Be Vaaawy Quiet

[bjrogg]

Ed we haven’t mold board plowed in about 20 years. People complain about GMO crops, but as far as I’m concerned they have been a huge positive effect on the environment the way we use them.

Before them we plowed, tilled, cultivated left bare dirt with very little residue on top. Wind and rain would erode our dirt all winter and spring till the crops got big enough to slow it.

Now the way we farm. We use conservation tillage. It leaves lots of residue on top to help reduce erosion. We planted cover crops of clover or rye as soon as we harvest our crops that help build up our soil, give it tilth and save our soil and nutrients. The wildlife enjoy it. And seem to be doing very well around here. I know that’s not how everyone farms, but it is becoming more common and very popular in our area. GMO’s have made all this possible. Fields have gotten bigger. Fence rows have gotten further apart. I know people miss them. I really doubt they are coming back. Fence rows are great for predators. Especially when there isn’t any other cover. That concentrates the prey in a small area. Cover crops spread the prey over large areas. This practice is something I really think we should try to encourage.

Bjrogg

[BowEd]

Yes my first few years of farming alone I plowed but after acquiring a planter with culters  there was no need to plow leaving residue to prevent erosion and humus material.Just disking and harrowing while incorporating herbicide.My father plowed all the time every year.More livestock too.Hauling and spreading manure.Better overall for the soil.More diverese in all.We just raised corn,beans,and alfalfa hay.
It all depends on type of profiled ground you got too.My ground is terraced with water ways to prevent erosion also.Very well kept ground.
GMO crops sure do make field work become minimal.No more cultivating.Less fuel and compaction but made up expense wise with the cost of GMO seed and expensive herbicide.Walking beans is unheard of nowadays and for quite some time.
The new wave of technology gps planting etc. does make it more efficient/higher yield,but a lot to learn with that technology running it.
Wildlife still thrived though.Pheasants and fox wise.

[bjrogg]

This is what my field looks like before planting. This field was sugar beet field last year. We spread rye seed after harvest. In the snow. Even so it grew under snow and whenever temperatures were above freezing. The deer and other animals love it. For GMO crops we just till it once to get some lose dirt. It doesn’t really kill the rye, but does knock it back a bit. Then when my crops come up I can kill the rye . It leave lots of residue to protect the soil from erosion. Puts organic matter into soil and protects nutrients from leaching away.

This field will be Navy Beans. They are non- GMO crop so I have to kill rye before planting my crop. I still got a lot of benefits from the rye. Hopefully I will plant Navy Beans here in about a week. The bunnies were hopping all over in this field. The fox were enjoying the bunnies. As soon as I harvest the beans I will plant either wheat for a crop, or rye for a cover crop. If I plant wheat crop, I will spread clover seed in the spring and when we harvest our wheat in July the clover will grow lush. It will give us the same benefits as the rye plus add nitrogen. It’s a legume.

I’m a big believer in cover crops. Being friendly to our environment. Improving our soil health and using modern technologies together with old technologies to achieve my goals.

gps and precision farming equipment is amazing. The accuracy of this application equipment is totally awesome.

The GMOs also prevent tons and tons of insecticides from being applied. I personally consider the insecticides that are no longer needed to be some of the most dangerous of the chemicals we have. Before Bt corn. We always put a insecticide down to help slow down the corn bore and root worm. Now a natural protein scientist found in the ground is genetically engineered and introduced into the corn plant. This protein is very specific and effects the digestive system of the corn bore and root worm when they eat the corn. It was the first GMO that I was introduced to. I believe it was in the late 80’s or early 90’s. I had saved many, many tons of insecticides from being applied.

Bjrogg

PS I know that GMOs are held up as a detriment to environment. I’ve lived through some interesting decades and decades and decades of farming. For my operation, GMOs have allowed me to produce more crops, using less insecticides and herbicides. It has allowed me to use cover crops that are Beneficial to soil, environment and the animals I share the land with.

The bunnies seem to agree

[BowEd]

Good looking stand and nice looking bins.
The corn bore and root worm resistant corn variety sure produced better yields maintaining the stalks.No more moths flying around either.Biggest thing was planting more seeds per inch for better yields.Same with the round up ready soybeans.
Otherwise we used to band the corn row with a root worm deterant.No need for that later.Other than that no other insecticide was used.
Rotation of crops was always done too.Legume plantings like alfalfa and soybeans to oats or corn with hauling manure a regular thing from feed lot.
Good yielding ground.
Every once in awhile depending on the year double cropping was done.Usually rye planted in fall after harvest/chopped in june/and replanted to soybeans,or oats and straw harvested in july to alfalfa later in the same year.
Farther south where growing season was longer double cropping was the usual.
We used to chop a lot of corn silage also.We had a cement silo.Picked corn mostly.Brought beans to town.Baled the hay in small squares up in the hay mow.Put up lots of brome hay from the ditches also.
Always fed around 300 fat cattle to go to IBP in Sioux City.Back then we always bought our feeder calves from South Dakota.Later we backed off and raised calves from 150 cows or so.
Decided to live in a more wooded area in southern Iowa with some land attatched and live out my dream while keeping the ground in the other county.I help out farmers here in the fall for something more to do.Yields are'nt quite as high as the old farm but it's not my worry any more.....Ha Ha.
Kinda pleasant not getting all the BIG bills any more but less responsibility then too.
It's different raising trees rather than row crops.The southern and eastern counties have more wildlife overall.Especially deer/coyotes and bobcats.
Both farms dandy places to live with the one I live at now with a half mile driveway out in the sticks.
We like to watch wildlife every day out the screened porch and balcony.



The old farm where I lived 45 years of my life.

[Hawkdancer]

Bet those trees have some nice colors in the fall!  Look good in green, too!
Hawkdancer

[bjrogg]

Those grain bins aren’t mine Ed. Those are bins from a small town elevator. We actually don’t even own any bins.

Like you I grew up with cattle. We milked cows till I graduated high school and went to electronics school. Then my parents sold the cows. Five years later I came back to the farm. My brother and I bought cows and started our own milking herd. Then in 1992 we sold them and just had beef cattle.

We grew up hoeing sugar beets, balling hay and straw. Feeding, milking and taking care of the cows. We never said we were bored. Dad would find something for us to do if we did.

My dad grew up taking care of the cows and his youngest brother did a lot of the field work. I helped him plant and take care of our crops from the time I was about in the fifth grade. I did a lot of tillage and cultivating. Back then we cultivated our corn at least twice, our beans three times and our sugar beet five or six times. Plus hoeing. Sugar beets were always weedy. We didn’t have very good herbicides for them. We mold board plowed every acre. We even had some summer fallow. Fields we left without a crop that we kept tilled all year to try to kill the weeds and quack grass. We did then and still do rotate crops. Spread manure and had alfalfa and pasture. We raised chickens and I have many memories of butchering them. Us kids would hold the legs and wings tight while my dad and grandpa would put the head between two nails on a block of wood. Then they would chop them off. We had to hold on tightly or they might get away. We got a good scolding if they did. We would hold them tightly till the blood stopped and they became still. Then we took very hot water and scolded them, which allowed us to remove to feathers more easily. Then we cleaned out the chest cavity and washed them up good. Mom packaged them and put them in one of our freezers.
We always had a huge garden and we helped mom can vegetables. My grandpa loved strawberries. He was very good at growing and eating them.
 
I never farmed with horses but my dad and uncle’s did. It is amazing the evolution that farming has done in my lifetime. I know many people complain about the changes, but I embrace them. When I was a kid we hardly ever saw a deer. Never saw a coyote or turkey. Never grew cover crops. Worked in extremely dusty unhealthy conditions. With crude equipment that was not very accurate, but better than our previous generation had.

I like where our operation is going. There are many more like myself and I think we should encourage more. We are stewards of the land. We share it with all of our makers wildlife. I always feel both honored and responsible to do the best to leave it better for the next generation.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

This was my grandpa’s first tractor. It arrived on the farm the year my dad was born. 83 years ago. They are both still ticking, but I’m pretty sure this tractor will outlast me.

It’s not much more powerful than today’s lawnmowers. As my uncle would say. It was much better than looking at the rear end of a horse all day.

Bjrogg

[BowEd]

We are a lot similar as I did'nt get into all the details of all the chores and field work around the farm as it would take quite a bit of typing.Always something to do.Lots of diversity of livestock[hogs,cattle,and horses] and poultry[chickens,geese,and ducks] too.Garden canning from large gardens too.I'm from generations of farmers also.My grandpas on both sides of the family farmed with horses and mules.
Dandy looking old Jon Deere.I still have the old 1966 Oliver I farmed with.Runs like a champ.Use it as an acerage tractor.Sold all the old Internationals.
Safety equipment???Never heard of it.I always had to laugh when we hired help.Back then we depended on neighbors helping neighbors when big jobs came up.It is'nt that way any more.
Some changes are good but some are'nt.A person was more independent back then.Fended for himself.Nowadays the chemical companies and equipment companies want you depending on them.
Farming practices are better for the land that's for sure.Leaving things better than when we worked them.

[Hawkdancer]

Safety equipment was simple! Don't stick your body parts where they don't belong, and watch your step!  Some dogs bite, some don't!  As a city kid, I only had a partial exposure to farming, but I was fascinated until I figured out it would take well over $250k to get started!  I did learn a bit by listening and trying to ask good questions.  I remember the real farm kids bucking hay for .10 a bale.  I had a chance to go to college, school of hard knocks, and a war, couple other life events, only took me 17 years to graduate!  Can't say all my choices were good ones, but I'm still here!i
Hawkdancer

[BowEd]

It is expensive to get started.I started from the bottom treated as any other working stiff.Had access to farming ground though which is a big hurdle.Nowadays $250 thousand would'nt be near enough to do it right.I paid that $250 thousand in rent alone over the years treated just as a stranger.Working my way up with used to newer.Fixing things along the way.Making due.Choices are whether we want to take a gamble or not.Some want to take the chance and some don't,but there's nothing wrong with being a steady man either.Having a friendly banker is a must.Bills are due.You get used to working for nothing many many times.Just the breaks that's all.Some people can't handle that.They want a gauranteed paid back for their time every time.A good way to live but not as much of a challenge and less to learn.When it's good make the best of it priority wise.Manage things wisely.In the end doing what you love means everything to me.It's a mentality of preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.Depnding on ones' decisions.It's the reason I have so many back ups of archery making materials or any materials of my other hobbies.It's why I'm 2 years ahead on my supply of firewood for the house too.
I never liked school.Rather be out doing instead of sitting.Everything is an investment when trying to better yourself.Even education of course if one is sure it's what they want to do.I guess I'm the meaning of the school of hard knocks,but have learned quite a bit along the way from success and failure both.Accidents happen.Most times because you are in a hurry or are tired.

[M2A]

I dont mean to change the direction of this thread however thought the pic below was rather cool and on topic.

Last week I was driving through a .5 ac bramble field at work, looking at how they handled the recent cold snap. Not paying attention, I got with in a few feet a a red tail before he decided I was too close. That will get your hart going first thing in the morning. lol He landed on the next post in the row and hung around long enough for me to get some nice pictures from 20 ft away.

Hope he stays around there and keeps the bunnies under control in that field. rabbits sure do like to eat the bark on raspberries/blackberries over the winter that kills the canes. That field is too close to a new housing plan to deal with them and those plants provide great cover during the winter. So I hope this one stays around and eats well, saw it today so he has been staying close. Hope you all enjoy the picture.
IMG_3566 by Mike Allridge, on Flickr
           
     

[Hawkdancer]

Retail Hawk sit tin' on a post!  Excellent photo!  Glad you were able to get close!
Hawkdancer

[BowEd]

Nice close up.We have them here too with other smaller types of hawks and 2 different types of owls along with bobcats to deter the bunnies.But somehow it is'nt quite enough to deminish the numbers.I shot 3 more in the last 2 days myself to help things along.
Garden is looking ok yet.

[bjrogg]

Nice picture Mike. They always say every good coyote has a crow.

I think every farmer has a couple birds of prey to. They are always sitting on a pole or circling overhead. Waiting to swoop down and take advantage of the opportunity that comes their way.

Jerry. Lots of old timers around here with one arm. Most from corn pickers.

Bjrogg

[Hawkdancer]

I'm sure of that!  It doesn't take but a flash to get hurt!
Hawkdancer