Saturday, March 22, 2014

Saturday, March 22nd...

The winter continues to drag on.  With a few intermittent days of 60+ degrees we are beginning to work on spring jobs.  Planting equipment is being readied and spring projects such as tree trimming and the occasional dirt moving are now taking center stage.  Most all of our seed corn has been delivered and our shed and shop are starting to get full.  We remain very dry and for the moment we don't have any snow or snow piles remaining.  A few neighbors have talked about trying to apply some anhydrous ammonia next week and the local tilers are running hard installing spring tile projects since the frost is now out of the ground.  At the moment it appears the soil will be dry enough to plant as soon as we are bold enough to start, but the soil temperatures at 2" still remains in the lower 30's with the 10 day forecast calling for unseasonably cool/cold temperatures.  Will the markets react and continue to incentivize corn acres or will farmers get cold feet and switch to soybeans on the acres they can switch?  Only time will tell.  

Pictures from the past as well as a few pictures from our recent activity are posted below.

Spring 1980 - The Fleet

New 4840 brought home during the ice storm of 1978 - March 29th

Window sticker for our new 4630 tractor

Addition of a new tile riser and dry dam on the Arnold farm near Jacksonville

Using the brush mower to trim the trees and saplings back on the Arnold farm

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Saturday, March 1st...

March 1st and still no signs of spring.  Our weather remains cold...unseasonably cold for this time of year.  Unless the weather changes drastically, it will be at least mid April before planters begin to roll in our area.  The forecast even includes a 5-10" snow for us this evening. So in anticipation of spring arriving I thought I would include a picture of spring field work from the early 90's.  

Also posted below is the original invoice for our John Deere 7700 combine from years ago. It's amazing what the price of a "modern day" combine was back then.  Today's cost of our combine is $350-400,000.  However, today's combine will harvest 6 to 10 times more acres per day.  Thank you to my father for finding this old invoice.

Bring on the warmer weather and spring!

Trading in the 1981 Versatile 835 for a 1987 Versatile 856.  These were great and very affordable forms of horsepower.  Our local dealer sold thousands of these 4 wheel drive tractors.

Working ground and incorporating herbicides on the University of Illinois farm - early 90's.

The 7700 traded in for a new 7720
The invoice below is the original for the 7700 - $43,988.05