Great weather...

Great weather again this week allowed us to complete a few more projects. While we were not able to get in the fields, the sunshine is doing a good job of drying the fields. We hope we can miss the rains forecasted for this weekend and possibly get in the fields and begin anhydrous ammonia applications soon.

Installing the new Precision Planting 20/20 "Down-Force" system on the big planter. This system will automatically adjust the down-pressure on each row unit as we travel through the field. We are more concerned with having too much down-pressure and this system also allows the row unit to be lifted; thus dramatically reducing the compression of the soil surrounding the seed trench.

Bob loading the tandem to haul another load to Beardstown.

Bedolli Excavating also arrived this week and began leveling the spoil from last fall's ditch cleaning project at the Williamsville farm.

Trying to forget...

As we try to forget all the acres of downed corn we harvested this past fall from the tornado, I had to chuckle at these past pictures. Apparently, each decade we "experience" this somewhere on our farm...

Fall 1979 - new shed & new roll-a-cones; ready to tackle downed corn.

PMM Johnson Farm - Fall 1986. This picture is of dad working his way through the downed Pioneer 3377.

Looks familiar doesn't it? Funny how the same technology we used in 1979 we utilized again in 2009. Although the automatic guidance system helped immensely.

Soaking up the sun...

What a busy week - with the sun finally showing itself the spring projects began. The week's projects began in the shop with installing the new starter fertilizer tank on the planter. Later in the week the projects moved outdoors. Our friends from Precision Drainage were able to work on a tile project on the PMM Johnson farm south of Prentice. They installed two lines, each 1,225' long. They had to pull the tiling machine through two spots due to the hard ground and abundance of water. There was still 3-6" of frost in most places. Today we transported two pieces of machinery from McLean, IL down to our shop. We plan to use these this spring and thought today's weather was a good opportunity to get them moved down and ready to go.

Installing the cradle for the new 600 gal. starter fertilizer tank on the planter.

The 30' MacFarlane "Reel-till" we plan to use on standing corn stalks going back to corn.

A 15-row DMI 28% side-dress toolbar. This will allow us to quickly apply 30-60 additional pounds of nitrogen once the corn has emerged.

Pulling the tiling machine through a tough spot at the PMM Johnson Farm.

More past pictures...

Since it is now the first of March and we do not have any anhydrous ammonia applied, I thought it would be fitting to share some of our past Nh3 application pictures. The weather here is still cold, but temperatures are forecasted to be on the rise and the snow is almost gone. We hope the weather changes soon so we can get in the fields and begin preparing the soil for this year's crop.

Uncle Bob putting on anhydrous just to the east of our shop. Cira early 1980's.

More fall anhydrous applications during the mid 80's.

Many years ago we used to till the soybean stubble in preparation for the next year's corn crop. We felt turning the soil dark would warm the soil faster in the spring and thus give the corn seedlings quicker emergence. In this early 1980's picture, Uncle Bob is running the Versatile tractor pulling a "Soilsaver" that had a Nh3 "Cold-Flow" system mounted on it which allowed us to combine both the tillage and anhydrous applications.

Pictures from the past...

Spring 1980 - "The Fleet" which consisted of a John Deere 4630, 4320, & 4840 with triples which worked ground ahead of the planter. Also, if you enlarge the picture and look towards the cab of the tractor on the right you will see a little guy in a red sweatshirt waving at the camera - that would be me. I always seemed to find a way to be at the farm no matter what was going on.

Uncle Bob moldboard plowing on the Gooden Farm.

New machinery....

This is a picture of my Grandfather's (E.Y. Johnson) first brand new combine. It was a Masey 410 purchased from S&J Equipment in Prentice, which is now Beard Implement. Cira 1968. This picture was taken on one of the first days of harvest that year. This was an usually late harvest for us that year, as we did not start until mid November.

This picture is of my dad's first grain truck; a 1964 GMC.

The picture on the right is before he repainted it and the left is the finished product in 1981.

This week Dad & I had an opportunity to travel to Louisville, Kentucky for the National Farm Machinery Show. It took us over two whole days to cover the 25 plus acres of exhibits under the Kentucky Fairgrounds Exposition roof.

Progress...

One of the first Oliver combines sold in our area by Adkins Implement Company, Prentice, Illinois. This machine had a 10' soybean platform; picture taken sometime between 1945 & 1950. This was owned by John Thomas "Tommy" Adkins. Notice the lack of safety shields and the very thin stand of soybeans...

This picture was taken the same day as the picture above. An Oliver 70 tractor with an 8' platform on the combine with a canvas "draper" type conveyor. This was owned by neighbor Fred Hoagland and driven by Harold "Buck" Hoagland in this picture.