Life on the Farm

[bjrogg]

I ended up digging 61.7 acres yesterday. We have about 61 acres left.

I took my wife to doctors this morning and my nephew is running the beet digger. I just checked in with my son and it sounds like things are going good. That’s great news. I’m getting pretty old to still be doing this beet digging job. It’s really not a job for a old man, but I have been the only one who has run the digger for close to thirty years. I hope my nephew makes out ok. The digging conditions in this field were very good so that should help.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

When I got back to field after taking my wife to doctors I was kinda hoping my nephew wouldn’t want to give up his new beet digger job. He was ready to go back to his cart though. His neck, back and shoulders were killing him. I was pretty sure they would be. By the end of beet digging season my neck looks like a buck in rut.

He did really good though and had a little over 25 acres off. Just another 35 to go.

We all took our normal jobs back and really loaded trucks.

The drivers kept me right busy. They didn’t have a line and they only had to go across the tracks with the beets.

Digging conditions were excellent and I could dig a gear faster. A little before dark I asked the drivers if they wanted to quit for the day earlier and finish in the morning? Or keep at it till we got done. They overwhelmingly voted for staying till we were done. I’m thinking they really just wanted to be finished.

Everything worked like a clock and we finished about 7:30 with a full moon watching over the beet piling ground.

We made it through another harvest. Glad to be done. We did our part and delivered some really great quality sugar beets. Now it up to the factories and Mother Nature. I sure hope they can store well and get processed in good shape to get that sweet sugar they hold inside.

That story won’t be done till mid march. That’s a lot better than mid April though so I’m pretty optimistic. Our Croswell factory that we put so much money and renovations into two summers ago during the peak of Covid was a complete disappointment last year, but it’s kicking butt this year. We already processed more sugar from that facility than we did all season last year and there’s still 4 months of slice left. Sure wish they could have performed like that last year but glad they got the bugs out this year.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

The piling ground just across the tracks

[bjrogg]

The finished field with a full moon watching over the beet piles

[Pat B]

You guys are incredible, Brian. Farmers are the lifeblood of America. 

[GlisGlis]

You are not scared by the thought of the work. That's for sure 

[chamookman]

Good job Gang ! Hopefuly, You can get a bit of "Treestand" Therapy the next couple of Weeks, Rut is Full Bore here now  ! Bob

[bjrogg]

Thanks Pat.

I think we are a vertebra in the backbone, but there’s lots of other vertebrates to.

Lots of amazing hard working people out there that keep things going. I tip my hat to all of them.

The world needs more of them and sometimes I think they are taken for granted. Everyone likes hearing a Thank You from time to time.

Thanks again for yours Pat

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

GlisGlis when I was young my brothers and I would argue about who’s job that was. My dad would say you kids put more time into arguing who’s job it is than if you just did it.

I realized he was right.

Now we don’t argue about who’s going to do it. We just do it and there is a never ending list of jobs to do around here

If I don’t have something to do it usually doesn’t take me long to find something to keep me occupied

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Thanks Bob I’ll pass that on to the rest of the crew. Without them we get nowhere.

I spend a lot of time by myself in a tractor, sprayer or combine.

There is something about working with a whole crew . Everyone being a gear in the transmission and doing their part.

Joking and teasing usually makes the job more pleasant. A little competition seems to push everyone a little more without making them feel pushed.

We have a fantastic crew and I very much respect and appreciate everyone of them and especially their combined efforts.

As for the tree time I’m sure hoping to get a little in before gun season starts . Just a few days away now. I should of gone this morning. Getting lazy in my old age.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

The harvest might be over, but the work isn’t done.

Today is going to be a nice day, but then it’s going to get cold. Lows in the twenties highs in the low 30’s with wind .

Yesterday was the day that Michigan Sugar was hoping to be 90% harvested.

They estimate that they we will be 80% harvested. That still leaves a big pile of beets out there yet.

The weather from here on doesn’t sound like good storage weather. Today to warm and then turning to cold for the extended forecast.

They decided to keep harvesting as long as it was possible to do so. These beets will be put on separate piles and processed as soon as possible. This has been done in the past and usually they charge a certain amount per ton for the disruption in beet delivery.

The beets are very good quality yet though so hopefully everyone can get them harvested and our factories can process them.

We hope to get a bunch of washing equipment done today while the weather is warm. I scraped dirt and mud off beet digger yesterday until I couldn’t lift the scraper anymore. Kinda like breaking up the ice frozen on the boats on deadliest catch except it’s dirt and mud. And I’m not worried about sinking.

Lots and lots of stuff to get cleaned up and ready to run through the shop again for next year.

Bjrogg

[M2A]

Sounds like a good and successful harvest. Congrats! The high sugar content has to make things that much better. I was wondering if the dry weather would help out with that in beets like it does with tree fruit or grapes. Seems I saw numbers almost 25% or so higher than average.

One last tank of urea to spray on the apples then I can winterize and drain outside water lines. None too soon as rain from Nicole gets here tonight along with a cold front. Almost 70 for a high today, while looks like upper 30's by Sunday. Had some unexpected help from the guys that press cider yesterday and we got some sulfur spread on blueberries and some other of my side jobs finished up before the weather change. With the rain tomorrow I'll use the temp help thats still here to wash and grade as much fruit and we can. The last couple guys head south next week. So the more we get done tomorrow the less Ill need to do by myself.
Mike
                 

[Eric Krewson]

I didn't know but read that the Netherlands was one of the biggest food exporters in the world, the climate extremists now in power have passed environmental "regulations" that are so stringent that they will put some of the farmers out of business. The legislators know this but say they have to "save" the planet.

There are places in the world that import almost all of their food, with the Ukraine under siege and the Netherlands essentially in the same boat things don't look good for the more impoverished countries.

I am blown away by the precision and co-ordination of your farming operation bjrogg, it is like a fine well-oiled clock. I fear regulations, penalties and fees that may someday make it difficult to be a farmer. Things like requiring battery powered equipment may be in the future, let's hope not.

[bjrogg]

Yes Mike the weather we had this fall really helped us out with the sugar content. It seems to me like the nicer the fall colors the better the sugar content in the beets. Our Maples were stunning this year with vibrant colors. The rest of our fall colors were good to. We had a earlier frost. It wasn’t even a complete killing frost, but enough to trigger the beets into making sugar. Then we had a beautiful Indian summer and the beets used it to make sugar. That seems to be the winning combination for sugar to me.

Glad your getting things finished up and put away.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Eric I understand your concerns and I could definitely go on a long rant about so many things I worry about, but I’d probably be thrown out of the campfire in very short order.

I will simply say that my ideas for saving the planet and others are not necessarily the same.

I feel we need to use all our tools for the job. Old ways combined with new ways.

I’m not against electric vehicles, but I don’t see how they are going to save the environment. Mining for the rare earth minerals is not environmentally friendly and neither is making the batteries or disposal of them.

I’m always amazed how these newer (some are 20 years old newer) Diesel engines burn so clean. You can start one up and run it in our shop for 15 minutes and not even be able to smell it. They are so much clearer than the older ones. Seems like a a shame to throw that all away.

Hydrogen shows promise and ethanol is a good renewal energy source.

It seems to me that the requirements for everything to be electric are misplaced.

Kinda like when you watch the green remodel of a kitchen on the home improvement channels.


They take a perfectly good kitchen. Tare out everything that was working. Replace countertops with recycled glass. All new stainless steel appliances and somehow think because they used recycled glass countertops it is a win for the environment. I on the other hand think they just wasted a lot of energy turning a perfectly functional kitchen into a “Green Kitchen “

Enough of that though

I do worry about the future of agriculture. The more land we take out of useful production, the more of the Amazon rain forest that will be cleared to farm its

I feel responsible use of land. Getting the most out of the land we do farm and using all the tools we are given is how we save the planet.

Well hopefully that isn’t too radical for the campfire. Not really where I am trying to go.

As far as the well oiled machine. Thanks Eric and we try very hard to make it that way. We have been doing this for a long time. We do lots of things like planting our edible beans on the early side to try make harvesting them in a better time frame for us. Allowing us to plant our wheat earlier. Little things that usually work for our operation.

Mother Nature can sure throw a wrench in the gears some years though. This one pretty much went how we like it.

Bjrogg