Martin Family Farms

Who is the American Farmer ?

Erin and I recently atteneded a meeting focusing on what the perception of the American farmer is. The pictures that we saw and the information that was presented to us was very intriguing.   We discussed ways that we as farmers can relate to the non-farm public about what and how we do things on our farm so people will have a true understanding of how the food is grown for their familiy.  When I think of the American farmer, I think of he or she as the CEO of their own corperation.  They are also the bookeeper, techonlogy coordinator, health inspector, financial consultant, environmental inspector, janitor, and manager of any other issues that need attention in their business.  They  also perform all of the other duties just like all of the other moms & dads in the cities or non-farm areas.  They have the same problems and concerns that everyone else does whether it be sick kids, family issues or getting the kids to practice on time.  It is hard for a corn farmer to be an expert in apple prodution, but I beleive we all share the same bond and that is to grow a safe, bountiful commodity that we can feed to our families. 

With this blog , I try to give a simple picture of what we do on our farm.  It is not very detailed sometimes, but I try to at least give people and idea of what is happening with our farm and our families.  We apprecitae any feedback or questions anyone has in regards to our farm or agriculture in general.  We want to help people involved in agriculture and the non-farm public better understand what and how we do things on our farm. 

 

More from Upstream Hereos....

 This past years  we had the privelage of being selected upstream hereos by the Conservation Information Technology Center.  The November issue of the Farm Journal  featured an article on why we were selected for the award.   http://www.agweb.com/farmjournal/article/more_corn_less_n/

We are very thankful...

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is aready here for 2010.  With everything that has gone on this year it sure has made time fly. We are still trying to get on a few more acres of anhydrous if the weather will cooperate, but we are very pleased with how much we have gotten done.  Our farm along with most others are in very good shape heading into the 2011 growing season. 

As we enter the holiday season we wanted to thank all of the people that help our farm throughout the year to be successful. As I have told many people I treat my farm like a basketball team. Dad and I are the coaches and the people that we work with our are players. Without a good team we would not be able to enjoy the ability to produce food to help feed the world, and for that we are thankful.  I am also very thankful for my wonderful family. With thier support and work ethic it makes being in production agriculture a very rewarding experience.

 
Happy Thanksgiving from Martin Family Farms

#foodthanks

Almost There......

With any luck the 2010 farming season will be in the books by the end of this week. Our fertilizer supplier has been without anhydrous for the last three days, but did receive some rail car shipments this weekend that will hopefully keep us going until we are done.  That is not the only thing that is running short with all of the good weather. We also have some tiling projects that we are waiting to do, but several of the main tile making companies in our area are 2-3 weeks behind on making and shipping tile.  With the good weather and the last two wet years it looks like the demand has outpaced the supply.  This makes it pretty frustrating when we have to wait, but who would have predicted the weather we are having and how much work we have gotten completed.  The markets seemed to fall off a little bit last week. Several advisors think the high is in, but it is hard to predict. The one thing I know is that we have been offered profitable prices for the 2011 corn crop and we did take advantage of that.  If corn goes higher that is great, but being able to sell at a profitable level is hard to pass up.

Two years in one!!!

I know it seems like a broken record, but we are still having really good weather to do field work. The dry conditions are starting to concern us a little bit, but with the amount of work that we are getting done we have not had too much time to be concerned about it yet. However, with all of the anhydrous being applied this past two weeks supplies are starting to get tight. The trucks and rail cars can only haul so much and it has been going on faster than a lot of the fertilizer plants can get it delivered. This has slowed us down a little bit and will add a few extras days to  anhydrous application.  However, when looking at the big picture we are very happy with what we have gotten done and realize that we have done two years worth of field work in 2010.  It seems like a long time ago, but no field work got done in 2009 which meant we did all of that work in the spring before planting and now we are getiing the 2011 work done. That is a lot of labor and tractor hours in one year, but we got it done !