Week ending March 5th...

Hauling corn from the bin at the University of Illinois Farm

Loading the truck with soybeans from the Aggertt bins

Owen investigating the Ashland Volunteer Fire Department's truck

This past week we continued to haul grain from our bins to the river and rail terminals. The warmer weather was a welcomed change, but as the frost has left the ground it presents a new set of challenges trying to move 80,000 lbs of grain and trucks down soft gravel driveways. However, we did manage to work around the soft driveways and get a lot of grain hauled. Just as the sunshine was starting to dry out our soils, we received another 3/4's of an inch of rain on Friday evening. Our soils are now completely saturated and it sure doesn't feel like we will be having an early spring - but time will tell.

Today we attended the Ashland Volunteer Fire Department's annual pancake and sausage fundraiser. Owen had a blast running through their training course and climbing all over the fire engines outside.

This week we will wrap up hauling the remaining contracted soybeans, begin taking seed corn delivery and finalize crop insurance decisions for the 2011 crop.

Week ending February 26th...

This week I had the opportunity to present to Owen's preschool class about farming and agriculture. It was quite interesting to present to a group of two and three year olds. We visited about corn and soybeans and how those grow throughout the year. We also discussed what foods the kids eat that contain bi-products of corn and soybeans. I also took in some of Owen's tractors, combines, and semi's which Owen gladly demonstrated; the combine dumping on the go, the grain cart into the semi, and he also planted a few acres of corn on the rug. At the end of our presentation we gave each child a grab bag that contained balloons, cow pencil erasers, and coloring books courtesy of the Illinois Beef Association. It was a great experience and I highly encourage those in agriculture to take advantage of every opportunity to speak to groups outside our industry; including preschoolers...

Week ending February 12th...

Since we launched our website and blog we have had many people contact us about our business. The most recent and interesting was Ant Bowker from South Africa. Ant is a 36 year old, 4th generation, 4,000 acre corn and soybean farmer in Standerton, South Africa. South Africa is Africa's largest corn producing area and has a climate similar to ours, but they have dry winters instead of what we've had the last couple of months. Ant contacted us to see if we could visit from time to time and share ideas on corn production. In a sense, we have become modern-day "pen-pals." He has given me permission to show some of his farm's pictures and I intend to do that from time to time depending on what we have to share. I thought you all might like to see pictures of green crops this time of year since until today we have lived in an over-cast grey skyed world. The growing season in South Africa is exactly opposite as we have - i.e., when we are planting in early April they will be beginning harvest. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Week ending February 5th...

David clearing the snow on dad's driveway.

Owen enjoying the fresh snow.

The majority of our week was spent inside staying out of the blizzard and extremely cold weather. We received approximately 11-14" of snow along with 40 mph winds which made for complete "white-out" conditions. It was the first time in a long time where the snow drifts actually rivaled those in the late 70's and early 80's at least in our general area.

We continue to perform general maintenance in the shop and haul corn to the river as the weather allows, but this week little was accomplished due to the weather. Despite the cold and snowy conditions, Owen was able to get outside and climb all over the snow drifts and take in a little sledding. I have learned that as long as he is having fun, he will never admit that he's cold...

Week ending January 22nd...

This past week our friends from Precision Drainage tried to begin our tiling project on the Daubard 80. As the pictures show, the ground has a lot (~12" in the lower areas) of frost in it. Even though the tile plow is equipped with tracks, the frozen ground caused it to slip. They even tried pulling it with the help of the excavator and that did not work either. We will wait until the ground thaws out a bit before we try it again. Also this week Matt Aper from Cross Brothers Implement in Mount Pulaski came over and performed our annual combine inspection on the John Deere combine. Fortunately, he only noticed a couple items and both will be an easy fix. We like having the combine inspected by a certified JD service technican in the winter because it gives us ample time to allow for repairs and thus, the combine is field ready come harvest.

New fall video...

I hope you enjoy our recently posted video. The video includes footage of our strip-till bar where we are applying anhydrous ammonia, phosphate and potassium all in one pass and in one compact band. Although this field has already been tilled by the chisel plow; with the RTK guidance system we will plant directly above the band of fertilizer we are creating here even though you can not see it. In our 2011 corn following the 2010 soybeans, we will only "till" an 8" strip with this applicator and then plant directly on top it this spring. I also included a few shots of the John Deere 9630 leveling ground behind the applicator. If the weather and soil conditions allow, we like to level the chiseled ground in the fall. If the winter weather cooperates and "mellows" the soil, we will perform zero spring tillage and plant right into this. We call this a "stale seedbed."

My apologies about the camera work - I'm still perfecting it.

Precision Drainage arrives at the Daubard 80

Owen "listening" to one of his birthday gifts to see if he can figure out what it is

Not much new to report since my last post. We continue to haul corn from the bins to various destinations and fall machinery clean up is still occurring at the shop. Over the holidays, Precision Drainage arrived to begin one of our tiling projects on the Daubard 80. Although the tile and machinery are here, they are waiting for the ground to thaw before they start. The reason they are waiting is not because the tile plow can not pull through the frozen ground, but rather they are worried about back-filling the newly installed tile with frozen chunks of soil which may puncture a hole in the tile. We also celebrated the Christmas and New Year's holidays with a lot of football and family. Apparently the Johnson boys were good again this year as Santa found our house and dropped off a few presents and drank the milk and ate the cookies Owen and Max left for him. We also celebrated Owen's third birthday which compounded the holiday fun.

Wishing you a safe and profitable 2011 - Johnson Family Farms