We have been very busy around here. Harvest is in full swing. We will finish with soybeans by tomorrow and switch to corn. The yields on the soybeans have been very good, but there are some larger varietal differences than I would like to see. Sounds like a front moving in will bring rain by Friday evening and we will head to Lincoln Saturday to watch the Huskers play Ohio State. We did get in a few days of goofing around before we got into harvest though.
One of the things I really came to the realization of this weekend at the Agchat Foundation Conference is that as hard as you try to be yourself in your online conversations, the real you doesn’t get across until you have those in person conversations not limited by 140 characters or the time we spend in our endeavours to promote agriculture. So, in light of that, this is a blog post to introduce you to me. This is not our farm, what happens on our farm, or an agvocating post! It is a post about all of those things in the title that are me and create the fire inside. In short, how do all of the words in this post title fit together?
Many on here know and have experienced my intense passion for the occupation in which I work, but there is much more that lays the foundation for who I am. I view my interests as rather diverse for a country kid raised on the farm. I am equally comfortable in Wranglers as I am in a Business Suit. I enoy being covered in grease, sweat, and mud while working but enjoy an evening of golf with my wife or friends at the country club. There is nothing better than charburgers on the grill and fresh sweetcorn, although to me equally good is great sushi and a Sapporo. 
I love Country Music, but a little Eminem now and then with some Nickleback suits me also. Taste testing different local beers is something I love to do, and I also enjoy the experience with wine. Leadership roles come naturally to me, but I can serve in structure of an organization effectively. I can carry a hard edge when working, but have three kids that soften me more with age. 
I love college football, parrticulary the Nebraska Cornhuskers and also have an artsy side that appreciates greatly the gifts
artists have as I don’t play an instument and the only drawing I can do is a picture of Snoopy! I like to Hunt and Fish, but also enjoy a night on the town with my wife. I have a strong feeling that all need to serve their commuity in some kind of volunteer capactiy as working for something besides money is satisfying to me. I used to love politics, now it infuriates me! I believe strongly in the community in which I live and will continue to fight to preserve it for my kids. But most of all I just want to be a good Husband, Father, and Friend!So while this gives you a glimpse of the things that drive my passion and are parts of my life, the one thing I realized and heard over and over this weekend was how important your real life connections are and that you must find a balance. I am very fortunate to have a very diverse group of friends and family in my life.
Future blog posts are going to try to reflect our lives as a whole on this farm and not just the agvocating that we do. In order to effectively communicate our thoughts and ideas relating to agriculture, you must know who we are also.
Here is a few photos showing the progress of our crops this week. The one crop I did not include is the alfalfa which is ready for the first cutting to be put down.
The last picture is of our electrical controls at our bin site that were blown down in the wind a few nights ago. We were lucky as the storm weakened by the time it hit us. There were pivot irrigation systems and bins destroyed by the same storm to the north, south, and west of us.
Been a while since I actually wrote something, so I thought I would update everyone on what exactly we are doing now that our planting season is over. This week we have been cleaning up the planting equipment and getting seed corn ready for returning. This included breaking down the plastic boxes which carry our seed to be shipped back to our seed corn company.
It is also a time to get caught up on mowing, spraying, and general maintenance on the farmstead. We will be spending some time also hauling last years crop to market from our bins. Storing some of the crop has definitely paid off this year for our farm.
In the field at this time we are getting ready to side-dress fertilize the corn crop. We wait until after emergence of the crop to fertilize it as you gain efficiency from your fertilizer and can put on around 10% less than if you would put the fertilizer on prior to planting. We use GPS technology to precisely apply the amount needed to specific areas of the field based on soil samples that we pulled earlier this year.
We are also readying our row-crop cultivators to put up a “hill”. This is for our fields that we irrigate with gravity irrigati
on.
In between all of this I have started tearing the deck off of our house that we moved into last December. The supports underneath were not constructed properly and we have had to tear the whole deck off and start over. Thank God for a tool called
a Sawzall. I will continue to post pictures of the crop throughout the growing season and try to summarize them every week. Hope everyone enjoys their summer vacations, our busy seasons are in full swing, although we did find the time to get away for a little Husker Baseball during one of the rain delays during planting as evidenced by My son and his friends in the picture!
Spring is always a time of re-newal and new beginnings on the farm as we plant crops and wait for them to grow and mature into harvest, but this year we have a new beginning in the addition of our third child.
It has been quite a year for us. New house before Christmas, finishing the basement in it, and now adding another piece to our family puzzle. Delaney was born Monday morning and came in at a just perfect 7 lbs 3 ounces. Big brother and big sister are both thrilled. It is nice to have them fighting over holding a baby, than the normal brother/sister fighting. It is almost like our 6 yr old grew up overnight when you see him settle down to sit and hold the baby. There are not many times in life you see him sitting and not moving unless he is sleeping. Our daughter of course is a minnie mom, hovering over the baby every second and talking to her just like the conversations she would have with mom’s tummy before Delaney was born.
We have received quite a little rain lately and it rained all day Monday which allowed me to focus on the moment of having our third child instead of worrying about getting the corn and soybeans in the ground. It is amazing how quickly our moisture has changed around here. In Early April we had been put back in a drought, and have now had over 6 inches of rain in the last couple weeks.
We put 500 acres of corn in the ground before the rain which is sitting in the ground waiting for the sunshine. So, on our farm this week will have the new beginning of a new baby and the new beginning of another crop year. May you all be blessed this season as we proceed through another crop year and another year of life!
“A conversation about ag”, not in person, but on the internet. Twitter, no less. I was skeptical at first when reading of #agchat, and at that time hashtags were the least of my worries as I was just trying to figure out how to tweet. I remember watching the first few conversations and thinking wow, this works, no facial expressions, no body language, just a forum to discuss the ins, outs, good, bad, new, old, trendy, tried, true, experimental, organic, conventional, genetically modified, local, large, small, diversified, specialized, organized, unorganized, independent ways of agriculture with consumers and other producers!!!
Here we are a year later and that first little tweet about having a conversation has turned into a one celebration of the AgChat Foundation, a continuing discussion held every Tuesday evening, offshoots of it all over twitter, and a group of people who have a passion for telling the story of ag and the belief that empowering others in ag to tell their story is one of their most important missions.
I was fortunate enough to attend the first conference in Chicago last August and came away more sure of myself than ever that our “Farm Story” needed to be told. I also came away knowing that I am an #agnerd, although, not as much as others!
I hope you all take a look at the #agchat website and gain an understanding of where it is going and what is happening. I have gotten to know many of the founders through twitter, facebook, etc. and have met them in person at the conference. Although we all have met only once in person, or maybe a few times at most, we have been united by a common cause which is to do the right thing for agriculture, and tell our stories. I have said it before and I will say it again. Who is telling your Farm Story?
Happy birthday #AgChat!
Here is the third item for National Ag Week. Enter your guess in the comments on our Blog and I will post the answer tomorrow sometime. For a bonus, see if you can name the attachment on the front of the machine and what crop or crops it is used for.
In celebration of National Ag Week I am asking you all to explain what piece of equipment is in the picture. Today is National Ag Day. The county where we live in Nebraska mirrors our state in that Animal agriculture is our largest industry. It is responsible for 1 out of every 3 jobs in our area.
To guess, please respond on the blog with the year it was produced and the make and model. Happy National Agriculture Day and good luck with your guesses!
Alright, here is the first piece of equipment for National Agriculture Week. Comment on this post with your guess as to what this is. I will approve all posts tommorrow sometime, so you will not see your comment or anyone else’s until then. As you can see, we got a nice little snowfall last night also.
To make this more educational, I will add a detailed description of the item tomorrow including the cost of the equipment to give everyone an idea of how capital intensive agriculture has become. Good Luck!
This week is National Agriculture Week. Tuesday of this week is National Ag Day. In celebration of this week, I will be posting pictures of equipment on our farm, both historic, and modern. Please enter a guess as to what it is as a comment on our blog. I will approve all of the posts the day after you all enter them and we will have a good laugh at all of the responses. Please do not be afraid to respond as this is supposed to be educational for those of you who are not close to agriculture, or maybe we are involved in a different type of agriculture.
Make sure you take a look at the fun farm facts as we celebrate this week. In my county here in Nebraska, agriculture is directly and indirectly responsible for 1 out of every 3 jobs. Animal agriculture is the largest economic sector of our economy in both our county and the State of Nebraska. Happy National Agriculture Week!
Days of the Weeks 