Some final numbers for you fellows to look at!!!

Well the harvest is finally fully done. The boys finished up yesterday with all the combining and we finished baling Friday. These numbers include a lot of custom acres. I just finished up the totals on the baling tonight.

Corn harvested/shelled 3960 acres
Soybeans harvest/cut 3240 acres
Round Bales of hay baled 3270 bales
Round bales of corn stalks 21623 bales

All the bins on the farm are completely full and still had to ship some to market to finish harvesting.
The upright silos are full plus 16- 300 ft. x 10 ft. bags. This is hayledge and corn silage both.
The cattle yards are full including the rented farms.

Now for things still to do this fall:
1) Finish spreading manure.
2) Finish applying P&K on next year's corn ground.
3) Have lime applied on next year's soybean ground
4) Hit the fall tillage hard to get done before frozen ground. There was a 20 bushel yield bump on the fall tillage this year. The fall tilled ground handled the wet early weather better. Just better water infiltration.
5) Move all the cows to the winter pastures that are closer to the house and feed yards. We feed them on a gravel area that has ground fabric under the gravel. We installed that 3-4 years ago and it has worked great.


Side note: Grand Daughter made 4386 bales her first year of running a round baler. (Wrote her check out just a few minutes ago) So she made a little over $2K to go towards her college fund and her horse hobble expense. (Family rule is that she saves 50% for long term stuff and can use the other 50% of her earned money as she wants. This is not a bad income for a 14 year old girl. Much better than working slinging burgers. She will gain some more as she was running the deep ripper Sunday. I had time to show her how to run it. So she can at least run it after school so Her Dad/my son can do evening chores. She will get paid by the acre once again. So another generation is in training. I have two grand Sons that will be 13 and 14 next year an they will start doing more field chores independently. They both raked hay and ran the hay tedder this year.

jd is that correct 21,623 bales of corn stalks,just this fall,i really doubt ive seen 21,623 round bales combined in my entire life,46 yrs

Mr. Seller, I don't know you, but then again I do. I see you and others answer many post from people like me that just have a tractor for fun / hobby. But you guys use them for a living, your the real deal when it comes to farming. I read how many acres of hay and corn you harvested, and it is hard to get a picture of that much land in my mind. I always look when users post pictures of their fields, we don't have that much open space here. I enjoy reading "the boys" and grand daughter did so in so, because that is Family working together. One of the very foundations of this Great Country we live in. You list what you have ahead of you and have your plan in place. How awesome! You are independent, have control and work with your Family! Yes absolutely, your 14 yr Grand Daughter made more money than slinging burgers, but she Learned much more working there with her family than anyone could ever pay her.
I commend you and all the Real Farmers that make this country what it is today, the Best Place in the whole world to Live!
This may not have been the reply you were thinking of but it Blesses me to have a glimpse into your work.
Thank you All

88-1175 Yes that is bales made this fall. We will use about 2500 of these. The rest where done on customers fields. Corm stalks are what we use for bedding and some are tub ground for feed. The real dry early bales will be great for feed. Many of the feed rations have too many "wet" ingredients like wet gluten and corn silage. So the ground corn stalks "dry" the rations down and increase the fiber.

We where running three balers this fall. We usually run two. The total depends on weather and demand. With grain prices falling and livestock prices being up there will be few empty feed yards this fall. So that means more demand for corn stalks bales.

Here is another number to think about. The oldest baler we are running is a 2004 JD 567. It has baled 46,538 bales. It is on its third set of belts and fourth set of sprockets. I do put side liners in them every other year. The corn stalks will wear the sides out if you don't.

Your yearly number of bales is more than most balers run in its lifetime. I an beginning that most baler wear is due to abuse or neglect.

You are going to wear out your combine!

Very well said; exactly my feelings. I have the up most respect for JD

You must have 6 boys helping. I'd be so sick of baling hay wouldn't want to do it any more. You must have more than just a few tractors.

Thats some amazing numbers!And a great family,sure is nice to hear full time farmers!I quess you got that all done without the help of my 8n,,,,lol

Dang that is a lot of ground to cover! Working with family is the best training a child can have. Its hard to learn the work ethic they gain any other way.

And to think my first 530, I thought was worn out at 15000 bales. I can't imagine cornstalks are easy on a baler.

JD, you must be very proud of your family and your accomplishments. I look forward to your posts and how family oreintated your life and business ethics are. You have alot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Have a good life my friend.

NEKS Well there are four boys, two wives that help full time on the farm, one business partner an his wife of the one son, then there are 5 seasonal hired men that are retired truck drives of farmers, and 3-4 Grand kids helping as they are able.

My oldest Grand daughter(28 yrs.old) lives in Cedar Rapids and has a job there. She helps weekends and usually takes a week of her vacation to run the combine in soybeans. She loves doing that.

My Daughter and her husband help on weekends as well. They are here for their first harvest after having lived in the St. Louis area until this last spring.

So they work together to get things done. This is what helps a family stay in touch. There are too many families that do not work or play together and they soon are not close anymore. I have stepped back from the farms. I actually work part time for a friend in his farm supply business. My sons need to learn to do things themselves while I am still around to advise if needed. They need to figure out how they want to make their living. A big part of this is they have expanded the custom farming part way more than I ever did. This allows them to run equipment that they would not be able to afford any other way.

We have a bi-weekly business meeting and I try to limit my in put until these meeting unless asked. That has been hard to do but it is needed for them to learn.

Thanks for the explanation on the corn stalks. I sure wondered what you would do with 21,623 bales of Corn Stalks!!! True Son

JD, the fellow my son buys his TMR from has some oat acreage. He has no use for the oats so he sells the grain. His primary purpose for raising oats is using the chopped straw for dry matter in the TMR.

Very interesting and thank you. I think you are in northeast Iowa, right? I've been thinking of a trip to West Union and Clermont and would stop and shake your hand if that's anywhere near you. I'm in south central MN but don't farm. Have you head of Farmamerica? I do volunteer work there. Check out their website www.farmamerica.org

Ron

As you know, my son started up farming two years ago. He's at 50-55 milkers right now. His oldest daughter is 14 now and is showing a lot of interest in the farm. The two of them have already had conversations about the direction the operation will take if she decides she is serious about the farm. My oldest son also owns an interest in the property, but unfortunately neither of his kids have any interest in farming operations. The granddaughter is headed to vet school (small animal) next fall, but the grandson wants nothing to do at all with farming. That may change years down the road, of course, and it may not. Time will tell.

I lend a hand when needed, but when it comes to management, the boy is far more capable than me, and I don't contribute much in that area.

Donald they are importing wheat straw from Canada and the Dakotas for the same thing here. They are really using more dry stuff to balance the wet by products out of the ethanol and corn starch plants. The value of the land and the high value of corn and soybeans have just about wiped out any oats production around me. Right now Oats are under $3 per bushel on the CBT. so even with 100 bushel yields you would be hard pressed to just gross the cash rent.

I've got a 435 baler that hasn't seen 15000 bales yet. I put a new set of belts and pickup teeth on it last year.
I've got a friend that runs a combine over about half that many acres for rice, corn and soybeans. They also bale about half that much hay and bale several hundred bales of peanut hay. They also have 12 broiler houses and do it with 4 family members and 2 hired hands. There is never a moment of down time.
I can't imagine 21,000 bales of corn stalks. the thought of moving it, alone, is overwhelming.