The Farming Thread

[ishtat]

Oz Season

It's too brutally hot and dry in Oz to grow much in summer except in the very far south or highland country. Wheat for example is planted in autumn - March/May and harvested Spring/early summer. Wheat crop was average this year which is bad news for Americans and Europeans. Because our population is small most is exported. That screws world prices out of all proportion to our total production.

American wheat farmers should pray that the Australian El Nino continues through the southern hemisphere planting season in 2016. If it does our production could be down by as much as 55/70%.

 

[kbate]

The 2016 forecast indicates that even my tiny profit on corn may become impossible. I can earn more by leasing the land to a high-volume producer for $90/acre.

or

I can simply spend to fertilize, leave the land fallow and wait for 2017 to grow corn again, maybe gaining 20 or 30 bushels per acre for that year.

 

[trysail]

I rode through the fields this week. Crop rotation is evident.

Corn (maize) is poking up in the fields that were in beans last year.

The odor of manure hangs in the air.



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[Armyvet23]

I think 95% of people here in Montana have some connection to a farm. I raise wheat, barley and some safflower.

 

[BotanyBoy]

Lot's of excited farmers here in NorCal this year.

The supply/feed store yesterday getting crumble and they had the loader/bobcat just busy busy busy loading trucks left and right.

2016 is feeling good!!!

I think 95% of people here in Montana have some connection to a farm. I raise wheat, barley and some safflower.

Montana is arguably one of the more beautiful parts of the country, lucky you.

 

[trysail]

Soybeans get harvested, as Riles said, when they are ready. Here in Iowa, I'm usually combining my soybeans end of September, beginning of October. The moisture content must be below 14% or the local elevator will put a charge on your load for drying cost.

The question about corn from much earlier is a similar answer. Around here, corn above 14.9% moisture gets a drying cost added on. However, my local elevator will let me unload into the "dry corn" pit at anything under 16.5%. They know at that moisture, it will blend and come out to the moisture content they need to safely store the grain. For me, corn harvest starts as soon as possible after soybeans. I am normally combining corn late October thru mid November.



It is nice to see people asking questions about farming, rather than just bitching about farmers. I thank you all for that.

R.I.P. dirtwrench

See: http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1297408

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[trysail]

I grew my own soybeans this summer by planting seeds I swiped out of a field. I really didn't expect they'd germinate after sitting in a plastic cup in my kitchen all winter. On a lark, I put them in a flower pot and damned if they didn't sprout.

For reasons I don't understand, there weren't any seed pods until the middle of October. I'd more or less given up on them. Then, they appeared almost overnight and I hastened to pluck them off the plants before the season's first freeze. They now sit in my kitchen back in the same plastic cup that held their parents last winter. They'll spend the winter there ready for spring planting.



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[trysail]

I guess it's okay to plant my soybeans now.



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[rocket_surgery]

We have a garden but not really farmers. Have some relatives from a few generations back that were sharecroppers tho. Doesn't look like the life for me.

 

[nfrrdscnnr1]

worry

One of the situation that may end up being quite unfortunate is that few non-farmers understand what is involved in the production of produce, meat and other items folks consume.

 

[BotanyBoy]

One of the situation that may end up being quite unfortunate is that few non-farmers understand what is involved in the production of produce, meat and other items folks consume.

As long as food keeps coming through their divers window they don't care.


Besides, you're a farmer so they are better than you, and they know it.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1308215251/white-goodman.jpg

 

[trysail]

That was fast.

Damned if a soybean sprout didn't just pop out of the ground !


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[trysail]

Goddamnit all to hell.

​

My fucking beans died— victims of heavy rain.




I'm going have to scour the fields this fall for seeds to plant next spring.



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[trysail]

The farmers didn't plant as many fields with soybeans this year. I don't know whether that was a result of soybean economics or simply crop rotation. There are tons of fields planted in corn (maize) and it will be a bumper crop. Good rainfall in the spring, followed by a lack of crop-destroying heavy rain in the early summer have produced "fence row to fence row" fields.

As a result of the lack of soybean planting, I was worried about my ability to find a field (adjacent to the bicycle path) to swipe a bunch of beans to plant next spring. I knew of one field and I was on the lookout for it Monday. To my surprise, I discovered that it had already been harvested (or ploughed under— I couldn't tell because there were a surprisingly large number of intact plants scattered in the dirt).

Fortunately, there were lots of plants left buried in the field and I was able to secure a huge stash of beans to plant next spring.

I'm going to conduct an experiment. I'm going to remove the seeds from half the bean pods. I'll leave the seeds in their pods for the remaining half. I'll see what difference, if any, that makes when I go to plant them next year.


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[JohnnySavage]

The farmers didn't plant as many fields with soybeans this year. I don't know whether that was a result of soybean economics or simply crop rotation. There are tons of fields planted in corn (maize) and it will be a bumper crop. Good rainfall in the spring, followed by a lack of crop-destroying heavy rain in the early summer have produced "fence row to fence row" fields.

As a result of the lack of soybean planting, I was worried about my ability to find a field (adjacent to the bicycle path) to swipe a bunch of beans to plant next spring. I knew of one field and I was on the lookout for it Monday. To my surprise, I discovered that it had already been harvested (or ploughed under— I couldn't tell because there were a surprisingly large number of intact plants scattered in the dirt).

Fortunately, there were lots of plants left buried in the field and I was able to secure a huge stash of beans to plant next spring.

I'm going to conduct an experiment. I'm going to remove the seeds from half the bean pods. I'll leave the seeds in their pods for the remaining half. I'll see what difference, if any, that makes when I go to plant them next year.


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Reported to Monsanto

 

[cfuhrer]

Reported to Monsanto

It's amazing to me how many people give no thought to the fact that taking produce from a farmers field is theft, plain and simple.

Would you just help yourself to the iphone at Best Buy, or the Hagen Daaz at the grocers? Would you load the ranchers cows up and haul them off? Milk the dairyman's cows?

Then keep your filthy mitts off the farmers crops!

/rant

 

[trysail]

It's amazing to me how many people give no thought to the fact that taking produce from a farmers field is theft, plain and simple.

Would you just help yourself to the iphone at Best Buy, or the Hagen Daaz at the grocers? Would you load the ranchers cows up and haul them off? Milk the dairyman's cows?

Then keep your filthy mitts off the farmers crops!

/rant

Thirty soybean pods stripped off two discarded plants lying in the dirt of a five-acre field does not constitute "theft."

It's the rural agrarian equivalent of dumpster diving.



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[cfuhrer]

Thirty soybean pods stripped off two discarded plants lying in the dirt of a five-acre field does not constitute "theft."

It's the rural agrarian equivalent of dumpster diving.



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I wasn't speaking to you specifically.

But while we're here, what about the corn you hung on your front door? Or all the ears you strip open to "check"? Or trespassing on the land to collect the beans?

This is a major peeve (peeve really isn't strong enough of a word) of mine. That one or two ears of corn or a watermelon here and there do add up. Not to mention major losses like stupid people "off roading" through a newly planted hay field or fireworks burning down a wheat stand. And if anyone deserves to not have their profit stream fucked with its farmers.

For all the talk of how farmers are in the minority and deserve recognition for what they do there are an awful lot of people who think their little bit of pilfery won't hurt.

ETA:
On the subject of things left in the fields: those soybeans may have another purpose. Maybe the farmer had a deal with an FFA-er or a 4H-er to come glean the fields to feed their project animals over the winter. At the very least it would have been tilled under as green fertilizer that now will have to be accounted for by amending the field (possibly with a chemical amendment) before planting in the spring.

I'm all for gleaning. I love to find opportunities to glean! But do it with permission of the farmer that owns the land/crop. Do it with respect for his hard work and investment.

 

[trysail]

I wasn't speaking to you specifically.

But while we're here, what about the corn you hung on your front door? Or all the ears you strip open to "check"? Or trespassing on the land to collect the beans?

This is a major peeve (peeve really isn't strong enough of a word) of mine. That one or two ears of corn or a watermelon here and there do add up. Not to mention major losses like stupid people "off roading" through a newly planted hay field or fireworks burning down a wheat stand. And if anyone deserves to not have their profit stream fucked with its farmers.

For all the talk of how farmers are in the minority and deserve recognition for what they do there are an awful lot of people who think their little bit of pilfery won't hurt.

Your point is taken.


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[cfuhrer]

Your point is taken.


​

I appreciate your consideration.

The neighbors corn is still standing tall and green.
And the walnuts on out trees are still holding on tight.

 

[BotanyBoy]

That's why you hide your crops....deep in a magical forest.

 

[chillywilly2]

Never met a farmer that didn't have something to whine about...too hot, too cold, wet, dry
subsidy didn't come in, prices are low because of so much yield...help me help me
Cripes, you're a farmer, deal with it

 

[cfuhrer]

That's why you hide your crops....deep in a magical forest.

Hehe. Truth.

Around here they build plywood fences. It may keep folks from seeing it but everybody knows what's there.

 

[BotanyBoy]

Hehe. Truth.

Around here they build plywood fences. It may keep folks from seeing it but everybody knows what's there.

Sounds like a regulation designed to highlight places for criminals to rob.

 

[kbate]

Your point is taken. ​

You can have all the after harvest beans in my fields that you can carry. Once the combine has left the field, anything remaining is bird food, have at it.

Any apples still hanging on the trees after the main picking, are yours for the taking; any apples on the ground, you can have.

High school kids take a few dozen apples from me every year - good for them, far better than stealing jewelry to buy dope or beer. I enjoy watching their antics: stop the car, sprint to the tree, check if it is clear, grab 4 apples, sprint to the car, zoom away. . . I should film it just for the laughs.

You cannot alter the economics of farming by grabbing some of the wastage, or by taking one or two ears of corn or a few bean pods prior to harvest. If my bottom line ever hinges on a single bean pod, I will start growing houses on the land instead of crops.