K2's Page

What a great year to be a rookie. I hope I didnt use up all of my luck for the rest of my life. I thought I would list the things Im thankful for in this first year.

1. Finding a good little planter 6-11 JD1780 mint. I have never run a planter and its pretty bullet proof
2. E sets that made corn planting easier
3. Corn rotation in the bottoms that let me plant 3 weeks earlier than most
4. The rainstorm in Cincy that died out and let me finish planting soybeans
5. Those cattle that grazed out th… Continue

A few updates for those who care to read....

Most important crop came in last night

Austin Stephen born 10/19/2009. Left the house at 12:30AM for a half hour run to the hospital and had a baby by 2AM. Almost needed a catchers mit on that one. Boyz if u think your tough you'll think again after seeing a no drug child birth. Pretty confident if men had the babies we would stop at one.

On the farm
A while I posted about hiring the young farmer to harvest my crops. That has turned out to be a gre… Continue

They got started today abot 1:30pm. First load went 20.8% moisture and 58.5 TW. The tw was a bit of a suprise given the moisture. Everyone is a little bit excited to see the first corn in the area come off. I got text, calls, and email. We should get most of the day tomorrow in before the rains come. Nothing on yields yet. I should have loaned them my GPS. They have been runnig only 6 rows through the 8 row header as they cant make it down and back. Grain cart supposed to arrive tomorrow. Sure w… Continue

I sold my first corn (that I grew) today. I was able to sell cash to the coop and buy back my hedges without any slippage. When I went to enter the offsets in the spreadsheet I checked the initial hedge dates (July 30th 2008). Wow, it has been a long time since we made the decision to farm. It sure was a good day today.

Offered +00 the futures and half scales on moisture and got booked!!! When you dont have any drying facilities as a rookie the moisture deal is a big thing. Plus I had -30Z basi… Continue

A little update from the farm. I was back last weekend to help host a tour for the state cattlemans association. I tried to walk most of my beans. They generally run belt high and carry an average of 55 pods. Im hoping for 50 bushels average. That would be great for a relatively poor farm.
I did hire the young farmer with the older 1660 to run the crop. Quite frankly he was hungry for the work. We struck a flat deal at $26/acre corn and beans and 8 cents for the local haul. The local haul rate w… Continue