kansasfarmer's blog

September 2008 - Posts

• The Queen is dead...

  Field Queen that is.  Probably very few in the UK are familiar with Field Queen, although I might be wrong about that.  Field Queen made one of the first self propelled silage cutters in America.  I don't know when they quit making them, quite a few were made carrying the Hesston name after they bought Field Queen.  Part of farming here on the border between the cornbelt and the Great Plains with all our tempermental weather is I think without a doubt we run much older equipment on average than you do in the UK.  I bought my Field Queen Standard several years ago from a neighbor, it had cut a jillion tons of silage when I bought it.  I bought it cheap, to replace a pull type Gehl that had merely cut a billion tons of silage and was actually alot newer than the Queen.  I can't say the Queen was a reliable cutter, but we managed to cut most of the silage I wanted.  This year however right out of the chute the Queen was problematic, as in she would only cut six loads of silage then quit.  It has Murphy switches on it, that shut it down if it has low oil pressure or gets too hot, and a really bad feature of Field Queen is they for the most part relied on a throw away Cat engine, either a 3160 or a 3208.  Finally, after several days of attempted diagnosis, much swearing, and 41 loads of silage cut, I blew a head gasket.  After some deliberation and prayer, along with phone calls to the Maize corporation in Maize Kansas(the company that makes parts for Field Queens,we are sort of a cult) it was decided by me that it was time for the Queen to simply die, and perhaps donate a few of her vital parts so that other Field Queens might live a more productive life.  I was very sad, because I was not getting my silo filled, and buying a different cutter was not on my list of 2008 or 2009 priorities.  Then, just when all appeared to be lost, a phone call from Roger at the Maize corporation.  The widow of a fellow Field Queen owner wanted to sell his cutter, and it was only 30 miles from me, what luck.  He had looked at it and told me it appeared respectable.  It was about 10 years newer than mine, and quite advanced compared to the old Standard.  Without hesitation I loaded my friend Bobby into the pickup(Bobby did alot of my chores while I was in the UK, and is the chief silage truck driver and coon killer on my spread).  We raced to the farm, and were pleasantly surprised to find a very usable cutter.  I was uncomfortable negotiating with a recent widow, especially considering her husband had died just a month ago of cancer, but we managed to agree on a price without much difficulty, and Mrs. KF was surprised to find me roaring into the yard tonight, with the announcement I decided to give her her Christmas present early this year......what a lucky woman, a new hoe for her birthday, and a vintage silage cutter as a 3 month early Christmas present, that I have already agreed to run and care for for her.  She is so lucky she found me.  God save the Queen!! Posted Sep 27 2008, 04:03 AM by kansasfarmer with 1 comment(s)

• Genuine WW1 shrapnel, in my field!

  Well, I don't know if you will believe this or not.  A few of the more advanced thinkers in the community today became alarmed when the 75mm naval mortar round grandpa brought back from WW1 in '18 began leaking a strange substance.  They called the ATF to make an inquiry as to the probability of it exploding.  This alarmed the ATF, and in a short time a nice contigent of law enforcement descended on their home.  The owners knew exactly what it was, over the last 90 years it has served as everything from a doorstop to a toy for the tots.   The Sheriff called me at 9:30 pm to ask if they could detonate it in one of my fields, as the explosives team from McConnell AFB felt it was unstable and didn't want to transport it very far, I didn't really want to do it, but it was just way too cool of a deal to pass up.  5 pounds of C4 and the round made a really nice boom, and a cute little crater(the 7 inches of rain left the ground perfect for that).  Now who says I live a boring life???  It might have been more impressive during the day though. Posted Sep 18 2008, 05:01 AM by kansasfarmer with 2 comment(s)

• Maybe we have turned a corner.

  7 inches of rain in a little over 2 days was not what we needed.  Thankfully, after the 1951 flood my grandfather and his neighbors said "enough" and formed a watershed district.  With tax money they built 40 dams on our river system(creeks really) and even in 1998 when we had 14 inches the flooding was held to the lowest fields, unlike '51 when my grandfather walked from his house to my great grandparents(one mile) in water that was waist deep.  I may have suffered a little flood damage in the low spots, the real issue is that the corn is starting to sprout on the ear, and the cool wet weather simply has stopped my soybeans from maturing.  At this point, there are no freezing temps in the forecast, but an article in one of my weekly farm papers advised that we have had frosts as early as September 13th.  Our forecast now is for 10 dry but rather cool days, no more 80s that I could see, and lows in the high 40s.  Tomorrow is the full moon, as odd as this sounds, an elderly neighbor years ago told me that when the full moon comes in dry, you probably won't get over an inch of rain in the next 30 days.  This holds true about 75% of the time based on my observations the last 10 years....but, I have also learned that in years where it is either extremely dry or extremely wet, it doesn't seem to matter how the moon comes in, so I guess we will wait and see. One thing is certain, 7 inches of rain makes alot of mud.  With cool temps, it will be some time before the ground will carry any equipment for any reason, even just spraying pastures.  I hope the drouth started today, if you are going to have a dry snap, this is the time of year to have it, a little hot weather wouldn't hurt either, but it seems very unlikely we will get 90s again now. Posted Sep 14 2008, 04:42 PM by kansasfarmer with 1 comment(s)

• 9-11

  9-11 is a national day of remembering for us.  New York City, Washington DC and Pennsylvania are far far away from my Kansas farm and I knew no one injured or killed in any of the attacks, but they were Americans(and people of other nationalities as  well) killed in a sneak attack that was carried out to kill as many people as possible, the attack left all of us bleeding inside.  2001 was pre internet for me, almost every morning I watched the news, but not that morning.  Had I been watching in the central time zone I would have known about it much earlier than I did, and probably seen live the second plane hit the twin towers.  Almost every morning I listened to the radio while working, but that morning I did manual chores with no machinery, and did not hear anything.  About 11 am, well into the entire ordeal, I climbed into my pickup and headed down the road, every station had a newscast on it, I didn't pay alot of attention, kept hitting buttons looking for music until I heard these words come over my radio......"where the twin towers used to stand".  I will always remember that phrase exactly as it was said.  I turned around in the road and headed for home, rushed inside and turned on the TV.  I stayed glued to the television for at least 3 hours.  I managed to plant some alfalfa later that day, then stayed up late into the night, way past midnight watching television.  We were fearful of further attacks, and fearful the death toll was going to be in the 10000s, it was widely reported at first that 50000 body bags had been ordered.   While we knew no one killed, the grounding of airplanes left plenty of people I did know stranded.  Our nation went into a period that was surreal, watching the frantic search for survivors play out many miles away, a sky that was completely devoid of any airplane for days, save an occasional fighter jet.  Fear of new attacks turned to anger, and even to hatred of those involved.  Most Americans today believe that another attack will come, and will be much worse.  We do not know what we can do individually to stop it, and simply live our lives.  For me anyway, I am surprised another attack has not already taken place on our soil, and no matter what anyone thinks of Bush, I attribute the fact we have not been attacked again to his dogged war on terror. Posted Sep 11 2008, 03:28 PM by kansasfarmer with 1 comment(s)

• Sympathy for you Brits.

  I used the miracle of the internet phone service Skype Saturday afternoon to call Mike in Notts to see how harvest was going.  Sounds like he is having the same luck everyone else is, great wheat standing in a wet field sprouting in the head. The old men can't remember a August/September period like the one we are having ever.  The cool damp weather is not so bad, other than it has brought the end of haying season to a complete and total stop.  It is actually enjoyable save one thing, we all know our soybeans have virtually stopped maturing.  This will mean if we dodge a frost soybean harvest will probably start 2 weeks or more late.  As a rule, Octobers here are bright and sunny with good harvest conditions, November can be a wet mess, of course who could bet on anything this year.  I have my fingers crossed that a month from now I won't be on this site singing the same song you are, that my beans are shattering on the ground from too much rain. We really do put up with alot for a little money, don't we?  I guess I farm for the glamour mainly, the prestige second, and maybe the money is a distant 3rd.  Posted Sep 08 2008, 02:40 PM by kansasfarmer with 2 comment(s)

• Gustav

  On our Labor Day holiday with the memory of Katrina still fresh, our nation looks south today as our countrymen along the gulf deal with hurricane Gustav.  Luckily the futures exchanges are closed today because they would be going wild trading oil.  The big fear if you are not directly in the path of the storm is what it will do to the oil platforms and refineries in the area.  I got a load of diesel Saturday morning to top our farm tanks, I got the last diesel our dealer had, apparently I was not the only person concerned about a price spike. All government from federal to local is working hard to prevent a repeat of Katrina, and to the credit of Gulf residents, about 2 million of them have evacuated.  The Louisiana National Guard was out on the streets last night in force with dire warnings to would be looters.  All we can do now is watch and wait. This far inland, we often see hurricanes as our salvation in a dry year, because once in a while we will get a crop saving rain from the remnant of a hurricane.  This is supposed to be the case this year, and in spite of the fact that we have had enough rain this summer for 3 summers, we are now in need of a rain for the soybeans, and hopefully Gustav will provide that.  As my grandmother use to say, "it is an ill wind that blows no one good".  So, while those in the south are getting battered, I may actually see Gustav as a Godsend for my crops. Posted Sep 01 2008, 04:12 PM by kansasfarmer with 1 comment(s)