These Boots Are Made For Farming

One of the questions that I get a lot when I tell people I'm farming is: "What kind of boots do you wear?"  I have to admit I'm not really sure why I get this question so much.  If you are one of the people asking I have taken the below picture for you.  The boots I wear are waterproof and have they have steal toes.  I'm pretty sure that if I would have got the regular toe boots I would only have 8 toes at this point. 

I just retired the boots on the left.  I have worn them the last 10 months and I had to buy some new ones.  When your boots start leaking and it's 10 degrees outside, you get motivated to buy some new ones pretty fast.

I never really considered myself to be the cowboy boot type but after spending the last year working on the farm I'm starting to really like my cowboy boots.  I guess if the shoe cowboy boot fits, wear it.

-Cowboy Ryan

AgConnect

AgConnect is an international farm convention that happens every other year.  Luckily for me this year it was in Kansas City.  Here are some of the highlights from the show:

This is a view from the best vantage point I could find. (The top of a combine)

 

This is probably the coolest thing that I found at the convention.  It is a combine that has a grain cart attached to the back.  You can fill an entire semi truck with one load from this combine's grain bin.  That is about three times as much storage as the combines we currently use. 

 

A trend I noticed while I was at this convention was all the major tractor/combine companies were starting to create "Farm Management IT Systems."  John Deere's version of Farm IT is called Farm Sight.  Follow the link to check out their vision of what a farmer's life is going to be like in the future. 

One technology that is being integrated into Farm Sight is called Field Connect.  It is a base station that monitors information on soil conditions and reports via email or text.  I also saw a system that allows you to configure a tractor's GPS system remotely from another tractor's monitor.  It is essentially remote desktop for tractors.  Awesome.

Below is John Deere's latest combine model:

OK. Not really.  I am starting to notice that farmers' (me included) get pretty attached to their farm equipment.  It probably doesn't help when you start to name them...

 -Conventional Farmer Ryan