Week ending Sunday, January 18th...

Winter continues to drag on, but the occasional spike in temperatures allows us to get outside and get a few jobs completed. We continue to haul corn from our bin sites to local terminal delivery points. Also the continued cleaning up of fall harvest and tillage equipment rolls on. Most all of our 2015 cropping plans and inputs have been laid out and put in place. Lately, we have spent a fair amount of time attending Farm Service Agency and Farm Bureau meetings regarding the latest Farm Bill. Digging back through records and updating yields along with deciding which Farm program to choose over the course of the next five years continues to be a heavy decision. Discussions with land owners and farm managers regarding these decisions have also encompassed a lot of time. Otherwise, we spend time at night attending kids basketball and indoor soccer games. 

I hope you enjoy the pictures below of a friend of mine, Ant Bowker who farms in South Africa. We met via this blog and have become modern day "pen pals" if you will. They farm the opposite months we do and I am fortunate that he sends me pictures of his family's farming operation and allows me to post them. You will notice it is very modern and similar to that of grain farms in the United States. 

We are hopeful the warmer weather stays and we miss any future rain showers as we would like to begin applying anhydrous ammonia so the work load isn't so large come this spring's planting season. Typically we get this fertilizer applied in the fall, but the cold and wet weather last fall didn't permit us to get many acres covered.

Removing a large beaver dam on a farm we operate near Jacksonville.

This particular beaver dam was holding back seven feet of water and spanned over 25 feet.  It was backing water up and into our field.

Removing the 2nd smaller beaver dam we discovered down stream.

Replacing the muffler on the forklift. 

The matriarch of our family, Lucile Walbaum Johnson at her 90th birthday party.

Our friend Ant Bowker, who farms in South Africa planting corn on his farm in November.

Ant Bowker side-dressing his corn in South Africa during the month of December.