Believe it or not, we were in the fields this week. Our area is very dry and recent warmer temperatures allowed us to sneak in the fields to level the tile lines that were installed last fall. Later in the week applied anhydrous ammonia on the field that was recently tiled. Now all our corn fields are ready to be field cultivated and planted when the calendar and weather are right. We also cleaned out our only bin of beans and hauled them to the Illinois River at Beardstown. We have a few bins left to empty out, but not a lot...
Applying Anhydrous Ammonia (Nh3) on our Lathom field
Loading a truck with soybeans from the bins at Reiser's
Bob disking bottom ground that was too wet to work last fall
This past week we attended the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky. It is a great way for us to generate new ideas or just improve upon practices we are already implementing. The five hour drive down and back is not too bad either as we call that our farm's "winter conference." With all the hustle and bustle of farming it's rare to get 10 hours together to make decisions and bounce ideas off each other. Below are some pictures I took of new or interesting products unveiled at the farm show. 
The most intriguing item we saw; Gerginhoff's innovative corn head design that DOES NOT require you to follow the rows. It was quite a hit with visitors at the show. Unfortunately, it will not be commercially available until 2015. This is truly pushing the limits of conventional thinking of following the rows...
We don't have a skidsteer, but I thought this was pretty neat. I sent this picture to my friend Adam Ploog who has cattle in Iowa and uses their skidsteer all the time. His comment was that while it looked cool, it would be hard to get manure all over it...
A Husqvarna chainsaw with a six foot bar and chain. Not sure who could operate this by them self, but it was certainly a novelty.
Last week I attended Farm Journal's Top Producer Seminar in Chicago. The many speakers all had impressive and thought provoking presentations. Most touched on the state of our economy, what the future food demands of China will look like, and how the next farm bill might be crafted. Of course they also touched on current land prices and where they envision the trend will go. Many thought land prices were near the top, while only one proclaimed that land had another two thousand dollars an acre improvement.I've also posted a couple pictures of my friend, Ant Bowker who farms in Southern Africa. He reports that his crop looks fantastic and could be one of the best ever. I think it is really interesting to see how other farmers in the world are producing their crops. It remains quiet around the farm with a little grain being hauled to the river from our bins. February continues to be one of the months where a lot of our input suppliers host meetings. We plan to head to Louisville, Kentucky this week for the National Farm Machinery Show. Have a great week everyone!
Joseph Prusacki, Director of the USDA NASS defending the results of the recent crop report at the Top Producer Seminar in Chicago
Applying Anhydrous Ammonia (Nh3) on our Lathom field
Loading a truck with soybeans from the bins at Reiser's
Bob disking bottom ground that was too wet to work last fall
The most intriguing item we saw; Gerginhoff's innovative corn head design that DOES NOT require you to follow the rows. It was quite a hit with visitors at the show. Unfortunately, it will not be commercially available until 2015. This is truly pushing the limits of conventional thinking of following the rows...
We don't have a skidsteer, but I thought this was pretty neat. I sent this picture to my friend Adam Ploog who has cattle in Iowa and uses their skidsteer all the time. His comment was that while it looked cool, it would be hard to get manure all over it...
A Husqvarna chainsaw with a six foot bar and chain. Not sure who could operate this by them self, but it was certainly a novelty.
Joseph Prusacki, Director of the USDA NASS defending the results of the recent crop report at the Top Producer Seminar in Chicago 
Ant Bowker planting on his farm in South Africa
A little bonus, this is a picture of my Great Great Grandpa in his car - cira 1914