-65 bushels per acre. Now on to corn harvest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
®

Email: country@countrylovin.com    Phone: 419-427-8608