Martin Family Farms

We also had some time

We also had some time to do some tile repair this week and this is what we
found. As a lot of the clay tile systems that were put in 75- 100 years
ago are starting to fail and get plugged with dirt we are having more problems
and will need to replace them in the near future.

It won't be long

As January is quickly passing us by this year our attention is quickly turning to the upcoming planting season. This past week we have been finalizing our spring herbicide program along with making a list of all of the planter tune-ups to make and starting to work on them on the warm days. Last week I attended two different meetings. The first was at Precision Planting in Tremont, Illinois. Every time I attend one of these meetings I am fascinated at how much this company continues to improve planting performance. At last weeks meeting they introduced a product called Field View that will allow us to plug our IPad into the seed monitor and watch a real time map of what is happening with the planter. This will allow us to detect any problems that might occur quicker and allow us to have all of that information with us wherever we go. This along with some of their other products will allow us to make precision farming even more precise.

Last week I also made two trips to St. Louis. The first trip Dad and myself attended and made presentations at the 2012 National No-till Conference. This once again provided a wonderful experience of learning new things and networking with other farmers. Then we took the kids back for the 2012 Cardinal Winter Warm Up to get autographs from some of the current and former Cardinal players and get ready for the upcoming season. The kids (and myself) had a blast at this event and are ready to go back next year.

This week is kind of a quiet week around the farm. The weather so far is crummy so I think we will get caught up on bookwork and maybe start on the honey do list.....maybe!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If anyone has been having problems clicking on to our website or blog using your "favorites" you will need to delete the current link. Once you do that type in the martinfamilyfarms.org again and add it as a favorite again. Don't know why this started causing problems but this should fix it.

Good week...

This last week dad and I both attended and spoke at the 20th annual National No-Till Conference in St. Louis. Once again this proved to be a wonderful event for farmers and others who are involved with agricutlure, specifically conservation tillage, to share ideas and research from around the country. This past week we aslo finished hauling what little corn we had left in the bin before the cold and snow came on Thursday. The USDA seemed to throw us a curve ball this week with the Jan 12 crop report, but I have a hard time beleiving that the downfall will last very long. I will try to cover some of the reasons why in another blog. The rest of the weekend we have basketball for the kids and then we are going to spend Monday in St. Louis at the Cardinal winter warm-up.

Hauling corn to ADM this

Hauling corn to ADM this past week

Where is winter?

As we welcome in the new year we are still waiting for winter to arrive. We would sure like to see some more moisture in the ground and some colder temperatures to help kill some of the bugs and mello out the soil. Any moisture we have gotten soaks in pretty quickly and the ground is still dry enough that fall fieldwork could be done if it had to be. This past week we started hauling corn from our bins into ADM inDecatur. The lines were pretty good this week considering it was early January. The market rally the last month has allowed us to price some of our old crop corn and a few bushels for the 2012 crop. This week we will continue to empty some bins and get the new years paper work underway. We will also be finalizing seed orders and making sure everything is in place for the upcoming planting season. Later in the week dad and I will also be speaking at the National No-till conference in St. Louis. If anyone is going or in the area come by and say hello.

Well we are welcoming in 2012 with open arms hoping for another good year on the farm. The weather has been pretty mild so far this winter which is good and bad. Our subsoil moisture is still pretty low and it would be nice to get some frost in the ground to help kill some of the bugs and help mello out some of the topsoil. This past week we were able to complete some waterway work with the bulldozer on one of the farms and we are beginning to haul some farm stored corn into ADM in Decatur. Basis levels are still pretty good which is a good indicator that there is still a strong demand for corn in our area. We also finished up with the end of the year bookwork and started on 2012.
If anyone is going to the National No-Till Conference in St. Louis next week let me know. Dad and I will be speaking on two different topics on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.

Martin Family Farms 2011 Video

Here is the link to our 2011 video. http://youtu.be/mvVUlvsg_lU

Merry Christmas From Our Family

Merry Christmas From Our Family to Yours

Another Land Sale...

This past weekend we had one of the few land auctions that we have had in the area this year. Just by walking in the door you could tell that the interest and curiosity was there. I can remember several years ago we had a landlord go to an auction and she was the only one that showed up and she bought the farm. I do not think that would happen in todays market with well over 100 people in attendance this past weekend. However most of the people are just curious to see how much it will sell for there were only 1-3 bidders on each tract of land. Here is what they sold for

Tract #1 80 acres mostly class A soils but needed some major drainage work done to it sold for $8500/acre. Tract #2 - 20 acres with all class A soils brought $9300/acre. Tract #3 - 40 acres which had mostly class B soils sold for $8600. and Tract #4 112.7 acres (93 tillable) which was considered a class C farm sold for $7100. For the most part I would say those are pretty strong prices for ground with todays prices.