Fall Cover Crops 2014

 I've had quite a few questions about the strange looking crop growing on the side of the road on some of our fields.  The comments have ranged from "how many deer are you planning to feed" to "whatever it is the stand is awful."  We participated again this year in the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) EQIP (Environmental Incentives Program) cost share program.  The cost share encourages farmers to try something new by incentivize a new practice on the farm.  We are trying to figure out where this practice fits in our production system and how we can use it as a tool to conserve soil and prevent nutrient loss.

The fact is with tight margins a new practice has to show economic gain as well.  We can't buy the seed, plant or hire it seeded, and manage another crop without added costs.  We have to figure out how to make cover crops pay for themselves by either saving on fertility costs for the next crop and or increasing yields to offset the cost of growing the cover crop.  There is no doubt that cover crops reduce erosion during the winter months compared to bare fields with nothing growing on them.  It is hard to quantify that gain with a monetary value.  The University of TN is currently conducting research to give farmers a guide on what the soil savings is worth on our crop budgets.  It's worth a lot to our family and the owners of farms we lease.  Without the soil it is impossible to grow crops for a living.

 Our cover crop mix this year included 5 species.  Winter Peas (the large round seed) and Crimson Clover (the small yellow looking seed) are legumes.  They "fix" or create nitrogen in the soil for the next crop, which will be soybeans in this particular field and corn in the other fields, next spring.  Cereal Rye (the green tinted long seed) and Oats (the longest yellow seed) once established scavenge nutrients and help hold the soil down and reduce erosion when it rains during the winter months.  The smaller red round seed is the Tillage Radish.  Theses radishes work hard in the soil.  They scavenge excess nutrients left in the soil from the previous crop.  They will grow a large underground tuber that will store these nutrients.  As the tuber grows it will help reduce compaction in the soil and loosen the soil for spring crop roots to penetrate deeper into the soil profile giving them access to more moisture during the growing season.  These seed may be small but they are giving us BIG results and are working hard.    

We drilled the cover crop mix using a no-till drill into corn stalks in this field.  The other fields were applied with an air plane over standing soybeans right before they dropped their leaves.  You can see the cover greening between the rows in the picture below.  

 Once established the cover crop species begin to grow and spread out across the fields.  The picture below shows the species well.  The radish is the biggest plant.  The rye and oats look like grass.  The winter pea is directly behind the radish.  The clover can be seen in the background close to the ground. The residue from the previous corn crop is there to act as a barrier to reduce erosion also.

This field was planted on September 20th and this picture was taken November 12.  In six weeks time the cover crop has really grown!  The radish in the picture below has grown to about 10 inches below the soil.  The cold winter temperatures in the teens will kill the plant.  The tuber has the nutrients stored and will not start breaking down and returning stored nutrients to the soil until the spring when the ground warms up.  Those nutrients will then become available for the next crop.  Without the cover crop mix most of the nutrients that were in the soil would have leached away during rain events along with soil particles.    

Off to the tobacco "market" we go...

While the fall field work has progressed our tobacco stripping crew has maintained a good pace as well.  We used to have to wait until November to start stripping tobacco because the market didn't open until around Thanksgiving.  Today we are selling tobacco by the end of September.  I have taken a few pictures to show how the process of stripping and grading tobacco works for this post.  The tobacco is taken down from the rails in the barn when it comes "in order" this can be by rain or artificially created by spraying water over the top of the tobacco hanging in a barn.  The tobacco is taken off the stick and laid flat on a trailer or wagon and moved to the stripping room.  Once at the stripping room water or steam can be added if needed to make the leaves pliable and flexible for handling and packing.  

The tobacco is sorted on stripping table into 1 to 4 grades according to stalk position.  We have different contracts that require different amounts of sorting.  The leaves are sorted according to length, texture, color, and width.   Our H2A workers are diligent in keeping the tobacco in proper condition and grading it correctly.  Jorge Medina and Junana Cifuentes have been on our farm for 15 years and are like members of the family to us.  

There isn't anything prettier than dark fired tobacco when it is finished.  Robertson County TN is known as the dark fired tobacco capital of the world.  There is more fired tobacco grown in Robertson County TN than the rest of the world.  It has been a staple to the local economy for generations and will continue to be in the future.  There have been numerous farms, taxes, tractors, trucks, college tuition, groceries and Christmas presents paid with "Tobacco Money" in our community and my family over the years.

Once sorted into grades the tobacco is placed neatly on a barrel head top into piles that weigh 800-900 pounds for shipping.

We haul the tobacco to the company in a van trailer 24 - 26 piles at a time.  Once we arrive at the tobacco company the tobacco is taken off the trailer and inspected by the buyer to be certain it meets the contract specifications and is in good condition.  A farmer has a unique perspective watching his tobacco crop go across the scales.  A year's work goes by very quickly and your crop is sold and gone.  On the way home you enjoy the sense pride and accomplishment in a job well done and before you get home you start planning for next year's crop. 

Fall Harvest, Foliage and an Eagle Sighting

We have been busy on the farm the past few weeks with harvest and sowing wheat.  There is a lot to see though the lens of a tractor or truck cab in the countryside.  It is a joy to watch the wonder of God's creation everyday as we work the land throughout the seasons of the year. The harvest season is a time which is eagerly anticipated and usually arrives quicker than we can prepare.  Our work throughout the year culminates in a harvest each fall, some years bountiful, some years not.  While our fall harvest is no record we are still blessed and have faith in next year as we plant next year's wheat crop with hope for another harvest season.  This is one of the many reasons we farm.  I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we have enjoyed taking them.  

If you look closely you can see a bald eagle roosting in the oak tree at our family cemetery.  William snapped this picture while cutting beans on the original Jepson Home Place.  The eagle is a majestic bird and it's a treat to spot one while working.  William is pictured below harvesting soybeans at the Anderson Farm.  The soybeans were hurt by the dry weather this summer but are making more than expected.  

The fall colors have been gorgeous this year.  The picture on top was taken on Gold City Rd. at Lick Creek in Franklin, KY.  The bottom picture is closer to home  I took the picture below while servicing the grain elevator leg 110" in the air.   The green strip in the middle of the field is where we have land set aside for tobacco next year.  We planted a cover crop mix last month on this spot and it has really grown fast.  The rest of the wheat has been planted in winter wheat but hasn't greened up.

What a view!  The top picture reaches over the state line and Red River to Thurmond's River View Farm with the land mark red and white blue grain bins Go 'Merica!.  The picture below is on Duers Mill Rd. in Simpson County at the old Johnson Farm.  There is something about an old barn,a  Peterbilt hood and fall colors.  

Farmers are generally weather nuts. We work long days and nights especially in front of wet weather.  Farming in the dark is easier than it used to be but does present it's own challenges.  We have a group of committed team members willing to put in long days and nights to get crops planted and harvested within the windows the weather allows.  For that we are truly grateful.  It takes special people to put in 70 and 80 hour work weeks without complaint.  

Winter wheat requires a high seed rate of about 150 pounds of seed per acre.  One trailer load of seed will plant about 300 acres.  Each tank on the air drill will plant about 90 acres.  Needless to say that's a lot of filling up!  I had a question the other day about the seed being red.  The red color is the seed treatment applied to the seed.  We apply fungicide and insecticide treatment to the seed to prevent the seed from rotting in the wet ground before germination and insects from eating the seed  or seedling as it emerges.  These treatments allow us to target certain diseases and pests without having to make an application over the top with a sprayer and is one way technology on the farm is benefiting the environment.

Above is a Simpson County sunset on the Springfield Rd.  Below is wheat seedlings just being to sprout.  Great things come from small seeds.

Ricky Massey and Chris Marklin Drilling wheat.  We are lucky to have a detail oriented group of team members who pay attention and take care to see to it that all of our land and crops are cared for and look the best they possibly can.

Our waterway project we started last fall is finally completed and working properly.  The weather last fall and winter set us back a bit but we finally got it like we wanted it.  Managing water runoff is an important aspect of caring for and maintaining the land.  

Tobacco Time 2014

Dark tobacco likes warm dry weather...  This year was perfect for dark tobacco especially since we were able to irrigate most of the crop.  The tobacco had beautiful long and wide leaves this year. 

We utilize all types of technology on our farm.  Tobacco is still a labor intensive crop.  Most all the work is still performed by hand.  We have a wonderful group of H2A workers who help us get our tobacco in.  Many of them have been working for us over 10 years or more. 

Each plant is cut and spiked by hand onto a stick.  There are 6 plants put on each stick.  Each stick is then picked up and placed on a wagon by hand for transport to the barn.  Once we get to the barn each stick is unloaded and handed up into the barn and placed on the tiers in the barn once again by hand.  Each acre of tobacco will have about 850 sticks.  Whew, it makes me tired to even think about it! 

Our boys, 3 and 7, even have a job at the tobacco patch.  There have been many people weighing in on farm kids and working on our farms lately.  It is our opinion that we know what is best for our children and we better understand their capabilities at a certain age NOT our government!

Jorge bringing sawdust into a dark fired tobacco barn.  Sawdust is added on top of hardwood slabs to control the fires as they burn in the barn. 

A barn after we lit fires.  The fires will burn for about three to four weeks in each barn to cure and finish the tobacco.

My grandfather standing in a barn that was built by his grandfather over 100 years ago.  It's a special thing to consider the history, hard work and knowledge handed down through generations of our family in an old tobacco barn.

We had a new dark air cured barn built this year.  The new barn holds a little over 10 acres of tobacco.  I can't help but wonder if my family will still use it 100 years from now.

These pictures of the men in the barn are unique because we hung the tobacco in the barn before we put the sides on it.

The last stick of the 2014 crop going into the barn.  It's always a good feeling to be finished cutting tobacco.  This was on a Friday and they started stripping tobacco the next Monday.  The bottom picture is most of our 2014 crew.  Their hard work is appreciated by our family.

2014 Corn Harvest

The 2014 corn harvest is in the books.  The crop suffered greatly from lack of rain this summer but turned out better than we expected.  We use a weigh buggy to calibrate our yield monitor in the combine.  The yield monitor measures the yield every few seconds as we go across the field.  It references the GPS coordinates from the GPS receiver to correlate the yield at that exact spot in the field.  We use this data to build custom seeding and nitrogen prescriptions for our fields each year so it is important to have the yield monitor calibrated properly. 

The videos show us unloading corn from the combine onto the grain cart "on the go."  This speeds up harvest as the combine never stops harvesting to unload or drive across the field to a truck.  This greatly increases our harvest efficiency.

A panoramic view of the field office.

Robertson County, TN harvest sunset over Red River.

Unloading the corn into the grain elevator pit.  Most of our corn goes through our grain system to remove excess moisture with the dryer to prepare it for storage in the bins.  We will store the corn until spring and deliver it to end users.

Sherman and William on the first day of corn harvest 2014.