How agriculture works thread

[sixdogs]

Everything of size is minimal tillage here in northern missouri.

Around here, the number of zero or near-zero till acres jumps every year. It definitely is a trend.

 

[Hay Dude]

I did one summer on a harvest crew and am thinking about doing it again once I retire. It was a fun summer.

I got my start when I was 15-16 running an SP haybine all summer and stacking in barns. We did beans in fall/winter, too. It was one of the hardest, but most fun summer/fall/winters of my life. Left farming for over 10 years. When I returned 20 years ago, I knew I would never leave again.
Retirement? No way. This is my dream. Hard and risky, but knowing I can support my family full time farm is incredibly satisfying.

 

[Buggs67]

I got my start when I was 15-16 running an SP haybine all summer and stacking in barns. We did beans in fall/winter, too. It was one of the hardest, but most fun summer/fall/winters of my life. Left farming for over 10 years. When I returned 20 years ago, I knew I would never leave again.
Retirement? No way. This is my dream. Hard and risky, but knowing I can support my family full time farm is incredibly satisfying.

It must be nice to have a profession you actually want to do. My wife taught for 33 years and every August she was anxious to get back in the classroom. And she missed it when she retired.

 

[ultrarunner]

There was a time when teachers all had side jobs or summer school.

Dad taught high school for awhile and all the breadwinners had lined up summer jobs...

Mom's side all farmers going back generations... no pensions there and no retirement... the older generation just slowed down and she's in place.

Some of the contracts pertaining to turning over the farms were not monetary... simply put it was to provide shelter and utilities and one fatted steer a year, so many gallons of milk, eggs, suckling pigs etc... in other words... commodities over dollars.

Growing up it was the same for law enforcement with family until you made rank.

The situation has changed greatly in that high school friends are making hundreds of thousands in public safety... plus the best pension medical a working man could have.

We have retired Oakland Officers making 3 times the highest salary ever earned working decades after retiring...

See, retirement is pegged to what the rank you retired at earns today with average overtime included even if you have been retired 30 years.

 

[ArlyA]

To keep this thread about the ag industry, Laura is copping silage in Nebraska and every machine in breaking down. Welcome to farming....

 

[Hay Dude]

To keep this thread about the ag industry, Laura is copping silage in Nebraska and every machine in breaking down. Welcome to farming....

Yep. So aggravating.
Today I developed 2 drips/leaks. Both on tractors. I have already repaired 2 leaks this year.
So I have dubbed this year “the year of the leak”.

Im definitely not as cute as Laura, but I still have a business to run and a family to feed.

 

[Creamer]

Attached is an article done by a University of Idaho professor on no tillage in the Palouse. STEEP - Perceptions of No-till in the Palouse

Even though the practice no till was initially developed in the Palouse, and it's many environmental advantages obvious, it still isn't the preferred method on the Palouse. Why? Money. Years of comparison have made it relatively clear that it is more profitable to the farmer's bottom line in this region to plow vs no till. This is especially true the first few years after a farmer converts to no till operations. Some no tillage occurs in the area by concerned farmers, but most of the large scale farmers are highly successful family corporations who have become primarily business focused. Despite lip service otherwise, they tend to place maximizing of profits as their highest priority.

I find the article a very poor analysis. To start with it talks about no-till versus never till. No till is planting your crop without working the ground and then instead of cultivating the crop just use herbicide. Let's face it - almost nobody cultivates anymore except certified organic farmers - chemical weed control has taken over. So almost all farmers have reduced tillage.

Secondly the longest timeframe he discusses is five years. If you till once in that timeframe you have disrupted the soil structure and are thereby taking away the benefits of no till.

So really he is discussing farmers opinions on a one year crop method of not tilling prior to planting which only makes sense under certain conditions, i.e. too wet to till. One of the reasons to till is to be able to get the soil to warm up quicker - black dirt that has been tilled to dry out warms up much quicker than soil that has plant matter on top and has not been cracked. Seeds need a certain soil temperature to germinate. Longer maturity crops tend to produce a little more than short maturity ones. So having to use a shorter maturity is a negative for no-till unless it is already so late you have to use it anyway.

Herbicide costs will not go down if you ever till the soil because weed seed are stirred up and grow with every tillage pass. So if you work the ground in the fall and then go plant it no-till in the spring you have not gained the weed control advantage of the no-till operation.

It is interesting to note that despite the obvious short coming they still believe the make more money with no-till. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they could get through to never-till so they could obtain the real advantages?

 

[ArlyA]

Seems I recall Laura in Nebraska was cultivating corn.

 

[Torvy]

Seems I recall Laura in Nebraska was cultivating corn.

Gotta love english....cultivating can mean preparing the land for crops OR manually or mechanically removing weeds from around crops, OR simply growing a crop.

I saw one of those episodes and they grow seed corn. Seed corn operations have to do things that sweet corn and field corn operations typically do not. My guess is the seed company (Pioneer, iirc) probably has limits on the chemicals used.

 

[Hay Dude]

Gotta love english....cultivating can mean preparing the land for crops OR manually or mechanically removing weeds from around crops, OR simply growing a crop.

I saw one of those episodes and they grow seed corn. Seed corn operations have to do things that sweet corn and field corn operations typically do not. My guess is the seed company (Pioneer, iirc) probably has limits on the chemicals used.

Something I am happy about in my line of farming is the very minimal use of chemicals both in the form of herbicides and fertilizers.
IMO, adding more chemicals to the food system is doing more harm than the benefits of perfect crop loaded with pass-thru chemicals. Lots of studies emerging (Glysophate, etc)
When the cost of chemicals is added to make hay look perfect, I come out ahead if I don’t use them.
There’s an entire new wave of buyers that feel the same way and I am very happy for that.
My beef cattle buyers are raising beef as close to organic as possible. My horse hay buyers report no health issues back to me.