The Next Big Thing

I found a discussion in the Cafe about what would be your next big thing?  Immediately the wheels started turning so I am pondering.  What would be my next big thing?

One friend wrote simply, "a cemetery plot!"  Whoops, well haven't done that yet either but not really wanting to think about that today.  I must be feeling better!  I quit drinking water from recycled plastic bottles I have a bad habit of doing and my lungs cleared and my coughing has almost stopped!  Do you think that could be it?

I'd really like to restore one of my 3 nice old tractors.  I would love to pull one in a local 7000 lb out of the field stock class if we had one.  My mind kept going back to fixing up that new farm as a place to play, make money and spend some of it.

I would really like to get the main tile at the entrance replaced or repaired and build a half mile gravel road back to the woods.  Then I could go back there easily even on a day like today.  There is so much to see in the back of that parcel of land.

I thought about Living In Your Fields and walking among crops and CRP and woods just looking around, sampling things and thinking out loud with the grand kids.  This isn't exactly "The Edge of Farming," like the video series shows, but it kind of is to me.

The next big thing in agriculture is going to be much bigger than any of us.  We are going to have to agree what that is.  Our country is so divided now we can't agree on who to elect to get us where we need to be.  We don't agree where we need to be.

Agriculture is much the same way.  I can't see the need for genetically modified seed on my farm and I see perils for all of us if we follow the 90% who do.  I am in that 10% minority.  We can't even agree on what the best way to farm is, let alone who should lead our country.

All we can do is study the issues and find what's best for ourselves.  If others want to come that way, we lead them one step at a time.

Right now I am involved in so many next big things I need to take that one step at a time myself.

How about you?

Ed

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Those Crystals!

Waking up to one of the bigger snows we've had in years, I was curious to what benefit this is to my wheat and cover crops and to the fertilizer I just put down 5 weeks ago.  The fertilizer has crystal structures in it, too.

The structured water comparison got me to thinking about this.  I always knew there was great power in crystalline structure from a snowflake to a crystal radio to the fertilizer crystal shapes to the beautiful stones used to adorn women.

"As compared to rapid progress achieved since 1912 in the analysis of crystal structure, et was only after 1930 that the understanding of crystal growth mechanisms at atomistic level started. However, both have their roots in the curiosity in the 17th Century on a wide variety of forms that crystals exhibited.

Most people will imagine from the word of crystal growth, semiconductor crystals like silicon and gallium arsenide or synthetic gemstones. The success in these industries has been achieved through deep understanding of atomistic process of crystal growth and defect formation. We should however remember that the recent days achievement in obtaining and utilizing highly perfect single crystalline materials to improve the quality of our life has its root in pure curiosity on the origin of various forms of crystals.

This curiosity creates another new curiosity in the present days, even after three centuries. Problems relating to forms of crystals are closely related problems to biological activities, formation and changes of solid materials in the Earth and Planets. We may decipher letters sent from the depth of the Earth or from the Space, and also written in the living bodies, by properly understanding the origin of forms and their variations of crystals. No more pages, regretably, are left to discuss these problems. So I shall conclude this article by citing two phrases by the late Sir Charles Frank.

“If one could understand enough about the morphology of crystals, he understood essential points of fundamentals of crystal growth”. 

“Diamonds are letters sent from the depth of the Earth. They are letters conveying more interesting information than snow flakes which are sent from the sky. We can not reach the depth of the Earth”.

Ed

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High Yield Soybeans

High yield soybeans are being discussed again today.  I want high yields as much as anyone, but what about quality, and what about profit?  Shouldn't we be discussing high profit soybeans?

The easiest way to increase profit is to increase yield more than it costs to produce that yield.  At what point does cost overtake the yield increase?

Personally, I have never raised a good crop that didn't make a profit.  That's probably just the frugalness bred and cultivated in me.  Dad and grandpa never had excess money to produce yield and I never have either.

One critical point is that it takes 5 to 6 lbs of nitrogen to produce a bushel of soybeans.  On 100 bushel yield, that is 500 lbs of nitrogen.  How do I get that much nitrogen without killing the beans?

I have been interested in inoculation all my life because I was taught its value as a child.  We always inoculated legumes in order to encourage them to produce all the free nitrogen from our nitrogen laden atmosphere as possible.  Big, healthy pink to reddish nodules is my goal in every legume I raise.  Inoculation always paid for me but can it produce 5-6 lbs of nitrogen per bushel?

NO.  I must build a soil environment where nodules abound and it takes a lot of atmospheric air in the soil to do that.  That means a very healthy soil is necessary for high yields.  That takes time and that takes money.  I don't think we are going to get there the way we produce soybeans today.  Not every farmer inoculates and even less apply enough food to their soybeans.

Our country is built around the principles of 40 bushel beans and 160 bushel corn.  Now we hit some hard weather years and we can't even hit those averages nationally.  I can't follow the crowd on this one, I must think outside the box and be in the upper third of production while keeping costs profitable.

So how do you produce more profitable, higher yielding beans this year?  First, apply a half a ton of gypsum and be sure you have your pH in the upper 6's, 7.0 is not too high.  Apply calcium nitrate beside the row at planting to maximize nitrogen production in the crop.  100 lbs of AMS provides a nice environment for my microbes to be ready to feed my crop.

Plant a grass cover ahead of the beans.  This cover helps control weeds and provides nutrient to the new crop as it dies and the new crop emerges.  Control the weeds.  Add a little foliar nitrogen with whatever else your crop needs throughout the season.  Remember there are 17 known nutrients and we tend to over nitrate our crops and underfeed everything else.

Inoculate.  This year we are treating our seed with fungicide, insecticide, rhizobia and trichoderma.  We will add more rhizobia and trichoderma to the seed box.  Soil bacterial cell counts are record low across the US this year after the stresses of last year.

I am doing these simple things and my goal for net profit is $400 per acre.  I have done this before and can do it again this year.

If I can't do this, don't call me a farmer.

Ed Winkle

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Heavy Frost

There is another heavy frost on the ground this morning.  I wonder how much variation there is from field to field depending on vegetation to limited vegetation or fall plowing?  That would be an interesting study today.

Jules and I have been emailing back and forth about what I have put on already and how it has affected my wheat growth.  Master Mix said they applied 150 lbs of urea on January 26.  We noticed our wheat was thick when we got home but it was very brown.  I assume the new tender leaves have been frosted off as fast as they grow.

My stand was a bit thin in a few places and the urea has seemed to thicken it up as planned.  There was more lush growth on the better stand and it frosted off as fast as it grew.  I can't dig into the ground this morning but I expect if I could, I would find very healthy, thick, roots.  I don't see the burning off of leaf tissue as fast at grows as a bad thing.  Some of the best crops I ever grew were frosted in the early stages/  Frosting causes the plant to work harder to stay alive and that is a good thing until it causes senescence or death.

What I am doing is not exact science.  It seems like the older I get the more I depend on biology instead of some chemistry formulation.  I do think I have my wheat in pretty good shape physically and chemically and the dead radish are giving off some good exudates as they slowly die.  Maybe that is finished and I don't know it.

I feel like I should be sowing a clover or other legume this cold and frosty morning.  The more I plant the more I seem to reap.  I don't own a nice rig for sowing other than the Mule.  It would be a nice project for a grandchild!

I have been watching a few YouTube videos on cover crops this morning.  There are so many of these videos but each one of them makes me think.

I need to get out behind the house and pull some wheat tissue and dig some soil this week.  I know I should be frost seeding a clover right now.

Ed

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Happiness

I woke up today with gratitude, thankfulness and I will say overall, general happiness.  Are you happy today?

My Sunday Morning Sunshine Group discussed God's Will this morning.   What is God's Will and how can you discern it?

Everyone is born with the innate sense there is someone in this world bigger than we are.  They come to know who that is, reject it or say, OK, maybe?

I fought turning 60 like crazy.  I didn't want to be old but did I want to die?  If I didn't change my ways, I was destined to die at an age earlier than I decided I wanted to.  My fight started in my 50's when I couldn't keep up with all of my crazy ideas anymore.  My body kept saying slow down and rest and my self will said you can do more.  HA, as my good sister says.

Someone asked how does God speak to you?  Most of us agreed that God speaks to us through other people, through every one we meet.  Some speak the truth and many don't.  Many people are more lost than we are but every one of them has a message for us to heed or discard.  How many times have we said later in the day or that week, wow, so that is what that meant!

I don't claim to be an expert on this or anything but this I know for sure.  God speaks to me and if I am quiet enough I can hear Him.  I learned to pray for His Will when I was 40 and the kids were little but growing up.  I learned beside them at church and at Sunday School.  I started praying for God's Will for me and whom I pray for, not mine.

When I quit fighting for my own will, things became simpler.  The last two years I have slept in a normal pattern for the first time of my life so I am better rested and even able to think or work.  I often wake up with a clear sense now of I am to do and what is right or wrong.  Life is much simpler and easier for me to tackle.  Things that don't get done aren't such a big deal now though certain things have to happen for any expected positive outcome, especially in farming.

I will be ready to plant when God tells me it's time to plant.  That could be this month or that could be in May but I will know when the time is right.  If I am off a little, I will pay for it but if I do it right I always get a positive outcome.

This the best advice this old timer can give you today.  I am not ancient but I am getting there.

Either way, God's Will Be Done, not mine.

Thanks to the fellow who posted this neat picture on Machinery Talk.

Ed

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WOSU Became WVSG

WOSU AM 820 kilohertz was the oldest AM station in the Columbus area.  It was started way back in 1922.  Being a fan of AM radio all of my life I listened to it as a child and followed it off and on until it was sold in 2011.  It's funny, I still listen to it since I love to hear the truth of Catholic Radio so I listen to 820 AM now more than I did in the past when it was basically NPR Radio.

"St Gabriel Catholic radio has purchased WOSU-AM from Ohio State University.  I mentioned to St. Gabriel Catholic Radio that WOSU-AM 820 was for sale last January and it would be a much better signal then 1580 AM.

It just made sense that St. Gabriel Catholic Radio would cover much more of the Catholic Diocese of Columbus with this frequency. After all, that has been the goal of St. Gabriel Catholic Radio, to cover as much of it with a network of stations and WOSU-AM will be a great flagship station.

Little was said about any interest in 820 AM so this sale was somewhat of a surprise to me and a remark was made on a thread that St. Gabriel Catholic Radio was having problems LMAing WKKO-AM so they didn't even have $1.5 million dollars to buy WVKO-AM.

WOSU-AM at $2 million dollars is a better deal then WVKO-AM at 1.5 million in my opinion."

WVSG is a powerful voice for us few who still listen to AM radio and even Catholic Radio.  I like it.  It's quite a story of the transition it has made over the years.

Today we had another snow flurry that almost covered the ground.  I like that little bit of insulation and those water crystals that will slowly melt into the ground when the temperature creeps over 32 degrees at soil level.  It feels cold outside and we are burning plenty of wood.  I am making room for more fence rows in my stack this cold winter!

Ed

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Zoo

Yesterday was a zoo here, like the little monkey depicts on yesterday's picture.  His picture was on the public library computer I was using and I thought how appropriate to life this week.  This little monkey is still alive and trying to cope with all the changes here on the farm, the old farm house and life in general.

I apologize to all my email contacts that I was not able to get out my new email address before the account was closed.  I had the best of intentions but things got out of hand and it didn't happen.  My new email is my old email of edwinkle with a new provider at cinci.rr.com.  I received a lot of personal email this week I wanted to reply to but that didn't happen either.  I apologize.

I've talked to several friends and acquaintances who have had this lung congestion.  One young friend said he has been fighting it all winter.  It was funny he called yesterday right during a coughing spell and he said that sounded like his.  He was on the second round of antibiotics and inhaler that Dr. Weber just put me on.  He said his didn't get better until he added Mucinex DM to it.  He called it a big horse pill and I said yes, that is what LuAnn brought home, trying to get us both feeling better.  She doesn't have the lung congestion I have, thankfully.

She is in the kitchen cleaning drywall dust off every inch and dish in the kitchen.  The entire house will have to be cleaned liked she is cleaning the kitchen right now.  What a formidable task!  Thankfully Tara and some other people are able to help.  When this all gets done I am going to have to do the same thing with this office, though the door has been closed and its not quite as dirty as the open part of the house.

Poor old Sable got confused yesterday with all the traffic.  She would follow one worker out and another one in.  The tile and grout guys about wore her out.  It made me tired to watch.  She did get her old dog food back though and some Pup-Peroni's yesterday.  LuAnn said she let her out this morning and a stray cat was eating from her dog bowl and poof she was gone.  The cat was gone, too, of course.

It's the first of March already, 1/6 of this new year is gone!  Where did it go?

Maybe we can get back to talking crops and soil soon.

Ed

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