[AT] Farmall to the fields

[Francis Robinson]

--On Sunday, February 10, 2008 9:42 PM -0800 Grant Brians 
<gbrians at hollinet.com> wrote:

>      I'm curious to ask the other vegetable farmers on the list (I'm
> including Farmer Robinson with his Pumpkins and Melons in this one), are
> you  using more drip irrigation and row covering? We are doing both.
>      Also, are other vegetable people than me expanding? I am having
> better  sales this January/February than in a number of years and am
> leasing another  20 or so acres this spring.
>                     Grant Brians
>                     Hollister California
> p.s. I'll be at the Tulare World Ag Expo this week along with Richard
> Walker  and Don Bowen. My time there will be a high pitched rapid fire
> checkut of  all of the things that I might be looking at in the next year
> or two in  used/new equipment.......

=====================================================





	I'm not using irrigation or row covering either one. I'm just having crop 
failures...   :-)
	Here in the eastern corn belt irrigation isn't all that common. "MOST" 
years here you can pretty much toss out seed and grow stuff. We have always 
treated our pumpkin patch like a hobby where we sold a little Indian corn, 
pop corn and gourds just to sneak in a few bucks of extra. Three years ago 
we had a small "U-Pick" pumpkin patch that went over very well. Two years 
ago it rained pretty much every three days here almost all summer. The 
pumpkin patch which was a good bit larger than before was not in the best 
location for a wet year (I move it each year) and it basically just 
drowned. There was some things I could have done to help it but Diana and I 
were both occupied with our two mothers health problems much of that year. 
We also could not get hay baled that year due to the rains and our mothers 
problems. 2007 was just as bad except the weather problem was severe 
drought. The hay burned to a crisp in the field and since I rarely do not 
plant pumpkins before mid June (times them right for pre-Halloween sales) 
things were well into serious stress and along with the mothers thing we 
decided to just not bother planting them. The cash rent for the grain 
ground I rented out did as well as the year before.   :-)
	We are approaching 2008 with a whole new fresh outlook and a dumb farmers 
optimism...   ;-)   ;-)
	My Mother passed away last August so that will not be a factor this year 
and Diana's mom seems to be doing quite well (for 92) and seems to be past 
her two bouts with cancer. Diana spends at least one day a week with her at 
the nursing home over in the next county east of here. There were (and 
still are) 8 kids but Diana accounts for about 90% of her mom's visitors. 
:-(
	This years pumpkin patch will be much larger than in the past but of 
course still tiny by commercial standards. We figure that after two loser 
years it is time for a winner.  :-)   I am also going to be a little more 
prepared for weather extremes. This years location is well drained and I 
will plant the pumpkins on ridges so that if it does go nuts with rain it 
will not sit for days with its feet in water while still small plants. It 
is also near the house and barns so if need be it can be "watered" with 
some very simple irrigation devices (yard stuff).
	Hay is becoming my crop of choice for the ground I didn't cash rent out. 
Again this is pretty small scale stuff. I'm supposed to be retired.   :-) 
I have about 14 acres of now well established orchard grass and timothy 
(mostly orchard grass) and it sells quite well. I also have about another 6 
acres of mostly KY 31 fescue that I bale as well. Most of that 6 acres is 
small patches and grass lanes. Some of it doesn't make a lot of hay but it 
pays a lot better than just keeping it mowed.   :-)   I may also bale some 
back lots belonging to 3 close neighbors that have 9 to 12 acre lots where 
they use less than half of the lot.
	We are in early discussion about the possibility of selling off a 5 acre 
"snob lot"   :-)   off of the south-east corner of the farm and I want to 
plant it to KY 31 fescue this spring and if it grows well enough this 
summer I may bale a cutting off of it. I say we are discussing it, actually 
it is more like me flip-flopping over whether or not I want to sell it or 
not...   :-)   I don't really want to but 5 acre lots next to town are 
typically selling for $50,000 an acre here and that would buy a lot of old 
tractors.   :-)   I was looking at an ad yesterday for  3.5 acres over on 
the next road north for almost 87,000 an acre. In spite of the national 
economic slow down this area south east of Indy is still growing great 
guns. The huge new Honda plant about 15 miles south-east of me is nearing 
completion and will soon be hiring 2,500 employees. They are hiring some 
middle management people for training now.
	We are also discussing (again, me flip-flopping) selling the place in the 
next county (17 acres of woods, rocks and river with a house and a 30'x43' 
shop building, also about 15 miles from Honda). If we do sell both I will 
probably just putter with horses, the wood shop and old tractors and farm 
"Edward Jones"...   ;-)

	I plan to go to the Louisville KY farm show Friday. Last year my back 
picked that week to attack me and after a 2 hour drive down there I walked 
less than 5% of it and we just had to leave.   :-(  I am going this year 
mostly to look at some wood pellet fuel making equipment a company will 
have there. That and I am always looking for hay handling ideas to steal.





--
"farmer"


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
Robinson at svs.net