Slowing down

You've seen him: the older gentleman, usually in a plaid shirt with a free seed corn hat on. He's not in a hurry; moving at a moderate pace in his pick up truck as he checks out his fields. That gentleman is usually a farmer and there is good reason why he isn't in a hurry. You can't farm fast and I found that out this weekend.

There isn't much on our farm that I haven't done or helped with. I've crawled on my hands & knees planting cantaloupe, watermelon and tomatoes; pulled plastic up in the spring; weeded never ending rows of beets and turnips, moved hoses and equipment. One chore that I haven't been a part of is planting sweet corn.

That changed this weekend. We needed to plant our 4th crop of sweet corn before it rained again. This crop will be ready about the middle to end of August. Bill needed someone to drive the truck with the corn planter while he drove the tractor to the other farm. Since our kids can't drive (legally), I was drafted for the task. Our "new" tractor is a John Deere 4020. It isn't fancy-open cab, no GPS, AC, radio or electronics. It is geared differently than a car and I just couldn't figure out exactly how to change gears. It occasionally gives Bill fits by not shifting as it should. Top cruising speed is 20 mph and the Manito farm is about 2.5 miles from the Green Valley farm. We load up with our corn and some water and head out. Very. Slowly.

He's running all out and I'm barely idling, even pulling the planter.













Finally, we get to the Manito farm. First, before planting, the ground needs to be disked up, so we pull into the farm yard to hook up the disk. The disk is an intimidating contraption consisting of two rows of steel plates that are very sharp, set at opposing angles from each other. Dropped into the earth, the first row lifts up dirt in one direction, while the other side flips it back the other way. On the tractor, you do feel as if you are really going fast (!) and watching the soil move like water is very hypnotic. It is fairly dry and we are quickly covered by a fine layer of dirt. As we move across the field, red winged blackbirds, robins and grackles land behind us, picking up seeds and insects that are exposed.

Then, back up to the yard to hook up the planter. Did I mention tractors don't go very fast? Also, we just can't cut across the field--we have to go around what has already been planted. Slowly.










Bill checks out the planter, hooking up the chains that release the corn seeds and putting seed in the seed boxes. There are chains to hook up to the gears that allow the corn to drop out, hydraulics to hook up and make sure they work and the marker arms to unlock. Finally, we head back out to the field and now we can begin planting!














Bill is pouring in the corn on the left; on the right is what the corn looks like in the seed box. It does not resemble the final product at all! It's very wrinkled and hard. It's pink from a grub protectorant otherwise the grub in the soil would eat all our seeds! With this, they stay away and eat something else.

Here we are--ready to go! Bill puts the tractor in gear, lowers the planter and moves ahead.












The arm sticking out from the side of the planter marks where Bill needs to line up the body of the tractor to plant his next rows. We plant 4 rows at a time in rows that are just short of a quarter mile long. It's easy on a tractor. Picking it this August will be a different story!


Something that is very important when you are planting corn is to make your rows straight. It looks easy, but is is so easy to lose concentration or move the wrong way when you look behind you to check on the progress of the planter. Bill has done this so many times, that he is pretty good and all the rows were very straight. Crooked rows are no fun to pick and your picking crew get very cranky!
Here's how it looks right before we turn around and make another pass. On the left in the distance, are the trees that mark the house. We're only about 3/4 of a mile from the house, but it seems much farther. The ground immediately to the left of the ground that we've just planted is the crop that we will pick in early August. Farther over to the left are crops one & two that should be ready in July.

By now, I'm bored, my butt hurts from sitting on the wheel well and it is well past lunch time. We've planted 1.5 acres and it only took a little over 2 hours. Now, we have to go back to the yard, empty any corn out of the boxes, make the planter ready to go on the road, hook it up to my truck and take it to Congerville (long story). We finally get to our destination almost 3 hours later.

This all unfolded s-l-o-w-l-y. Farm machinery moves at a snail's pace. You can't pull a planter through the ground fast or your seeds won't land in the right spots. There are parts that break or come off at the wrong time. I cannot imagine doing this as my full time job, driving back and forth from one side of the field to the other, even with the newer tractors with AC and a radio. I have a new appreciation for the farmers that don't seem to be in a hurry--they aren't.

End of the season--a post-mortem

Something Bill and I are really good at is discussing something into the ground. We can talk about a topic for hours, analyzing minute details over and over and over again. While it can strangle a relationship, this kind of musing for a business is pretty good. We try not to make the same mistakes over and over and are always trying to work smarter, not harder and finding a better way.

So, the season of 2007 is over. Done. Although, with the rain this week, we both thought about one more time......nah, I am done (for a while) with getting up at 5am on Saturdays. How did this season work out? Was it better than other years? What worked and what didn't?

Just to be clear, we only recently started keeping records of stuff that didn't matter to our tax lady. She doesn't care how many tomatoes we sell, just that we record everything correctly. She keeps us on track and out of jail!

In 2007 we:

• planted more acres than in previous years--we bumped up to the 25 acre mark
• brought back our CSA and started with 18 members
• opened markets in Peoria and Pekin as experiments
• were present at the market in Decatur all season (we only went about 7 weeks in '06)
• grew more varieties than before (I think about 30 or so--can't find my seed orders)
• planted 1,000 tomato plants-by hand
• germinated all transplants (in other words, everything except the corn) from seed at our house in Bloomington. Once large enough, plants went into the greenhouses at the farm
• welcomed my other brother, Jim and outstanding helper, Brenda as day laborers. They joined Shawn, Karen, and Kyle P. These five people (and some others that worked a few days here & there) are the reason all the produce got picked and ready for market.
• Had mostly women running the show! I got to be in charge for about 3 whole days while Bill was in Canada fishing and Larry was in WI fishing. Karen & Brenda picked sweet corn early in the morning and then came back to help with melons and all the other stuff. They rock.
• lost most of our early crop of watermelon and almost all but a handful of squash and pumpkins to the rains in July. We got about 8" in a weeks time and all this water sat in the low spot where these crops were planted
  

Next year, I am going to try to keep track of how much of something we haul around. During the peak season from mid-July to September, we picked an average of 500 tomatoes on a Friday night. Since at that time we had 4 truck going to different markets (Bloomington, Springfield, Decatur & Pekin), it got divided up according to market size. By the way, Bloomington far & away is our best market, dollar wise. All the markets are great, which is why we keep going to them and they all keep improving. We know other farmers who keep track of the poundage that they bring to market. This is something that I am going to attempt to try next year. I probably won't get everything, but it will be close.

So, all in all, it was a pretty good year. In farming, there is always something to worry about and once you think you got a problem licked, another one pops up to take its place. We'll have a short period of down time, then the seed catalogs start coming and we'll start ordering! I already have my garlic for next year and will be getting that in the ground after the weather cools off. Apparently Bill and I still have a lesson or two to learn from our garlic guru, BD.

If you've stayed with me this far, whatcha doing this Saturday? If you need pumpkins or other fall decor, run, don't walk to ISU's Horticulture Center's Autumnal Festival, Saturday, October 6 from 9 am to 4 pm. Our very dear friend, Jessica Chambers, is the woman behind this fabulous area and event. The Hort Center will have pumpkins and gourds, scarecrows and a corn maze. This is a great family outing with activities for the kids and lots of room to run and get up close to all kinds of plants. What Jessica, her students and other instructors have done the last few years to this little corner of ISU is just amazing. If you can't spend the day, drive by sometime. The Hort Center is located just off of Raab Road, past Lincoln College. Proceeds from the sale of the the pumpkins, gourds, and other fall items benefit the Hort Center. I'll be there and I hope to see all of you!