View From the Cab

Calving Begins on Iowa Farm; Florida Farmer Planting Corn

Richard Oswald
By  Richard Oswald , DTN Special Correspondent
This year's DTN View From the Cab farmers are Karen Johnson of Avoca, Iowa, and Jamie Harris of Madison, Fla. (DTN photo by Nick Scalise)

LANGDON, Mo. (DTN) -- "Hurry up and wait," a phrase common in America during World War II, applies to more than just the war effort. That's because folks like this year's View From the Cab farmers Karen Johnson of Avoca, Iowa, and Jamie Harris of Madison, Fla., do vital work on the front lines of U.S. agriculture.

Hurrying is nothing new to farmers used to racing the calendar. But while the earth has turned and spring is theoretically here, one fact remains: It's been a long, cold winter as the wait for warmer temperatures continues.

Karen and her husband, Bill, are ready to plant. First applications of P and K with trace nutrients have already been fall-applied. All their crops are no-till. There's no field work left to do save a little field smoothing here and there... and planting. Nitrogen and pesticide applications follow that. It's been a chilly spring so far, windy, with gusts clocked up to 60 miles per hour. "It was excruciatingly windy today," Karen told DTN late on Sunday. There have been some grass fires propelled by wind lately. A burning ban is in effect. Adding fuel to the fire was forecast rain delivering only a tenth of an inch.

This time of year there are always things to do around the farm. In March and April, that means calving. Regardless of temperature, the Johnson's cow herd recognizes spring simply by the inexorable measure of gestation. This time of year, cows are kept in a dry lot to make caring for the herd easier. Grass is just starting to green in a small pasture next door. If conditions become muddy, cows will be given access to that. "Our first calf was born last Sunday," Karen said.

Both cattle and markets must be fed. When there's time, Bill will deliver more of last year's corn crop to Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, an ethanol plant near Council Bluffs. "We sold a little more last week. We don't have a great deal more old-crop corn left," Karen said.

There's always tidying up to do. After a long winter, remains of hay feeding litter the farm yard. There's leftover hay and baler twine to pick up because twine and mowers do not get along well. Even without baler twine incidents, mowing the entire farmyard on a good day takes Karen about six-and-a-half hours.

Windy spring days are good for some things, like indoor bookwork. That's Karen's job. But she can handle more than that because she first learned to drive a tractor on her dad's John Deere B, 56 years ago.

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Karen told DTN one of the biggest changes she's seen locally is equipment dealer consolidation. It used to be that farmers like her dad bought all their farm equipment needs locally, from dealers with just one store. Today's dealerships may have multiple stores across several counties. One business she and Bill patronize has given up tractor sales altogether to be one of the biggest short-line Kinze equipment dealers in the country.

There have been other changes to rural communities over the years. One change in particular may account for the current popularity of rural online dating. Karen remembers a different way: "We'd go to a dance every Saturday night. That's where I met Bill in 1965."

Just a tiny bit closer to the sun than Iowa, Florida has seen spring come sooner. Jamie has already begun planting this year's corn crop on the family farm he shares with his father, Jimmy, and brother, Jarrod. Just the same, low temperatures are still in the 40s.

"Last week was pretty good. We got 600 acres of corn in and 2 inches of rain over the weekend," Jamie told DTN on Monday. "It's still cold. Things aren't growing like they should."

Corn planting will continue. There's still about 600 acres of dryland to go. Irrigated corn is watered once a week until silking. After that, irrigation will be more or less continuous.

Sweet corn planted in two, 20-acre plantings about 13 days apart, is in. "The first planting has been frozen off twice," Jamie said. His corn can't be permanently harmed by freezing until the growing point is above ground. That's usually about three weeks after emergence.

Peanuts go in the ground next, but not until late April. Soil temperatures must be at least 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Planting too soon could mean crop failure and loss of $120-per-acre cost of seed, inoculant and insecticide applied at planting.

In the meantime, emerged dryland corn will have nitrogen applied, and peanut fields will get a burndown herbicide treatment followed by a pass with an inline ripper on 18-inch centers. The reason for the ripper is sandy soil compaction. Fall field work only makes the ground harder in spring because sand compacts naturally. Primary tillage is done close to planting to help roots penetrate deeper. Peanuts are planted in 36-inch rows directly into ripper furrows. Tractors follow furrows also, between planted rows.

Much of the land is hilly, not too steep, but rolling. Some is terraced. "We have a hard time holding the sprayer in hills," Jamie said. Moving across slopes, equipment like self-propelled sprayers tend to crab sideways due to traction issues of the sandy soil. Ripping also helps give better traction to keep things in line.

Blooms have been pulled from newly planted blueberry bushes. That helps young plants devote resources to plant development, instead of new berries, for bigger bushes and more berries next year.

The Harrises have purchased a 30-year-old 95-acre pine woodland and cleared it to be placed back into irrigated crop production. Logs are removed. All that's left are stumps. Those are being grubbed out now. The field will be planted to corn for two years to give time for finding errant stumps and for tree roots to decay prior to planting peanuts in the third year. That's because peanut harvesting equipment could be seriously damaged by tree remnants. Also, a new irrigator has been installed on the field.

More woodland will be cleared in coming years. Permission was granted to Jimmie Harris and Sons by the Suwanee River Water Management District to drill an irrigation well up the road on another field of 110 acres slated for planting next year. "They said our aquifer is about the best shape it's been in, in 10 or 12 years," Jamie explained. Aquifer levels are determined by monitoring spring-water outflows in the area.

Hurry up and wait may describe View From the Cab progress now, but not for long. "This is kind of the calm before the storm," Jamie told DTN. "It'll really pick up once we start planting peanuts and injecting nitrogen for the corn."


Richard Oswald can be reached at Talk@dtn.com

FollowRichard Oswald on Twitter @RRoswald

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Richard Oswald