Here Comes the Heat!

70 degrees!  Spent the weekend doing yardwork with the family.  Trees are budding all over the place.  It seems like forever since we last had that kind of heat.  Weatherman is calling for 70's from Wed. this week clear through Sat.  That's great news this time of year.  Soil temps around here are still only around 35 degrees at a 4" soil depth.  Water doesn't move through cold soils nearly as quickly as it does once the soils warm up a bit.  The surface has dried nicely.  Now all we need are a few sunny, warm days (preferably with some wind) and we will be ready to head to the field to begin applying our Anhydrous Ammonia (Nitrogen).

With a little luck we will get several good days of field work in before Easter.  When things go reasonably well, we can get around 500 acres/day of anhydrous applied.  That's important for our farm because we made a conscious decision around 10 years ago to put all our anhydrous on in the spring in order to limit environmental loss.  That decision creates a bit of a crapshoot every year weather-wise and that's why we get so excited to see early season warm temps.  Wish us luck!

And enjoy the weather!

HSUS says, "Look at the Cute Little Puppies . . ."

Who here doesn't have a soft spot for the strays found in your local animal shelter?  There probably isn't a better way to support animal welfare than to adopt a pet or donate to your LOCAL ANIMAL SHELTER. But folks, pay attention YOUR LOCAL ANIMAL SHELTER HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES.


If that seems a bit confusing to you, that's because it's meant to be.  You see, the HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES (HSUS) is an animal rights group -- NOT an animal welfare group.  By design they deliberately trick people into donating to their organization.  Well-intended donors think they are donating to help the local shelter of their local humane society but instead the #1 thing the $ is used for is to fight animal agriculture and the consumption of meat on a global scale.

Here is a link to an excellent explanation of the HSUS:  Humane Society of the United States

This may not be on your radar today, but it's huge in the agriculture community.  HSUS is raising well over $100 million annually to fight farmers.  And they fight dirty.  They use lots of emotionally charged mis-information to promote their agenda.  Get the facts.  Google "HSUS + truth" and see for yourself.

Hope Springs Eternal

Spring has sprung!  The snow has melted (almost) and the robins have arrived. I can hear a cacophony of frogs in our slough (that tells me the frost is almost out of the ground).  And our gravel road is turning to mud.  Ahhh . . . spring. Soon we will begin applying anhydrous ammonia (our Nitrogen source) to the fields in preparation for our corn crop.  For those interested, that's what's in those big white tanks you may see in farmer's fields in the spring.  When the weather is right (dry soil and warmer temps) we sometimes start in late March.  Usually we are full bore in early April.  We generally hope to start planting corn around April 20th -- give or take -- and soybeans following right after completing corn.

The fields are calling.

Happy National Ag Day!

Tomorrow is National Agriculture Day.  As the culmination of National Agriculture Week, tomorrow would be a great day to thank a farmer.  Here in the U.S. we are lucky to have the world's safest and most affordable food supply.  Consumers here need only spend 9% of their income to have more than enough food to eat.  In many parts of the developing world the majority of their consumer's income is still spent on acquiring just enough food to survive.

So in honor of National Ag Day, perhaps you can join me in praising God for our blessings, our farmers and take a minute to make a donation to help reduce hunger somewhere in the world. A great site to help you find a worthy charity can be found at Bread For the World.  You can navigate directly to it by clicking the "Happy National Ag Day" headline in this post.

To Insure or Not to Insure. That is the Question.

Monday March 15th was the application deadline for farmers in our area to sign up for the Federal Crop Insurance Program.  This program is a public/private partnership between the federal government and private insurance companies.  In essence, the feds and the private insurance industry share the risk of liability (and reward of underwriting gains if they receive more premium than are paid out in claims).  The private insurers "deliver" the product to farmers and the feds pay the companies a fee for administration and overhead.  In addition, the feds subsidize a portion of the premiums paid by farmers.  In most instances farmers pay the majority of the premium and have the freedom to choose whether or not they wish to participate at all.  They can choose among several different types of insurance as well as different deductibles as well.  Generally speaking the insurance products are based on crop yields alone or some combination of crop yields x price (in other words gross revenue).

Full disclosure here -- besides being a user of crop insurance (as a farmer) I am also a purveyor (as an agent).  But being both gives me a somewhat unique view.  Over the past several years, the feds have been reducing the premium (and delivery) subsidies.  Doing so is steadily making the insurance program costlier to deliver and to utilize by farmers.  We are seeing more and more farmers taking less and less insurance as their costs escalate.  Don't get me wrong, on the one hand I get it.  Federal budget deficits being what they are we all have to tighten our belts.  On the other hand, as taxpayers and food consumers we need to understand that ultimately farmers must be profitable to stay in business.  Historically, in farm-disaster situations, Congress would often pass ad-hoc disaster assistance legislation.  This type of assistance was wholly taxpayer funded, fairly inefficient, and too often politically motivated.  There were often "disasters" every year (especially in hotly contested Congressional districts).

That's why I think private/public partnerships like the current crop insurance program are better.  Everybody shares in the risks and rewards.  Taxpayer/consumers, farmers, private industry and the feds are all in the same boat.  Run well, crop insurance can help maintain a safe and affordable food supply, help keep farmers in business and result in long term savings to taxpayers and the federal government.  Shift the burden too much to any one party and the whole thing could fall apart.  That would be a shame.

They Came, They Saw, They Ate.

Today we hosted our 4th grade field trippers from Southeast Elementary in Sycamore, IL.  All in all I think it went pretty well.  The kids generally seemed engaged and interested.  They asked lots of good questions and paid attention to A LOT of new information thrown at them in a relatively short amount of time.  They were accompanied by several teachers, aides and parent chaperones who were a big help.  I also need to give a special "shout out" to Rhodora Collins who is the Ag Literacy coordinator for the DeKalb County Farm Bureau.  She does a fabulous job and is a huge asset to the teachers and students in this area.

The kids learned all about field corn and soybeans (with an emphasis on corn since that is the majority of what we grow), got to see some equipment (and sit in a tractor), dissected corn kernels and toured our grain processing and storage facility. They completed a quiz and got to tell us why they would (or wouldn't) like to be a farmer someday. We got some great answers:

One student said she, "would like to be a farmer so she could take care of animals and crops.  Plus go in big tractors."

Another thought he would like to farm "because you can do lots of cool stuff."

And finally, one thought it better to take a pass, "because you have to buy a lot of expensive equipment and it is a lot of work."

They learned about the different parts of a corn kernel, what corn can be used for, how it is grown and why farming is important to them. We got a chance to share our message about how farmers like us work hard to conserve resources, protect the environment and maximize production all at the same time. The role of biotechnology, precision agriculture (GPS farming), renewable energy and other similar topics were also discussed. Many of the kids seemed surprised to find out how expensive the equipment and crop inputs were. I always think the size and scope is mind-boggling as well. To think that 35 billion kernels of corn are produced from 60 million ears of corn on our farm every year still amazes me too.

After a great lunch of hot dogs and corn chips (of course!) the kids got to head next door to visit the cow/calf cattle ranch at Friedlund Farms.  There they learned a bit more about the role of livestock in agriculture and the human food chain.  The cows had several new calves and also performed a number of normal bodily functions much to the amusement of the children.  

What impressed me most was that in a relatively short time the kids seemed to truly grasp WHERE their food comes from.  

It's a good reminder for us all.  Food doesn't come from the grocery store.  It comes from the farm.  

And a lot of hard work goes into feeding the world.

Southeast Comes Calling . . .

Here they come! We are busy today preparing for our first school field trip of the year. Tomorrow we are going to be graced by about 55 students from the 4th grade of Southeast Elementary in Sycamore, IL. My youngest brother, Jon, is the teacher for one of the classes there and will be guiding the students along a tour of our local farm bureau, our farm and a neighbor's cow/calf operation. Hopefully the kids will gain a better understanding of where their food comes from, how it is produced, and why agriculture is important to us all.

Welcome! (Why a blog??)

Welcome to the Walter Farms blog . . .The Latest Dirt!

Walter Farms is a family owned commercial grain farm in Northern Illinois. We raise field corn and a few soybeans on a couple thousand acres of some of the best soils in the world. We are located approximately 60 miles (100km) west of Chicago right off of Interstate 88 in DeKalb. Over the course of a production year, we receive many visitors to our farm. One of the things we have been asked is if there is a way we can share what's happening on our farm with people who are interested but can't stop out and see us.

To be honest, this is an experiment for us. We are farmers first -- being a blogger is not something we are familiar with. But we are game to try if there is an interest. Periodically we will try to post some info, pictures and perhaps a few comments regarding what's going on on our farm, as well as the agricultural field in general, that we hope you will find interesting and educational.

Wish us luck . . .