Martin Family Farms

Well it looks like we

Well it looks like we are going to have to force the issue with mother nature. This week we have 2-3days of dry weather with rain forecast for the next five days after that. A lot of the fields are still very wet but if we will have to make an attempt to get them planted even if conditions are not perfect. We have waited patiently so far but with another wet forecast and looking at the calendar we need to get done what we can.  

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All dressed up and no

  All dressed up and no where to go. That is the theme for all of the
area farmers with all the machinery sitting ready to go and no where dry enough
to use it. The weather man said today that we will only have about one day in
the next two weeks to do field work and that is tomorrow. Little do they
know that most of the farms are still too wet to work on and will need several
warm sunny days to dry out before we can plant most of our farms. We do
have a few high spots that we might be able to work on but they are few and far
between. The first 100 acres that we planted during the first week of
April is still not out of the ground (pic below). It is getting close and
hopefully will be up in the next day or two. If we get the rain they
are predicting in the next 10 days we will be looking at the third week of May
to get corn planted and each day during that period we are losing yield
potential. Lets keep our fingers crossed that we miss a rain or two this
week and we can get some field work and planting done.

Wow! What a difference two

Wow! What a difference two weeks can make. Here we are with no corn
planted in the month of April and we only have 5 days left. We are just
now starting to dry out after over 6.5 inches of rain in our area the last 2
weeks. All of the streams and creeks were way out of their banks and all
of the ponds are full of water. We have not seen a wet spring like this
for 3-4 years. It has also been really cold with soil temperatures still
in the 40’s. Next week it looks like it may warm up a little but there is
more rain in the forecast for the middle of the week. All of our equipment is
ready to go...as far as we know... it his hard to know what is wrong with stuff
if we have not been able to use it much yet. In the meantime we are
getting ready for the spring/summer sports season. Drew has already
started with baseball and basketball and the other two will start soon. We
are hoping the beginning of the week we will be able to plant a little on some
of our drier farms, but we are cautiously optimistic.  

Spring is trying to get

Spring is trying to get started here in central Illinois, but it is having
a tough time. We have been blessed with good moisture so far but the
temperatures are having a hard time staying warm. Soil temperatures are
still in the mid-upper 40 degree range. That is still pretty cold as we
like to see soil temperatures stay over 50 to get started planting corn. 
We did have some good weather last week to finish some of our anhydrous
application and get started with fieldwork. We also put a little corn in the
ground just to make sure the planters were working. With all of the new
technology we are putting in the planters this spring it takes a little time to
get everything working and make sure it is working correctly. We still
have a few bugs to work out but I think we are on the right track. This next
week does not look very favorable for doing much fieldwork with more rain
predicted. This past week most of our farms received between 1.5-3 inches
of rain. This has put us in good shape for planting when the soil warms
up. 

Thought this would make an

Thought this would make an interesting picture. Comparing to last year when we were actually planting by now. 

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Well......That is our thoughts for

Well......That is our thoughts for this week as we are experiencing the
worst snow storm in the last few years. That is probably one of the most
unique things about working in agriculture is how every year and situation is
different. Just one year ago we were starting to go full steam ahead
planting corn this week with 80 degree temps and today we have temps in the 30’s
with over a foot of snow on the ground. We could use the moisture because
a lot of the tiles that were running from the rain a few weeks ago are already
slowing down. In the picture below it has been cold enough to freeze the
water as it comes out into the creek. Before the snow the ground was in
good shape and only a day or two away from doing some field work. The end
of last week we were able to get some grass seed planted and we spent some time
burning off some of our prairie grass filter strips and CRP patches. These burns
are always neat to watch and imagine all of Illinois being like this before it
was farmed. The picture below is the smoke generated from one of the
burns. This upcoming week looks to be kind of slow with all of snow
but we will be making sure we are ready to roll when the weather breaks.

 

Things are shaping up nicely

Things are shaping up nicely for the upcoming planting season. 
Although it does not look like it will be and early spring we are getting nice
moisture but the temps need to warm up a little bit. It is hard to imagine
that we were 25% done planting corn last year by the end of March. This
weeks forecast calls for night time temperatures in the teens and not really
warming up much even into the first week of April. Today I am putting
software upgrades into our displays in our tractors and sprayer. This is
not something that a lot of farmers would think they would be doing 20 years
ago, but it is something that requires a lot of work and time before the season
starts so everything can run smoothly when it is time to go. This upcoming
week we will be getting everything ready to go to the field in case we start to
get a break in the weather and probably watch some basketball later in the week.

Spring is getting closer everyday,

Spring is getting closer everyday, but to start this week I am in the
office again making sure all of our plans are in place. In the picture
below I am making prescription planting maps on the computer and transferring
them to the 20/20 display in that will go into the planter. This is a very
simple process. I use a website called auto maps. I make the field
boundaries and a soil map and productivity for each soil type is listed. I
insert the populations I want for each soil type save it to the display and
everything should be ready to plant. It sounds easy, so hopefully the
planter and all the wires will cooperate so we can variable rate some of our
fields. A lot of our soil types are similar and do not vary a lot in
productivity, but we do have some lighter spots in those fields and I am
reducing the populations on those soil types this year. 
The

We are still having some

We are still having some wintery weather this week with more precipitation
expected the next day or two. However, it looks like it is going to warm up next
week and maybe we will start to get a little spring fever. We are trying to
finish up all of the inside winter jobs and start making the list of things to
do to the equipment when it warms up a little. We also have a few tree
planting jobs to do this spring with our tree planting business. We like
to do this in March because it gives the trees more time to take advantage of
spring rains and get established. This next week we will also be finishing up
the meeting season going to training for our precision planting equipment and
getting all of the information together for the spring planting season. The baby
goats are doing well. I took this picture this morning of them sleeping in
a barrel we have with a heat lamp. Looks pretty
comfortable!

It took a while, but

It took a while, but we are finally having a week of winter weather this
week. We have received a decent amount of moisture this week between the
rain, sleet, and snow. Several of the tiles and small ditches are starting
to run water for the first time in over a year. This is all a good sign as
we are only 30-40 days away from planting corn. We are finishing up with
the meeting season also this week and next. This week we went to a meeting
on cover crops and the benefits of them and next week we are going to some
meetings to see how to improve our soybean yields and another on how we are
going to get the most from our precision planting equipment that we are
installing this year. We are trying to get the list caught up so if and when the
weather does start to get fit we will be ready to go to the field. This
past week we also spent quite a bit of time going to our high school girls
basketball games. Our high school girls made it to the state championship
game for the first time in school history and came home with a 2nd place
finish. There is still nothing like small town basketball. Virtually the
whole town came out to the games the last few weeks and it was truly amazing to
see the support from the community for these girls. Our
congratulations to them on a wonderful season. The pictures below are a
view from my office today as I write this and picture of our high school girls
taking the 2nd place trophy.