This weeks farming update from Ben

Whew.

Ah.

Sigh………….

[Getting check-book out]

Groan.

Eyeroll.

Sigh. (In through the nose, out through the mouth)…………….

(There was several sighs)

I hope everyone had another Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat.* We had ham, mashed potatoes simmered in milk rather than boiled in water, cheesy biscuits (Gluten free. From a box. Red Lobster brand and very yummy.) and stuffing. I basted the ham with Dr. Pepper, then used a honey- whiskey-jam-glaze. Later, cleaning up, I almost made it to the garage door with the foil pan of ham juice and Dr. Pepper before I dropped it. The dogs enjoyed it. I threw out the rug.

Corn is out. All of it. They finished the last field on Wednesday. They got most of it out on Monday. Monday night I was able to chisel plow some of it. Tuesday it rained all afternoon. I kinda thought I’d have Wednesday to work up more corn ground, and then the weather people started predicting snow and I revised my work schedule. I was busy all day Tuesday, but decided to skip a rehearsal on Tuesday night and stay home to farm. And then it kept raining. And raining. Not a lot, maybe half an inch? But I knew I had to try. I worked until midnight chisel plowing. And I got everything that was harvested worked up. Yeah, it was a little muddy. But there’s enough corn trash (the stalks and leaves) that traction wasn’t really an issue, I just left a lot of mud on the road. Which is now frozen and kinda lumpy. It would have been nice to get the tractor and chisel plow washed off before winter really set in, but oh well. A good rain shower in April will do that too I guess. 

“A bad job of tillage in the fall is better than a good job of tillage in the spring”. 

That phrase has a lot of factors involved. In the spring, if it’s a good day for planting and I’m waiting for it to be dry enough to chisel plow, that puts me further behind for planting. It’s all a race against the clock and the weather. The sooner planted, the better. I’m very glad to have gotten done what I did. It was just starting to snow as I was working up the last field.

Yields seem to be pretty good. Test weight was good at 57 or 58 pounds per bushel. Corn price is based on 56 pounds per bushel, so anything over that is a bonus. Takes less corn to make a bushel, so therefore better test weight means more bushels. Moisture of the grain was 17-18%. It needs to be dried to 15% for storage, so there’s a fee for the elevator to dry it. Plus, shrinkage. Those extra points are water in the kernel, meaning a tiny bit of swelling. Meaning the elevator docks the total bushels (gross weight divided by the test weight) by some factor that they have devised, to give me ‘dry bushels’ meaning less bushels for me. (Any margin goes to the elevator.) For example, I had a load of corn with a gross weight of 84,800 pounds, truck and grain, at 17% moisture and 58 test weight. (When the truck pulls up to the elevator, there is a tube that plunges down into the corn, and sucks up a sample into the office, and they test it for moisture and weight. That’s where those figures come from.) Once the tare weight is determined when the truck is empty, the balance is the grain. In this case, 58,980 lbs. Divided by 56 (bushel weight) gives us 1053 bushels gross. Minus the moisture shrinkage gives us dry bushels of 1024. Shrinkage. This is why some farmers store their corn at home. They can dry it cheaper, they’re not paying for the shrinkage, and they can perhaps sell the corn at a better price later. Course there’s the cost of the bins and trucks and the entire operation, and managing the corn to keep it in good shape in the bin. And I simply don’t raise enough corn to make a pay back. I know, too much information again.

December 1, most of my loans will change their interest rates. So I used an operating loan to pay off all the fertilizer and chemical loans from spring and summer, and I’ll use the corn check, once I get it, to pay back the operating loan. 

We’re gonna be a little bit short this year. A few thousand dollars. Not the end of the world. 

The deer! East of our buildings is Silver Creek, and acres of woods and pasture. It’s a deer haven. I came over a hill and there had to be 35 deer standing there. Later that night, coming down the driveway, I bet I saw 100 sets of eyes. Deer all over! Stupid deer.

We only got a dusting of snow that night. Perhaps more coming Saturday? Every guess is different so we’ll just wait and see. I did plug in the water tank heater, the chickens heated water bucket, the heat tape on a water pipe in the barn, and turned on the ‘block heater’ in the house. I moved a pile of dirt that was inside the shed, left over from the concrete work. Added dirt to the edges of the new concrete, and added rock to the edge of the front walkway concrete. Got the snow blower in the shed and the rear blade on the tractor. Moved some other stuff from outside inside. And installed driveway markers late Friday. Kelly and I did the snowfence last weekend. Typically we do it the weekend after thanksgiving. We decided last week seemed like better weather. Good choice. 

I also mixed up the bags of cement last Saturday and got that done. tim, it’s all the same color. 

We’ve been watching ‘The Landman’ on TV, and it’s based on a podcast called ‘Boomtown’. So I listened to that in the tractor while doing fieldwork. It was a very interesting look at the oil boom- and busts- of the Permian oil fields in Texas. Me and Bailey had quality tractor time. She wasn’t interested in the podcast.

In the last month, I finished the college show, a Mantoville show, a Rep show, some outside rentals at the college, and the crops. No wonder I can’t keep track of what day it is. I knew I just had to get through this week. I don’t have ANY EVENING EVENTS this coming week. Next week will be the holiday concerts at the College. A couple afternoon rehearsals, and two evening performances. There is light at the end of the tunnel. 

Everytime I go into the shop I think how wonderful this is and how lucky I am. 

Remember the chicken that hatched some chicks a month ago? They’re bigger than pigeons now and with the weather changing, decided it was time to let them out of the pen. 

The first night momma brought them all into the garage.

After that, mom ditched them all. She’s still spending the nights in the garage, kids are left where ever she leaves them. I try to get all seven of them together at night, but it just depends.

There’s still some chickens laying eggs out in the pole barn. I would appreciate it if they’d lay them closer to the ground rather than 12′ up.

Does anyone here read the Smithsonian Magazine? 

I really enjoy it; it always has such interesting articles. The November issue has an article on the man who created and started the Hardy Boys books. I think I read them? I don’t remember them making a big impact, and I’m not sure if it was those or we had Nancy Drew. As usual, I expect mom picked them up used from someone, so we only had a few. 

*Thank you Arlo Guthrie

WHAT GOT YOU READING?

WHAT CHILDHOOD INFLUENCES DO YOU STILL HAVE?