a day in the life of a farm 2.0

[skfarmer]

lots of long days this week.....

[skfarmer]

as you may have guessed by now. i am caught up with planting. i finished about 7 on friday night and have been just trying to catch up.  here are some interesing facts from this springs planting.

24 days start to finish. 17 of them actually doing field work such as tillage, planting or spreading fertilizer.

we did field work 14 of the last 16 days.

this is the first year a crop has been planted on this farm without my dad in a long, long time . he was born in the house i live in in 1929 and had planted crops here since the 40's and likely the 30's. my sons and i did all of the planting and tilling on all but one field of fertilizing, no other help.  somehow  we filled a large empty space but it surely wasn't the same.

[Elroy]

hi elroy!

Excellent composition. 

[highland512]

I know what your feeling, we lost granddad last year during planting. Although he hadn't been working with us in the fields for awhile, he was still there with us "supervising" everyday right up till the end. I know harvest last fall was hard but time goes on. I'm just glad I was able to have my son with me in the tractor one day during planting last spring, that made 4 generation of us in a field that goes back 6 generations in the family.


Glad to hear your done with planting, we only have 40 acres in. Every time we get about a day from being dry enough to plant it rains another .5"-1.5".

[skfarmer]

absolutely. the wealth of knowledge and experience that the older timers had is something that can only be had by watching and working the land for a generation. maybe he only gave rides or felt the soil in his hands or checked the depth of seed but he was someone to bounce ideas off of and had seen many thing change but many stay the same over the years.

good for you on having your son in the tractor. my wife changed jobs when my youngest son was about 3.  because of that he spent much of the time before kindergarten with my dad and i. lots of sandwiches, fruit snacks, naps on the floor of the tractor cab, trips to the sale barn and every other thing i did for 2 years. i don't know if he will be a farmer but he will be in the ag business in some form. i think much of that seed was planted when he was a small boy hanging with his dad and grandpa.

[highland512]

It will stick with him, look at you, look at me. I think when sons hang with dad they tend to follow the same path, I know I have.

[skfarmer]

been raining almost every day for a week. i have been pretty lucky to be done. not much water damage but we are full to capacity! a good start for the wheat.

[skfarmer]

all the machinery is parked. once i see everything is up and no skips i will start pulling pins and putting things away.

here is the mt765 and the wil-rich quad 5 i picked up this spring.

[skfarmer]

the challenger 55 and john deere 455 drill.

[skfarmer]

the t6070 with john deere planter. not a lot of 8 row planting stuff around here anymore but it works for the acres i need to put in rows.

[skfarmer]

my trusty old kw t800. i only have 2 trailers. one of them is this 28 foot reefer. it came out of texas and as you can see was a labatt meat trailer. i will have to get some more pics of the inside but it has a 1650 gallon flat bottom  and a 1850 gallon cone bottom tanks. it also has a 190 gpm transfer pump, a bench, 2 mix cones and all of the assorted plumbing and hoses to get everything where it needs to be. there is enough room to get about three pallets of seed, supplies and chemical in there depending on whether i am planting or spraying.

[skfarmer]

apple trees are blossoming and one of the garden boxes is planted,

[skfarmer]

calves are out in the pasture.

[skfarmer]

brought some new babies home today. mrs sk said how about white ones?  they had 2 british white angus and 3 white parks. they will look good with the blacks.   

my dad always told me that when he was gone, so would the cattle be. i proved him wrong. i don't think he would have picked white critters but i think he would approve.

[goodfellow]

There is something very relaxing about watching cows -- (unless you have to smell them of course). Used to live next to a dairy farm back in the 90s, and the cows would often break the fence and get into our little pasture. They just liked our side better (guess the "grass was greener" --LOL). Very friendly critters, I believe they were the Guernsey (SP?) breed.