National Farm Machinery Show Pictures

I don't think we could have filled this Heavy Duty Manure Spreader one time with all the manure in our chicken house when I was a kid.

Lunch Lines were long

Displays in the North Hall - Big toys and Bright lights

Enjoying Kentucky ag products at the relaxation station

Checking out the Big Iron

National Farm Machinery Show

I spent some time yesterday at the National Farm Machinery show in Louisville, KY.  Last time I was at the Kentucky Exposition Center it was for the 2001 National FFA Convention.  It has grown.  The show was an impressive spectacle of agriculture.  It sseemed that all the national agricultural vendors were there and a number of smaller ones as well.  I was attending to shop for mapping software.  I was surprised at how few vendors were in the building.  I was able to talk to some people and figure out what I don't want. 

The crowds seemed large to me but this was the first time I have been there.  Guidance systems, controllers, and so on seem to continue to make improvements and grow their market.  There is not much new in mapping.  It was surprising considering the size of the show, how difficult it was to find knowledgeable people.  I had questions about guidance systems and it seemed there was only one person per display that was knowledgeable.   Such is the state of that field.  The technology is ahead of the sales division.

I know that there are already mapping apps for Apple I-Pad and I was expecting to find some of those people in the building.  I guess there is not enough money in that for them to pay for a booth.  One vendor I talked to said he did not think an I-pad is rugged enough for the field.  I did not think of it at the time, but I could break an I-pad or 2 a year and still not be out as much as I am with his ruggedized field equipment.  I think I could make it work.   

Just a Farm Dog?

To many farm people the farm dog is as much a part of the farm as the cattle, corn, soybeans or hogs.  The February issue of National Geographic had an article about a study of dog DNA.  Unfortunately, I could not find this part of the article on line, but it was the most interesting to me.  They divide all breeds of dogs into for different genetic groups.   Dog breeds have been selected for certain characteristics that their owners have found useful in making human lives better.  The 4 groups are:Wolflike, Herders, Hunters, and Mastifflike or guardogs. 

While each breed has some DNA from each group and some of the breeds are very mixed in grouping, some of the breeds in each grouping are interesting.  In the interest of quick reading I will concentrate on the herders that are most directly related to agriculture.  Some herders include Tibetin Terrier, Lhana Aspo, Pekinese, Shih Tzu, Irish Wolfhound, St. Bernard, Greyhound, Collie, Shetland Sheepdog, and Whippet.  A standard P\poodle is known as a hunting dog, but it also has a good bit of herder DNA.  Old English Sheepdog is more of a hunter than a herder.  A German Shepherd has mostly Masstifflike DNA.  That one really struck me odd as we had a German Shepherd mix that was a pretty good cattle dog.  I guess one conclusion might be that even though we train certain dogs to do certain things, it is not always in their DNA as much as we think.  There is a lot of interesting stuff about dogs on the National Geographic Web site.  Check it out.  The most common breed of dog is not a breed at all.  It is the mutt. 

Read the fine print on the research

I ran across this research study on potassium and tillage.  The 2 year study concluded that tillage did not affect the corn yields.  They did have a double variable in that they as tested timing and application of potassium.  There was a yield response to potassium.  Does this mean you should always apply potassium?  By no means.  Look At he soil test levels.  Potassium was low in this study to start with. I would expect a response to the fertilizer.  This is a simple test.  There are far more complex issues.  Soil amendments are not one size fits all.  The first step in making decisions related to your soil is to get it tested.  Then you can decide if you need sulfur, gypsum,micro-nutrients, or any of the other amendments that are popular at the time. 

Timber Sale

Today I drove past these logs by the side of the road and decide I have not done a blog on timber sales.  I some parts of Illinois, timber is an afterthought.  When Europeans arrived in Illinois, they settled in the part of the state that  had trees.  At that time, something like 20% of the state was prairie and trees were scarce.  The early settles wanted trees for construction material.

These logs are being sold for some sort of lumber.  Lots of timber in Illinois is turned into pallet lumber.  Higher value timber in Illinois consists of Black Walnut, Hard Maple, Red Oak and White Oak.  The value each depends somewhat on the popularity of furniture styles.  There was a time when walnut was the most popular.  Right now Red Oak is more popular.

Land owners who are considering a timber sale would be wise to bring in a forester to tell them what they have and mark trees for sale.  Sellers who use a consulting forester are more likely to get high dollar for their resource.  A consulting forester can also enhance the value of you timber by suggesting pruning and thinning needs to maximize production.  They can also tell you if your trees are ready to sell or if you might make more by letting them grow for now.  Large healthy trees will add more board feet per year than small trees.  Large unhealthy trees should be harvested to prevent deterioration.

Why do we grow so much corn in Illinois?

I think most farmers know this, so I guess this blog is mainly for my non-ag friends.  The Midwest and Illinois in particular is blessed with the right soils and the right climate to grow corn.  Hot days that cool off at night is just what the corn plant needs.  Most of our soils do not need irrigation in most years to produce abundantly.  Soybeans are a perfect crop for alternate years.  This gives Illinois a competitive advantage in corn production.

Strides in technology and mechanization have made corn production nothing short of miraculous.  Corn is a photosynthesis giant in terms of capturing the sun's energy and converting it to calories and nutrients that humans and animals can both utilize.  Because corn has separate male and female parts we can select particular genetic traits relatively easily in comparison to many other crops.  While a good bit of the corn is the yellow varieties that are used for feed, fuel, sugar production and other general purposes, there is enough diversity to support corn for many other purposes as well.  Illinois produces lots of sweetcorn.  Sweetcorn is one of the most popular vegetables sold.  Popcorn is another variation that even Native Americans ate.  It is a good high fiber product.  High oil corn is just what it says it is.  Corn oil is one of our healthy oils.  White corn and blue corn are processed into corn chips, corn tortillas, massa, hominy and other food products.

Corn is harvested dry so it can be stored and sold all year around.  Most of us like having at least some fresh vegetables in the winter, so places like Florida, California, and South Texas grow many of our fresh vegetables.   The area south of the Mason Dixon Line has the perfect climate for cotton, so they produce a lot of our natural fiber.  Cattle herds in the west take advantage of the vast rangeland on the great plains to take advantage of that resource.  There was a time in our history when cattle were shipped to Illinois and Iowa to be fed out before processing.  Over time, we have come to realize that the dryer climate in the west makes it easier to deal with livestock waste out there.  That means we ship our corn west instead of bringing the cattle east.  That is probably a health advantage to the cattle too.

This blog is getting long so I will try to summarize a bit.  First let me say that I am all for locally grown foods, but we need to realize that crops have become more specialized because there are advantages to that specialization.  Yes there was a time when our farming practices were much more diverse and more diversity would be a good thing; but we need to consider the efficiency of crops to photosynthesize and grow.  I look forward to the day when midwestern farmers produce more specialty crops, but I don't expect that corn will cease to be the king of midwestern production.

Old Windmill

This windmill in Golden, IL was constructed to grind grain.  It is now a tourist attraction.