What a summer? We’ve had so little rain and 100 degree heat, the corn seem stressed. I don’t know if we’ll have a great yield this year.
Posts Tagged With: Farming
Kansas Farm Family Hits It Big With Viral Video
Article from Hays Post.
A random decision to make a video singing the praises of farmers is making social network stars out of three Kansas brothers.
The Peterson boys of Assaria are getting national attention over their video “I’m Farming and I Grow It.”
Greg Peterson says he got the idea as a parody to “Sexy and I Know It” by LMFAO. He talked his brothers, 18-year-old Nathan and 15-year Kendal, into singing and filming a video of about farming on their family’s Saline County farm.
The video was posted on Monday. By Wednesday, it had nearly 400,000 views.
Greg Peterson has reportedly received hundreds of requests from people wanting to find out more about the brothers. And they’ve been invited to the national FFA convention in Kentucky.
Cow on the Roof
What a surprise I got one afternoon when I walked out of the house and seen one of our Holstein Cows on the roof of the hog house. She was standing there posed like a hood ornament. Years ago this type of buildings were very common on farms as most every farmer milked cows, had hogs, chickens and sheep. Small farms were versified to survive back then. Cows hoofs were not designed for climbing. How the cow jumped up there is a mystery and that’s the only time she ever did it.
Interesting as well is all the clutter of old boards lying around. After my folks bought the farm, it took years to get it all cleaned up. Most of it I guess was from the many old dilapidated buildings falling apart. When I was young I stepped on nails four times. My right foot still shows the affects of one nail. My mother thought I must of had a magnet in my foot.
On the back of the photo shows the year 1968, my sophomore year in high school. Two years later I began my career as a full time dedicated farmer and conservationist. I bought my first farm at the age of 21 and was married shortly after my 23rd birthday. We’re still here today living and farming in the Big Platte Valley.
How Sparky got his nickname
How did Sparky get his nickname you may ask? That goes back to hot July afternoon some years back. Our old used lawn mower finally kicked the bucket so I promised the Mrs. I would get her a new one. Actually being a conservative (tight wad) I got her a used one; however it was new to her because she hadn’t used it yet. Everyone knows that when a previous owner gets rid of something used there is a reason for it of course. This one had a wiring problem. Well, I was too busy to fix it, the grass was getting taller and the wife was complaining the lawn looked like a hay field. So the pressure was on to let the hired man fix it. Well I just assumed that everybody knew that when you work on electrical wiring that you disconnected the power source first. NOT Sparky! Alias Bright Eyes, smoky hair Sparky likes to learn by hands on. No big deal though. It wasn’t nothing five hours in the local lawn mower repair shop couldn’t fix.
Everybody has an action figure hero; Superman, the Lone Ranger, or Wonder woman. We have Sparky. For who else could we get to keep inventory of the moths that visit our porch light. I don’t have time; I’m too busy trying to tag calves.
True Story…I can’t make this stuff up
One of my first jobs I gave my hired man, Sparky was to nail the floor boards down on a loft we were putting in the old barn. The joist were already in place, so thinking it was impossible to mess up, I left Sparky to the task as I went on to other chores. An hour later, I came back to check on Sparky and noticed nails sticking down through the boards every where not even hitting the joist. I asked how can you miss them when you can see them. Frustrated I left again scratching my head. Later I returned and to my surprise not another nail had missed the joist. I asked what happened. To this Sparky replies; I figured out that if the nail drives in hard all the way then it hit the joist. (Important tip for all you contractors)
Even a simple task such as having Sparky digging a post hole can turn into a disaster. How can anyone mess up digging a hole you may ask! For Sparky it comes natural. The post hole was to be dug to replace a post into the corral. I had already cut the length of the boards which was shortened to accommodate the wider gate in the fence. I even started digging the post hole so nothing could go wrong. All Sparky had to do was dig a hole 10” diameter straight down to 3 feet deep. To this task, I now left Sparky unattended. An hour later I returned to find Sparky still not done digging. How deep is the hole I asked? Looking at me like my bubble was slightly off center, he replays; All the way to the bottom. I had left the chain saw setting close by and the ends of the fence boards were bothering him so he cut about 8” off the boards. Now the boards couldn’t reach the post. We couldn’t move the post as it had to accommodate the gate. I ended up finishing the hole, setting the post, and then I had to nail 2X6 boards on the side of the post to nail the corral boards to. Sparky claimed that this would make the fence much stronger. (Important tip for all you engineers)
Part II Continued
I think back to some of the earlier days after hiring Sparky. I hadn’t realized that Sparky hadn’t much experience in farming or anything else for the matter! I think I probably hired him mostly because I’m a conservative. For those of you who don’t know what a conservative is, Webster’s dictionary defines it as “TIGHT WAD” noun. I since taught him everything I know and he still doesn’t know much???
Before hiring someone you should always ask for a reference from their previous employer. Since Sparky was my first hired man I didn’t even think to ask! One day he told me himself, however. A few weeks later I bumped into his former boss and was telling him about Sparky working for me. He thought that was comical and started telling me about the first day at work at his farm. It was milking time and he asked Sparky if he knew how to wash cows. YEP he knew. So he told him, to go down each row and wash the first and the third cow in each row. After assembly the milkers he walked into the barn. And there was the first cow jumping around in the stanchion soaking wet with Sparky scrubbing its back. It really was his employers fault though, because he should have been more specific and told him to wash the utter not the cow. The next day Sparky’s job was delivering coffee to the rest of the workers.
From Larry’s Desk: Part 1
Most of us who has chosen the occupation of farming know how much we often get attached to our livestock. We not only care for them, but there is always one who has a special character that seems to us to be a little more human. We tend to give them a name. We like choosing it with as much thought as if we were naming one of our own children.
When I was growing up on the Home Place most every farm along our road had cows, hogs, chickens and sheep. I remember many cold mornings when the folks would bring frozen little new born lambs or calves in and let them warm up on a rug on the kitchen floor. Orphan lambs were always taking up residence in a large cardboard box in the corner until they got older and started jumping out and running around the house.
I remember my Uncle Harold telling me about an older bachelor gentleman he knew who farmed in his area. My Uncle sold real estate and had his farm listed for sale. One day Uncle Harold was passing by his farm and decided to just stop in to say hello. After the initial greeting my uncle asked him how he was doing and he said he had a rough night as he lost one of his calves. He asked “Do you want to see it?” He then led Uncle Harold to a back bedroom where the calf was laying in the bed with its head on a pillow and the covers pulled up and tucked in around it.
I never went to that extreme, however, one cold December I came close to matching it in loyalty to animal husbandry. It was always my job to haul the cattle to the market. This one particular Tuesday morning was bitterly raw with a cold wind out of the northwest. We had a cull cow to sell as well as a week old calf. The cow we put in the trailer but I felt it was just a little too cold for the calf. So, I decided to put it in the cab of the truck with me, where it would be warm for the twenty mile ride to the sale barn. I laid it on the floor board. It seemed satisfied and just laid there quietly. So off we went.
About two miles up the road, the calf decided to go for a walk in the cab. After a few minutes of swerving around the road, driving with my left hand, and wrestling the calf with my right, I finally pulled over. Still not wanting to put the calf in the trailer, I got some twine and tied its feet together. It kicked and thrashed for a while but then it settled down. So, off I went again. All was well for the next ten miles and I was thinking I had it made with the little bovine until I started to smell a very nasty order. Sure enough baby bovine wasn’t going to let me get away with tying him up. He was bent on revenge! He did a number one and two. Then he started to kick and thrash again with his heels commencing to smear the dash and door with yellowish gooey people repellent. Fortunately his bonds held. I proceeded to step on the accelerator roll the window down and drive the rest of the way with the heater on full blast!
When I got to the barn I backed the trailer in and went back and let the cow out and the guy consigning her said one cow and one calf. I was a little surprised and ask him how he knew that? He said the calf is looking out the back window. I turned around and sure enough, there was poopy toes standing on the seat.
Big Valley Longhorn Ranch 