Amber Waves of Grain: An American Harvest.

 We have finished the 2016 wheat harvest!  Thanks to our team for working some long days (20 in a  row to be exact) to get the crop harvested.  We have a couple of days planting double crop soybeans left but are glad to see more rain!  The wheat crop was excellent in yield and quality.  The price of wheat has really gone down but we didn't lose any money.  That's always a plus during times of low commodity prices!  We will spend the next couple of months delivering wheat to Siemer Milling in Hopkinsville, KY.  There it will be milled into flour and distributed across the Eastern United States to be made into biscuits, cookies, crackers, cake mix, pancakes, bread and even OSB and particle board for construction.  In all the hustle that is harvest time I managed to take a few pictures of the harvest landscape and I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed watching them in real time during harvest.

The contrast of a golden wheat field and the blue sky can be stunning during certain times of the day!

The first day of harvest.

An office with a view!

Collecting harvest data.

Coming and going.

On the go!

Trucks waiting on a load, but not for long!

The grain cart takes the grain away from the combines to the trucks so the combines don't lose time harvesting driving over to fill the trucks.

WOW!

After a long hot day, a cool colorful sunset is a welcome view. 

As Mac would say, "Pink Time."

Fill her up Sherman.

Another load of high milling quality wheat going into the bins.

Dumping wheat at the bins.

Gran and Mac in the combine.

Harvest time can be tiring especially for Jack!

Another beautiful harvest sunset.

Planting no-till double crop GMO - RoundUp Ready Soybeans.

Hooking headers to the combines after moving to a new field.

Big Sherm putting on a big load of wheat headed to the bins.
Photo Credit Brent Thacker Ohio Valley Crop Insurance

Dad threshing wheat with the stripper header.Photo Credit Brent Thacker Ohio Valley Crop Insurance

Dad dumping "on the go" to Sherman Marklin in the grain cart.Photo Credit Brent Thacker Ohio Valley Crop Insurance

Chris Marklin threshing wheat with a draper header.Photo Credit Brent Thacker Ohio Valley Crop Insurance

All American Harvest in TN.
Photo Credit Brent Thacker Ohio Valley Crop Insurance

Amber waves of grain takes on a meaning to our family during wheat harvest that usually concludes around July 4th.  This year we will have the opportunity to take a day off and celebrate our nation's independence and what our great nation stands for.  I hope you enjoyed our American Farm Family Harvest pictorial!

Should you be afraid of GMO sweet corn? My family isn't.

We planted our sweet corn patch yesterday.  We generally plant about an acre and a half so we have plenty to share with our friends and neighbors.  For the past couple of years we have been planting Roundup Ready, BT sweet corn.  Let me tell you up front it is the sweetest corn we have ever had. 

 It's amazing how the technology keeps the corn worm and insect free!  There's quite a bit of misinformation floating around the internet being promoted by so called "food experts" about GMO technology in the crops we grow.  I even have people on a regular basis tell me as a family farmer I have no idea what I am talking about on the subject of GM technology.  People are convinced we are paid by Monsanto to promote technology on our farm.  Some even think we are coerced into using Biotech from the evil company Monsanto on our farm.    

When you google, GMO, images of people in full protective gear standing in a corn field or an image of a full PPE person handling chemicals appear.  That's a far cry from a five year old little boy holding a bag of GMO seed corn!  If a picture is worth a thousand words what does a picture of my little boy say about the man in the full protective gear?  It says PROPAGANDA to any rational person.   The irony in the propaganda pictures is the GM technology actually reduces the amount of chemicals applied to the crop.  We will spray this sweet corn with roundup a couple of times before the fruit (the ears) are made.  We won't have to apply any insecticide during the growing season because the corn defends itself naturally from the pests that like the taste of sweet corn.

American corn farmers have benefited from advancements in breeding and biotechnology, allowing us to grow plants with a beneficial built-in Bt protein found in Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt) that protects the corn from many damaging insects.  The Bt protein was discovered in a naturally occurring bacteria that is often used by ORGANIC FARMERS to control certain pests.  You heard that correctly, the biotechnology in our corn field was developed from a bacteria that ORGANIC farmers SPRAY on their crops to KILL pests!  I don't know about you, but I would rather have the corn with the built in defense mechanism than corn that had the ears sprayed with bacteria while being grown organically.

When built into the plant, the Bt protein provides protection from certain insect pests that allows us as farmers to reduce pesticide applications as much as 85%.  With fewer trips across the field to apply insecticide we also reduce our carbon footprint by using fewer amounts of fossil fuels.     

But what about the farmer "dousing" the crop with Roundup herbicide?  If a quart of Roundup spread out over an area the size of a football field when mixed in 10 gallons of water for a fine spray mist application is "dousing" I would have to question your measurement skills.

How does Roundup work and does it affect consumers when eating food from crops that were sprayed with Roundup?

Roundup  is a non specific herbicide, meaning it kills most anything it is applied to.  Roundup Ready corn contains a modified EPSPS gene from corn.  When a corn plant expresses EPSPS and is treated with Roundup (glyphosate) it isn't affected.  These ESPS enzymes continue to provide the corn plant with aromatic acid.  Glyphosate (Roundup) stops this enzyme  EPSPS which is critical in the pathway for bio-synthesis of aromatic acids in plants (weeds) that are not resistant.  This leads to no growth in the weeds and they die.  Roundup isn't harmful to aquatic animals, birds, mammals or humans because we don't have aromatic amino acid bio-synthesis pathways.  Simply put our bodies cannot break down the material and active ingredients in Roundup.  IF there was a residue it passes through your body unabsorbed as is the case with many things we ingest.  Therefore Roundup has low human health and environmental risks.  Corn is never sprayed after the ears are there so there will not be any residue on sweet corn or field corn.

I will finish out this post with a few interesting facts and figures about  GMO and Biotech crops.  

Approximately 17.3 million farmers grew multiple biotech crops on 420 million acres in 28 countries in 2012.

Since farmers first began growing biotech crops in 1994, people around the world have eaten trillions of meals and snacks containing ingredients from genetically modified crops with no proven accepted scientific evidence of harm to humans or animals.

Locally, biotech crops have led to an increase in no-till farming and have had serious positive affects on our environment.  We have reduced erosion and protected surface and ground water.  Fewer to no trips across our fields for tillage reduce our carbon footprint greatly as we reduce the fuel consumption for growing crops. 

 No-Till farming sequesters carbon in the soil and combats global warming.   

Next generation biotech crops WILL further serve resource-limited areas of the world with answers to drought and famine.        

Hopefully, this information will clear the air a bit about how we raise corn on our family farm. We are all smiles about the prospect of a safe, wholesome, delicious and abundant sweet corn harvest this year.  Stop by for a visit and a free sample this summer!              

How does a no-till corn planter work?

The calendar turned the page to April, the sun came out, soil temperature headed to 50 degrees F, the red bud trees started blooming and the corn planter started rolling.  The dry conditions the last couple of weeks have given way to great corn planting progress in our area.  We have about 2/3 of the corn in the ground.  The cooler temps have slowed germination but we expect some corn to start "spiking" through the ground any day now.  Jake Mitchel is pictured below on the opening day of corn planting.

All of our corn is planted no-till.  Specialized attachments to the planter allow us to plant the corn directly into the residue from last year's wheat and double crop soybean crops.  The field shown in the pictures had a 5 way cover crop mix planted to keep the rolling landscape green through the winter to help reduce soil erosion.  The cover crop was killed about 2 weeks prior to the planting of the corn crop.  No-till ground is generally somewhat harder than conventionally tilled ground.  The planter is equipped with a pneumatic down-force system that holds pressure on the row unit to keep it in the ground and provide an even "ride" to optimize the performance of each row unit.

The picture above shows the row unit of the planter.  The spike wheels on the front of the unit are "Martin Row Cleaners" they gently sweep wheat straw and soybean stubble out of the way of the wavy no-till coulter blade (between the black frame).  Getting the residue out of the row keeps the no-till blade from "hair-pinning" the stubble into the row furrow.  If "hair-pinning" occurs in the row furrow it can reduce seed to soil contact and hinder germination of the corn seed.  Cleaning the row off allows the sunlight to warm the soil directly in the row furrow to speed up germination.

Following the no-till coulter is a set of "double disc openers."  These openers create a V slot for the seed tube that's directly between the two openers to drop the seed in.  The large black wheels on either side of the row unit are called "gauge wheels."  They are used to set the depth of the unit when planting.  They ride up to a point and will raise the unit up if the depth goes past a desired set point.  We generally try to plant the seeds about 1 & 1/2 " to 1 & 3/4" deep.  If you plant too deep the seeds won't germinate evenly and may have trouble pushing through the crust of the soil.  Plant too shallow and the corn may suffer from "shallow root syndrome" and not be able to get established because the root system may have trouble developing.  Shallow planted corn may also have a greater tendency to blow down before harvest since the roots aren't as deep and sturdy in the ground.  

At the back of the row unit are the closing wheels.  One is spiked and the other a cast iron wheel.  These wheels are spring loaded and "close" the seed furrow up covering the planted seeds.  If the ground is too wet the ground won't close over the furrow leaving the seed exposed and can cause problems for the young plants as they grow.  In ideal planting conditions the ground crumbles over the top of the furrow as the closing wheels work the soil over the row furrow as pictured below.  

The only way to determine the planter performance is to dig in the seed furrow to gauge the soil moisture and the depth of the seeds.  It usually takes a day of planting to get all the planting metrics dialed in the way we want them.  The technology on the planter makes the adjustments fairly quick but old-fashioned know how and technique are still keys to getting a "picket fence stand" of corn!  My youngest son points out the seed in the V trench furrow below.

All the planter settings and metrics I have discussed in this post are displayed to the operator in the cab of the tractor pulling the planter.  We use yield zones to determine how much fertilizer to place in different areas of the fields as I have discussed in previous posts.  We build seeding prescriptions for these same zones with higher and lower seed populations according to the productivity in a zone in the field.  The more productive zones get higher rates of fertility and seed.  The lesser productive, thinner soils receive less fertility and seed.  This keeps us from over applying  nutrients and seed where they won't yield an increased return.  This makes us better stewards of the soil and water in the environment and makes us more efficient producers.  The prescriptions for the seed are loaded to the tractor controller via Wireless Data Transfer from a desktop computer to the screen on the left.  The iPad on the right logs all the different data as we plant a field.  The different population zones as applied, seed variety, date, down pressure target and margin, ride, elevation, speed, direction of each pass and many other metrics about the planting operation are logged wireless through the Climate Field View app and sent to the cloud for storage.  We can later access all the data in the MyJohnDeere or Climate Field View platforms for analysis and later use.    

March Madness on The Farm!

 When the temperature starts to go up so does the work load around the farm.  We have been busy getting tobacco plants started in the greenhouse, spraying burn-down on corn fields, applying anhydrous ammonia (nitrogen fertilizer) to corn ground, preparing the corn planter to go to the field, shipping corn and soybeans and day to day maintenance of equipment.  Needless to say there's never a dull moment.  We will put our second shot of liquid nitrogen fertilizer on the wheat as soon as we finish spraying corn burn down.  The corn planter will be rolling in just a couple of weeks now.
 

Plastic is laid in the beds of the greenhouse and filled with water to float the trays on.  Our friend Andy Teasley seeds the trays for us with his automatic seeder.  Once the trays are filled with dirt (media) the seeds are planted one to each cell of the tray.  There are 288 cells in each tray.  Hopefully, we will have a good germination period and get 250 or more usable plants per tray.

The trays are then put onto the water in the beds.The water wicks up through the media (dirt) and the seed swells and germinates in about a week's time.  The greenhouse has two LP heaters that keep the temperature a balmy 60 degrees inside.

The tiny seeds give way to tiny plants.  It's hard to believe a 6 foot tall tobacco plant starts with two tiny leaves!  The 2016 tobacco is officially started!  We will care for the plants by fertilizing them, spraying them for bugs and disease and clipping them to harden and even them up for about two months until they are ready to go to the field for transplanting.

We are still keeping the roads hot delivering spring corn contracts and seed soybeans.  The trucks have to be serviced and maintained to keep the wheels turning.  Sherman Marklin is pictured greasing his truck at the shop.

Sherman Marklin and Ricky Massey are pictured above making adjustments to the closing wheels of the corn planter to ensure the planter unit works like it's supposed to.  A corn planter has many points to fine tune to get the best possible stand when we put the seed in the ground.  Jake Mitchell pictured below adjusting a marker for corn.  It's better to spend time in the shop on a wet day getting ready than wasting time in the field during good weather getting everything dialed in on the planting equipment.  #plant16 is coming on quick.  We will be planting corn in just a couple of weeks now!     

We apply anhydrous ammonia as nitrogen for our corn.  Corn yield is most directly related to nitrogen than any other crop input.  We apply the anhydrous with a no-till applicator designed to inject the nitrogen into the ground with as little disruption to the top soil as possible to keep erosion to a minimum.  It will take a couple of weeks for the ammonia to convert into nitrate form that the corn can use for food.  By then the corn will be growing and ready to eat the nitrogen we left there for it.  

February on the Farm: Moving Grain and Making Repairs.

We've been spending the colder winter days moving grain and making repairs in the shop.  With safety in mind the crew has been busy fixing things here and there we put off during fall harvest and performing preventative maintenance to keep our drivers, equipment and others around them on the roads safe.  
 

Break downs don't happen when you are sitting still.  We have been busy moving grain the past few weeks.  Running trucks daily creates shop work to go along with the hauling.  Time is not on your side once semi trucks get a certain amount of age and miles on them.  The motor went down in one of our trucks and had to have an in-frame overhaul at Thompson Caterpillar a couple of weeks ago.  

The top picture shows the new cylinder kit prior to installation.  The bottom picture is the re-manufactured head with the blue shipping grease still on it.  After the overhaul the motor should be good as new for a long time.   

Chris Marklin pictured above replacing a wheel bearing in the water truck.  We go through all the trucks and equipment every winter for yearly and preventative maintenance needs.  Down time is better spent in the winter in the shop than out in the field during the growing season!  As the old saying goes, "Prior planning prevents poor performance!"  Below Jake Mitchell is moving a transmission around so we could replace the clutch in this same truck.  

 Ricky Massey and Jake Mitchell checking for leaks and going over the power plant of Sherman's ride.  

Sherman Marklin and Chris Marklin have been hauling corn to Purina and Equity feed mills daily.  Gotta keep the cows and chickens fed!

We had to haul soybeans to the seed cleaning facility during the snow event a few days back.  Frozen precipitation makes everything harder!  Frozen belts and augers coupled with slick roads make for a challenging haul.  The guys have definitely gone above and beyond to keep the grain moving this winter! 

David has been hauling January and February contract wheat to Siemer Milling Co.  The biscuits and cookies have to be made every day!  Remember if you meet a farm truck on the road we aren't trying to be in your way or slow you down.  We are trying to deliver the commodities to processors and end users to keep the bread and milk on the store shelves!