Unknown Substance

Farmer's Log - FarmDate - 13-9-2013

We have encountered a weather event unknown to this area. There is a mysterious substance that has fallen from the sky for the last 2.5 days.  The local population has had issues with transportation as well as communication.  Despite this, they have reached a state of euphoria.  Further investigation will need to take place in order to identify the exact nature of the substance and what caused this weather event.

-Farmer Ryan

OH HAIL NO!

Well the weather threw us another corn curveball; we got hit with hail on some of our irrigated corn.  Hail is bad for a lot of reasons but the main one is that it destroys the leafs ability to harvest energy from the sun.

It might be hard to appreciate just how bad the hailed corn looks, so below is a picture of one of our healthy corn fields.

A couple weeks after the corn was hit by hail I went back to look at the ears of corn.  Below is an example of a corn ear "tipping back".  Tipping back is when the corn plant aborts some of the kernels of corn because it doesn't have the energy to sustain all the kernels on the ear.  Typically a farmer looks for some tipping back because it shows that the population of corn plants in the field is correct.  In the below example, more kernels were aborted than normal because of the hail damage. 

Hail also directly damages the ears of corn.  You can see below where a piece of hail actually hit the ear and destroyed some of the kernels in the ear of corn.  A secondary problem that occurs is that the damaged kernels begin to rot and will rot out the rest of the ears of corn.

Every year the seed corn companies develop corn that has a resistance to a pest or a disease.  I told my father in law that maybe we should look into hail resistant corn next year...

-Hail Hater Ryan

Deep Pockets

Before I commute to work walk outside the house, I fill my pockets with stuff that will help me get through my day of farming.  Below is a list of the items I typically keep in my pockets:

1.  Cell Phone -  I use this for the obvious stuff like phone calls, texts, and emails.  It comes in handy when I want to obsessively check the commodity markets or the weather.  I also have a flashlight app that is useful when I'm working tractors, trucks, or whatever. 

2.  iPod and Headphones - I use these when I spend a lot of time on a tractor.  I also use my ear buds as ear plugs when I am working on loud equipment.

3.  Grid Paper Moleskin and Pen - This is where I take notes if I learn something new.  So as you can guess this book obviously fills up fast.  If I need to fabricate something, I use it to draw out plans before I get started.  The only problem is that the years of IT have made my penmanship look like something like cursive hieroglyphics. 

4.  Pliers - I use these pretty much every day to tighten and loosen nuts, bolts, hoses, etc... I use them as a hammer a little bit too often, which is something I've had to get used to on the farm.  In IT it's never a good idea to hit something in order to fix it.  When you're working on the farm it is pretty much always is a good idea.  Even if hitting it doesn't fix the problem it at least it makes you feel better.

5.  6 - Way Screwdriver -  I'm the only one on the farm that actually carries a screwdriver with me at all times but I use it everyday.  It comes in handy when I test our electric cattle fences, and if I need to hot wire a tractor.

6.  Box Cutter Knife - I would like to say that I carry a nice pocket knife around with me, but how much these tools fall out of my pocket it's just not worth it.

7.  Work Gloves -  I wear these when its really cold or really hot.  My tools sitting in a black tool box on 100 plus degree days (who's dumb enough to paint their toolbox black?) get pretty hot. 

8.  Safety Glasses - I use these when I'm working on things that could blow up in my face, literally.  Most of the time though I just use them for sunglasses.

9.  Farm Hat -  We get these for free from the companies we buy seed, chemicals, and farm equipment.  By free I mean they are the most expensive hats we will ever buy.

-Swiss Army Pants Ryan