Do you see Dirt or Potential?

It’s planting season again in Minnesota.  It’s so amazing to see the tractors rolling day and night putting in the crop!  I am often amazed at the hard work of all farmers, but even more so by their ability to be optimists.  When they look at a barren field; black and empty, they see a canvas waiting to be worked, cared for, tended, seeded, nurtured and harvested.  They look at that field and see potential, not dirt, but life giving soil, which they are responsible for.

Soil, not dirt, is a delicate ecosystem of macronutrients, micronutrients, soil bacteria, soil insects and organic matter (decomposing plant material).  Dirt doesn’t give life, but soil is filled with potential to give and support life!  Farmers carefully till the soil, working it to the right conditions for seeds.  Some farmers do no-till, some do deep tilling, some do shallow, each type specific for the type of soil they have.

As you drive by a field you may see sprayers and other agronomy equipment cruising through.  I’ll bet most of you will jump to the conclusion that these farmers are applying dangerous chemicals to their fields to control weeds and pests.  I’ll bet you would be surprised that these farmers are actually applying fertilizers, micronutrients, seed treatments, and yes some herbicides and pesticides.  Farmers work with agronomists to make the best choices for their soils.  I’ll be you didn’t know what farmers often take soil samples each fall to determine specifically which fertilizers will be needed.  In fact, with GPS technology we can even apply specific fertilizers in certain places in a field so we don’t waste resources and produce a more consistent crop. 

Some farmers will apply herbicide (weed killer) at the beginning of the season to give the crop a head start without competition for resources (sun, rain and soil nutrients) from weeds.  Once the crop canopies over (the point where the foliage covers the soil below the plant) sunshine is prevented from reaching weeds below. That means for some fields, one application is all they will ever get of herbicide, and they will grow chemical free for the remainder of the season.  You see, farmers are very wise with their choices.   Herbicides and pesticides are expensive, farmers work on very tight budgets and can’t afford to overdo it.  They have to use a smart combination of tillage practices, crop rotations and seed selection to help them control pests, weeds, use their resources wisely and take care of their soil. 

Most farmers are the product of multiple generations of farmers and they have hopes of passing their farm onto the next generation, their sons and daughters.  It’s in their best interest to care for their soil the best they can because it has the “potential” to support the next generation of America’s farmers.  Farmers don’t see dirt, they see Potential!

Planting Peas in MN

Manure Management Meetings on Friday

It's been a busy weekend, but I wanted to take some time to recap some of the things that we worked on Friday.  We had a BUNCH of meetings on Monday at the farm with the various professional that we work with to help us make good choices for our land and resources.  This year we are planning to grow our 1st crop of corn!  Previously Jonathan and I purchased all of the feed that we feed our cows from my father in law.  Growing our own crops (at least part of our feed needs) will allow us to save money as we can work to grow feed at a lower cost than we can purchase it...not that my father in law ripped us off, but now we can use our own labor instead of paying him and our own manure instead of giving it away to neighbors. 

We work with our local cooperative's agronomy department, which helps us mange our soils and crops. We pulled soil samples a few weeks ago to determine the quality of the soil in our field.  The good news is that with the management of manure in the previous years resulted in some very fertile soils that will only require a small amount of commercial fertilizer to get the corn started.  The remaining nutrients are already in the soil thanks to cow manure from last fall!  Another excellent bonus is that this lower level of commercial fertilizer will not only reduce the total cost of growing corn but increase the biological activity of the soil microbes (bacteria) which break down cow manure and crop residue (leaves and stalks left over from last year).  We were excited to hear this news and even more excited to get into the fields to get that corn planted!

We also work with a private practice agronomist/manure management specialist.  His name is Al, and he helps us keep track of so many things on our farm regarding manure.  Al has been sampling our manure for the past few years, making sure that we don't over or under apply manure to our soils.  This insures that we will always apply our cow manure at the appropriate rate.  We have even calibrated all of our manure spreaders so we know how many pounds/tons of manure we apply per acre.  One project that we have our friend Al working on right now, is recalculating our manure management plan.  Our manure management plan is a document of many pages which accounts for the amount of manure that our cows produce each year and how many acres that are required in order to apply that manure.  A series of manure samples, soil samples, and calculations are included and used to determine those acres.  As our herd has grown this past winter, we have to re-calcualte the manure management plan, making sure yet again that we do not over apply manure. 

Maintaining our soils is our number one goal.  Manure is not a pollutant when used properly, but instead a GREAT fertilizer which grows some of the best corn in the area!  I even use manure to grow my flowers, fruits and vegetables....and I have an amazing crop each year!

Manure for Fertilizer

Removing the Manure from the compost barn-Fall 2009 Check out my latest post to YouTube.  While its old it is relevant as we are prepping to plant our first field of corn this year.  Learn more about how dairy farmers care about the environment at Dairy Farming Today!

And the rain continues....

God has blessed us with a handful of dry days this past weekend and early week, however the radar is showing a line of rain/thunderstorms looming to the west and closing in. It's be a difficult growing season this year. We started the spring with cool wet conditions. This summer was also cool, but dry and this fall is also cool and WET! We are definitely making up for the dry summer with all of the rain we are receiving right now. This wet weather is preventing us from getting into the field and bringing in the harvest. Our corn and soybeans are all too wet to combine. We would like our corn to be at least below 20% moisture, but right now it is 31-37% moisture. Without sun and warm temperatures, the drying process is becoming more difficult.

In addition to slowing harvest, we are also postponing some critical fall activities. After combining our soybeans and corn, we return to the fields to harvest the foliage from those plants. We bale the dry soybean plants into round bales for bedding for our heifers. We bale the remaining soybean plants in small square bales to be chopped in the calf barn-making for happy, comfy, dry calves =) We chop the dry corn plants and make them into large stacks. We will take scoops of this bedding to bed in our dry cows and feed some of our heifers and dry cows. Cows love to chew on dry corn stalks! Actually cows like to chew on a lot of things.

After we harvest the bedding we spread manure, lots of manure. Manure from cows, dry cows, heifers and calves. We need to make sure we have clean animals for the winter. Also fall is the best time of the year for manure application. We reduce compaction by hauling in the fall compared to the spring. We are also able to incorporate the manure into the soil through fall tillage (plowing, digging) thereby saving the valuable nutrients in the manure to be used by the 2010 crop! Hauling manure is critical to keeping the cows clean and dry but also critical for our crops. Manure saves us money. If we capture all of the nutrients and organic matter available in manure we are able to save the cost of commercial fertilizer that we would have used. Another added benefit is that manure is great for making good soil! Because manure is natural-worms and soil microbes LOVE manure!

When we finish manure hauling...then we have to do fall tillage. Tillage means plowing some fields (using an implement that flips the soil over so the soil surface is underground). We also dig some other fields with an implement called a DMI. The DMI leaves the soil surface on the top, but digs deep into the soil breaking up compaction, making the soil soft for the spring.

So, Dear God...please make the rain stop, at least until the harvest in is, and we have so much to do before snow season!