Well?

[MFRED]

Alright, this is my favorite section to read and it's been pretty dead lately. So I want to know, how did everyone's year end up? Anyone thinking of trading up some equipment? Any different styles of farming to try for next year? Anyone figure out how to control the weather?

 

[farmerjim]

lets see my garden was basically garbage this yr as well as my pumpkin crop, a hail storm wiped out most of my pumpkins, squash and tomatoes. 1st cut hay didn't get done until 4th of july and it was ok it was topped out and a bit bleached up top but the bottom was nice and green and a bit stalky, broke the crimper 1/2 way through 1st cut and parked it, then broke a spring on the baler knotter was able to temp fix it to finish up the last field for 1st cut. 2nd cut was done in september and turned out great and got a nice yield as well, thanks to all the rain. i think we may finally upgrade to a haybine or disc mower this winter and give the old rake a going through, we'll need them in top shape for next season as we picked up some more property to hay. all in all it wasn't a bad season have had better and have had worse. hoping for a good maple sugaring season this spring.

 

[D7E]

Well i think it's another one we'd like to forget ...We made 1400 round bales of decent hay and crop yeilds were average but all season i think we only had about 10 real combining days so harvested everything wet and are now drying everything...Who was to know november would be so nice..??
We're pretty much caught up now with only 300 acres of corn to combine but about 800 acres could do with a second pass with the cultivators but it came up quite mellow this year so not essential.
Said it many times before and once again..No more wheat or barley......Oats beans canola and corn from now on.
Not too many machinery upgrades in the forecast given crop prices..Maybe upgrade one of the ageing flex headers as there will be more beans in the future and maybe look at a more suitable sprayer tractor given the recent wet years but i think a time to catch up on some of that maintenance that usually gets pushed aside and left till spring and make an early start in the bush ..?

 

[Thomas]

Not much happening here other than getting ready for old man winter.

"Anyone figure out how to control the weather? "
Naaa,that wouldn't be no fun,but than again.

 

[Oleozz]

I will probably try some new things for next year, the biggest investment being a no-till corn planter. I like the idea of not ripping up the ground every year and then spending alot of time discing and cultipacking, not to mention burning a lot of diesel fuel in the process. Have friends and a neigbor who will give advice when needed. If I'm successful I will then sell my IH 1066, a plow, and a disc.
I am also going to invest in some much needed drainage tile to clear up those wet spots that have been giving me fits.

 

[MFRED]

Drainage tile. Been thinking of that myself, probably everyone was this year. Then you get the dry years & it all seems to be so good. Made some of the best hay all year in late October.
Hay production was decent. Our main buyer had some trouble getting payed by his customers & slowed his buying. So I've got a barn full of square bales & a barn full of round bales. At least we've got some new customers coming in.
As for here, We have upgraded our square baler to an MF1839 with kicker. Not much different than the NI 7210. Hydraulic density, that was nice. Bigger tires sure helped it float a little better. I've been thinking of getting a larger tedder, we'll see on that one.

The big purchase will be an excavator. I've been dying foro one of those for a few years. The deals seem pretty good now. Hopefully they hold out untill spring. I've justified it enough, now it's time.

 

[slowzuki]

Most notill corn planters need lots o hp to pull. I wouldn't ditch that 1066 yet. My friend has a 6 or 8 row strip till corn planter on a TW-25 with the pump turned up. Has just enough power.

We had a wet, wet year. The hay came in late and not the best looking. Did get enough to supply everyone though.

My tedder needs major work after dropping a basket in a hole.
The disc bine upgrade this year was simply fantastic.
The new to me MF 5455 needs some attention over the winter to fix niggling problems from the previous owner.
I need to rebuild 2 more wagons.
Our equipment sheds are showing a lot of damage from the heavy snow load last winter. I have to jack the roof on one and replace posts and door header.
Having 2 tractors is addictive. I had planned to sell the Kubota but I think it will stay, although who knows!

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I am still working on harvesting corn but now the rains are back so its going to be fun. The wet fields are done and all thats left is the gravel fields so thats a plus.

The grapes did great on our one farm. Sugar was decent and the berries were big from all the rains. Our other farm got hit by a frost and lost 75% of the yield.

I got lucky with hay and managed to do all my first cutting early when we still had decent weather. A lot of guys waited a little bit and got nailed with non stop rain. I have been lucky when it comes to haying the past couple years but I don't know if that will hold up next year. I have learned when the weather is nice to cut like crazy and worry about putting it up later. It seems its easier to find ways to put hay up then to find ways to keep rain off the fields. So far so good and I found some good workers so I see more good things coming if I can set a few things up different.

The apples were a total loss this year and I gave up on them half way through the spraying season. There was no way I was ever going to make enough money selling apples to even pay for half the cost of the sprays to keep them decent looking. Oh well, thats how it goes with the apple market where I am.

So not a great year by any means but there were a few positive things and a few negatives. I would love for a year with only positives but that isn't going to happen anytime soon

 

[flusher]

Alright, this is my favorite section to read and it's been pretty dead lately. So I want to know, how did everyone's year end up? Anyone thinking of trading up some equipment? Any different styles of farming to try for next year? Anyone figure out how to control the weather?

Grapes did fine (CA Concord). Veg garden so-so.
Planted winter oats (Kanota variety, for hay) last Monday on my 5 (count them 5) acre hayfield using my restored Minneapolis Moline P3-6 grain drill and the Mahindra 5525. The drill worked fine--100 lb per acre drilled with no problem.





Rained Tues and it's raining now so I'm pretty proud of my timing, considering this is my first whack at hay planting.

 

[AKfish]

Very good hay year in this area of the state. We had enough sunny windows in the rain to get most of the fields baled before they got rained on. And the yield was pretty good, too. Likely the best hay season we've had in the past 5 years.

I scored a great deal on a Kuhn rotary rake and a NH tedder this summer. Have worked out a verbal agreement with the neighbor to put hay up on his 10 acre field. I've been looking real hard on the internet for a good used baler and a disc mower. Will need to make a trip down the ALCAN hwy this Spring to haul them back to Alaska.

Built a 32'x36' pole barn for the new (to me) rake and tedder. Just waitin' for the disc mower and baler.

Rented another excavator this fall (had an incredible Oct and Nov --- no snow until the 10th of Nov.) and cleared the last of the trees from the 5 acres next to the house. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it planted by late July this next summer.

Lookin' forward to the 2010 season!

AKfish

 

[MarkV]

I don't farm but sure do feel sorry for the farmers in N. Illinois. I was up in the DeKalb area last weekend and there were thousands of acres of corn still in the fields. Like everywhere else this year it has been too wet to get into the fields. The locals were telling me that the corn that is coming out of the fields has a moisture content of about 35% as apposed to the normal 17% or so. The elevators will not take the corn that wet and it runs about .75 cents a bushel to dry if you can find a dyer available. One of the old time farmers was saying that after drying you are loosing money per bushel with it selling at about $3.00 per. His concern now was getting the corn out of the fields to prevent some sort of mold that can contaminate the soil in the future. You farmers have it pretty tough in my book.

MarkV

 

[D7E]

Corn has started coming off this week....Generally no one ever expects corn to come off the field dry and is pretty unheard of ...The guy who drys ours is saying it's costing obout 30-40 cents a bushell...I don't think our elevators even buy corn so all has to be stored and trucked..Mold is the issue this year and most has been written off by crop insurance and are just running foragers through it and blowing it into the air..?

 

[MFRED]

Understanding insurance payed for the crop already. Chopping & blowing on the ground, does it add any decomposition value as well? Or does it just get rid of the moldy corn?

 

[D7E]

Crop insurance is'nt quite as straightforeward as it sounds ..depending on your history and amount of cover will not cover the cost of seeding never mind the value of the crop.
All that material is beneficial for the ground but the disease and fungus that you're getting rid of is'nt exactly the best thing to be contaminating your soil with for following crops.
As ours is a very heavy crop and only just over the threshhold of 10% mold although still written off we'l still go to the expense of harvesting and drying and hope levels are low enough to find a market of some kind..

 

[scoutcub]

Steve C -

Ouch. Looks like you have been tested more than your fair share.

You did hit on one point spot on.....despite how bad you have it, it could be worse. And is for many many other folks. I work overseas in a third world country and they are fighting famine disease corruption and fighting......losing whole families, losing children to malaria and undernourishment, etc. etc. I kiss the ground every time i land back in the US and truly appreciate all we have here.

 

[WayneB]

It's been a so so year, with the spring so wet we couldn't get into the fields to cultivate. So we had some weed problems, but were able to manage them by pulling by hand.

Then the raspberries were so wet that we had a bunch of fungus on them. Cain's were good and strong, but we lost a good number of the berries.

But, in July things seemed to dry up and we were able to salvage most of the potatoes so it is just another year of, "Aiming at bulls-eye of the target"!

Now we have had a wet fall with lots of standing water, but we are into December with no snow and the weather has been very warm, so that is okay for now. Was able to mount the snowblower with little or no failures so we are somewhat ready for Olde Man Winter!

But, spring is around the corner so we will all be busy again and dreaming of what to spend the money on come next fall.......insurance? food? new equipment??

Wayne

 

[sammyd]

We had a pretty decent year.
Put up a lot of hay. Some got washed before we baled it but it turned out good enough for us.
Goat herd trebled. Have some cheap Holstein heifers growing and a couple of nice looking steers.
Made some money on our Holstein steers, lost some on the goats....oh well.
Grazed our corn off this year instead of waiting for ripe and that worked OK.
Overall pretty satisfied with how the year went.

 

[Georgia_Cattleman]

First time poster (about to post a new thread about no-till drills) but thought I'd chime in here.

It's been a pretty decent year for my operation. The hay crop was good, silage wasn't great, calving is done and we're at zero mortality right now, weaned cattle brought a good price, the open heifers we sold didn't bring as much as I'd have liked, but the bred heifers brought a nice price. Genetics (embryos and semen) business was pretty solid this year. Had a lot of weed problems because of the rain and didn't sell very much hay, but it can't all be roses.

New equipment purchases will be a no-till drill and a new fence charger, and I plan to pick up another small parcel of land.