Awh, spring...

Sorta.  Missouri weather is great; one day it's 70 degrees the next day, it's 30 and blowing snow.  Lately, however, it's been a run of nice days with temperatures in the 60's and sunny. 

Jerry and Michael will be attending the annual Ag Connect Expo in Kansas City, Mo. this coming week and will take part in several clinics about setting up equipment, marketing, chemical usage, and farm management.  Michael will be part of a small group of farmers from across the U.S. giving advice on the Expo and will speaking about their farming operation to others.  Michael will also be part of a networking seminar where young farmers unite to exchange tips and hints and make new friends.  More information on the Ag Connect Expo can be found at:  http://www.agconnect.com/

We recently showed some new purchases and we have since made another.  Here is our new grain cart.  It's a Parker brand and holds just over 600 bushels of grain.  It's been used one season and the owner wanted something bigger so we purchased it.  This will replace the current cart that is about 15 years old and only 450 bushel. 

We have also been playing some more with the 724 mulch finisher and have a short video on our You Tube channel if you would like to see it, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8pp-sfZDt4

The home office window was getting older and was not sealing well so it was time for a new one!  Here is a picture of the new window being installed.

We currently have a custom NH3 (anhydrous ammonia) application company (a local grain elevator) applying NH3 on fields that will have corn planted. The applicator they use will "knife" the NH3 into the soil.  In other words, the NH3 is applied through a shank going through the soil.  This method will not only allow for the NH3 to be applied but also give a pass of tillage to the field.  We will come back and make another tillage pass to smooth it out before planting.  Though we don't have a current picture of this operation, here is a picture from last year.

Our former CRP fields have tree stumps under the surface of the soil along with roots and other foreign matter that would pose a danger to a shank going through the soil so our liquid applicator that uses smooth discs to apply the NH3 will be used.  After this pass, corn will be planted without another pass.

We currently have most of the CRP clearing complete and was recently featured on Google Earth (lol).  Here you see two CRP fields after a tractor and mower was used and some trees cut.  Only 50% of each field can be mowed and cleared at a time (in this case, the contracts expired after clearing 50% so 100% of the fields were later cleared) which is way the fields look a little crazy.