Week ending August 13th...

One of the signs that harvest is almost upon us the arrival of the State Fair. This week we took in the opening days and walked all over the fairgrounds. The boys especially enjoy the animals, since at our farm we have more dogs than livestock. One of the great things about our State Fair is Agriculture's presence amongst all the other exhibits. Besides the animals, local businesses and Commodity Associations have joined together to create an "Ag" area just inside the front gate of the fairgrounds. This area has the usual large farm equipment on display, but also contains a seudo "field trip" of the different aspects of agriculture in our state. Kids and parents have the unique opportunity to walk through small barns that contain themes of sheep, cattle, horses, grain bin safety, produce, soybeans, corn, and others. Each of these stops has story boards as to what the product looks like all the way through the value-chain to what consumers enjoy from the the product. It's a very nice way to promote our industry!

Around the farm this week we wrapped up assembly on the new chisel plow and brought the semi's into the shop for inspections, cleaning, and general maintenance. While temperatures have moderated, the rain has still missed the majority of our farms. We still anticipate corn yields to be "average," but soybeans yields are too early to establish, however they will need a rain soon in order to be average.

Owen's height relative to a corn plant's

Milking a cow

Digging for "soybean bucks"