Crops

We raise Corn, Soybeans, and Alfalfa. We also have raised Popcorn. 

.... more to come about our Crop Division. 

For crop producers who grow their plants in large open fields are hoping mother nature spreads the timely rains during the growing season. Farmers are also hopeful the insects and pests along with unwanted plants (weeds) do not overtake their field of produce. Then we get to harvest time, hopefully we have a decent enough crop to pay all the inputs it cost to get the crop to where it is - Seed, Chemical/Fertilization, Fuel in the equipment, transportation and machinery costs. If the crop doesn't produce because it didn't rain, because a natural disaster occurred, or an army of pests wiped out the leaves to the point the plant couldn't even producer a crop - well, you hope you had paid for insurance (which is yet another expense) so you can at least have some sort of income to pay your expenses. Yes - row crop producers may get the winters off in snowy conditions but that doesn't mean they are not working. They have to service their equipment, make a marketing plan for the next year and maybe a 5-10 year plan to make sure their operation is productive. 

above photo - Feed for the cattle for a year until the next years crop is planted, grown, and harvested. Harvest Season is where we need the most boots on the ground. We are thankful to our season help. In this photo we have one person in the John Deere Self Propelled Chopper, One person driving the White Box Truck, currently getting filled. We have one person waiting to drive up once the white box is filled, this is the red truck to the left. And we have one more person driving the Tractor and Wagon to the right, who is next in line to be filled. What's not in the photo is the person who is back on the farm - pushing and packing the silage into the pit. From the field, once filled, you drive back to the homeplace, dump, then head back to the field to get filled. 

So for silage season alone, depending if the field is close by to the main farm, we have 5 people operating equipment or trucks. 

Combine with the soybean head on for harvesting of the soybean fields. 

Some fields require tillage in the spring time. We spread our own cattle maunure as fertilizer and the small amount of tillage we do, incorprates it so the nutrients are ready for the seed when its planted.