Farm Friday - Grain Elevator

Grain Elevators like this one are an iconic part of the Kansas landscape.  They are in every small town and sometimes now are the only thing left operating after a town's residents have all moved away.  Until I moved to Kansas I didn't really know anything about grain elevators.  I didn't know that the middle school I went to was a block away from one (Moyer and Son in Souderton) or that I walked past one everyday in college on my way to class(until Tyler visited and told us what it was).  The Rockingham County Elevator is actually the reason for all the train traffic through JMU and why I was sometimes late to class.  But I did get a crash course in grain elevators when we moved back to Tyler's home town and his family helped me get a job at our local elevator (and I still work part-time there).  The first day I walked in there I couldn't identify have of the grain the elevator took in or had any idea how it worked.  Now its almost been 7 years since I started there and I have learned so much and can't wait to share.

Wooden Elevators like the one in the picture began being built in the 1900s (this one was built in the 1920s and is not longer operational).   They could hold about 20,000 bushels of grain and were not intended for long term storage.  The elevator's main job was to elevate the grain high enough to fill railroad cars.  Concrete elevators began being built to hold larger amounts of grain and have the ability to store the grain throughout the year.  The concrete elevator shown at the top was first built in 1947 and had four additions built on in 1950, 1953, 1957, and 1982.  It is 140 feet to the top and 102 feet to the top of the bins and holds approx. 848,000 bushels.  The elevator takes in wheat, corn, soybeans, and milo (grain sorghum).

So now lets talk about how the elevator operates.  The first step in taking in grain is weighing of trucks.  At this elevator the truck drives onto the scale where it is weighed and probed to get a sample.  The sample is used to determine the quality of the grain as well as how wet the grain is.  Then the grain is dumped out of the trucks into the pits and reweighed to determine the amount of grain the truck had held.   In the picture you can see the scale (it has to be long enough for a semi-truck) and the two dumps.  The windowed part is where the workers weigh the truck and do testing on the samples.

Next, the grain has to be moved up the elevator.  This is done by cups that travel up the elevator leg and at this elevator there is about 700 cups doing the job.  Once at the top, the grain is separated into each bin.  To get the grain down the long corridor, the grain is placed on a conveyor belt and travels down to the tripper.  The tripper is moved by hand to the opening of the bin and deposits the grain down into the bin.  The grain is stored there until it is ready to be loaded out onto trucks or railroad cars.  It is loaded out by another conveyor belt underneath the bin that moves the grain to the loading area.  The pictures show the belt and the one at the bottom is a better view of the tripper.  You can also see the different bin openings on the ground on the hallway.

So there is some of the basics of how a grain elevator works.  Please check back tomorrow for some funny pictures of my adventure taking Eve with me to the top of the elevator to get these pictures.

Ag Day

Eve is petting Pete the Donkey as part of our local Ag Day.  Farm Bureau sponsered a time where the students in the third through fifth grade got to come to the fairgrounds and learn about agriculture related things.  They saw speakers on animals, beef, sunflowers, wheat, and water issues just to name a few.  We were able to take the girls and help serve lunch.  This was the first Ag Day that has happened in a while and the kids and teachers had only good things to say about it.  Eve had a good time visiting with the animals, although she was a little reluctant about actually touching them.

Here is a group of students learning about all the different products that contain corn and soybeans.  They even have an assignment to take and complete with their parents at the grocery store.

Here is a three week old bucket calf.  The calf's mother died during childbirth and now the cow is being bottle fed by some 4H kids.

Eve was a little hesistant to make friends with Cookies and Cream the lamb.

Trampoline Fun

On Sunday, we celebrated Tyler's cousin's birthday.  It was a nice beautiful day and after dinner and birthday fun, we went out and everyone  had a great time on the trampoline.  I love some of the fun shots my new camera was able to get.

Farming Friday - Our Farm

So Today is the first addition of Farm Friday, a time exclusively focused on farm facts and issues.  What would be the best topic for our first Friday?  Our farm.  We would like to share with you the facts about our farm, so you can see what we do on our farm and our role in agriculture.  Since I am definitly not the expert on the nitty-gritty of our operation, I asked Tyler to write this post so it can be as exact as possible.  I asked him to try to put it in words we can all understand because agriculture, like any other specialty, can have words and phrases that only those in that field understand.  So take it away Tyler.

We along with Tyler’s parents, and Tyler’s grandparents operate a 6000 acre (a mile by mile square is 640 acres, so over 9 square miles) diversified farm (we raise more than one product on our farm) in Western Kansas about 15 miles from the nearest town. We grow winter wheat, milo, and forage sorghum and raise feeder cattle. We raise wheat using conventional tillage. Conventional tillage is using a tractor and tillage tool to turn the soil like a hoe or rototiller. We also use no-till (the soil is not tilled) to grow wheat and milo. In no-till, herbicides are used to control weeds instead of tillage.

Most winter wheat is milled into flour used to bake the bread that is in our kitchens. Winter wheat is planted in the fall using a drill, goes dormant during the winter (like lawns in colder climates), and is harvested in the early summer using a combine. Kansas is the number one wheat producing state in the United States. There is also spring wheat (planted in the spring and harvested in the fall) that is grown in northern areas of North America. Spring wheat is milled into flour that is used mainly in baked goods.  A picture of the wheat at harvest time is at the top of the blog, and here is a picture of the wheat as it is right now.

Milo is planted in the spring using a planter and harvested in the fall using a combine. It is grown predominately in from Western Texas up into the Nebraska panhandle. It is used predominately for feeding cattle in the areas where it is grown. It is also used in the production of fuel ethanol. Kansas is the lead milo producing state in the United States.

We raise feeder cattle on the 1800 acres of pasture in our operation. Pasture is land in native grass production. Native grass is the grass that was growing on the land before humans started tilling the land. Feeder cattle is the stage after a calf is weaned and removed from its mother before it goes to a feedlot then on to slaughter then on to our tables. Cattle are typically weaned when they are approximately a year old. We purchase our feeder cattle in the fall after wheat planting and feed the cattle grain during the winter while the pasture is dormant. The cattle then harvest the grass during the spring and summer while it is growing and then are sold and enter a feedlot where they are prepared for slaughter on a grain diet. This occurs in July through September. Kansas is also the leader in the United States in beef production.  Here are just a few of our hundreds of heifers (female cattle) doing what cattle do best, grazing (the way cattle eat the grass).

We use the forage sorghum as a feed for the cattle during the winter. The forage sorghum is similar to milo as it is planted in the spring; however, it is harvested in late summer. It is planted using a drill, but is harvested with a swather which cuts the forage sorghum and lays it on the ground in a windrow to dry. The windrow is then picked up with a baler after it has dried. We use a round baler which rolls the forage sorghum up into a sphere 5 feet tall by 6 feet wide. These bales are then stored until they are fed to the cattle during the winter.

So that's a short summary of our farm and there will be many more posts on the daily ins and outs.  While we were out taking some pictures, Eve and I got to watch Tyler doctor a heifer so I'm sure that will be a post to come soon.  If there is anything that is not clear, please leave a comment (please don't let that be the only reason to leave a comment) and we will try to explain it in greater detail in a later post.  And please become a follower (in the right column) so you can keep up with us.

Dreary Day Dress-up

So what can you do with two little girls on a rainy, windy, and yucky day?  It was a day to just stay inside.  It even hailed, well that's not uncommon for Kansas this time of year.  So Eve took to dressing up Daphne the best you can for a two month old.  We thought the sunglasses really added to the look.  And then Eve had to do her best to sport the exact same look even though she did it herself and it didn't quite look the same.  I got a good laugh as she was "modeling" it for me.  And yes, they are both comfortly playing in their pajamas, which Eve thought made it a "special" day.

First Post

Welcome to my new blog.  I am so excited to finally get it off the ground.  It has definitly been something I have been wanting to do and planning to do in my head for almost a year now and well things always seem to get in the way of making it exactly the way I want it.  Well, it will probably never be exactly how I want it and with two growing girls, its best to just kick it off now and make it be a work in progress.


There are a few reasons why I am starting this blog.  One of the main reasons is to show what life is like as a farmers wife here in rural Kansas.  When I met Tyler and starting dating, I was a suburban Philadelphia girl going to college in VA.  One of the first things we talked about was his life in Western Kansas.  How could we not when it was his passion and dream to go back and farm with his family one day.  He put it out there that if this relationship was going somewhere, it was going to be in KS because thats where he was planning to be the rest of his life after college.  At 20, I thought I was up to following my heart whereever it went and living in rural America as a farmer's wife would be a fun adventure. And no, I had really no experience with farms, agriculture or anything like that.  I had never even really heard country music.  So after we were married we moved to a small town (about 1500 people) and we started our new life and I had culture shock right away.  There were things to get used to and times where I sat wondering what people were talking about and times I felt out of place.  But Tyler helped me get a job at the local grain elevator and my education on agriculture and rural life really took off.  I have come to learn so many new things and have grown to enjoy my life here, although I miss many East coast and PA things, especially my family, all the time.  And now I hope in this blog to share some of the things I have learned.  There are lots of things in rural America and agriculture that I wish I had known and am glad to have that knowledge now and I hope that I can help some people learn some of these things too.  So stay tuned for Farming Friday when I will talk about issues and other topics related to our farm and other agriculture issues.  This Friday will be about our wheat and cattle operation and I am excited that me and Tyler are working on that.  And with all the big issues happening, I'm sure there will be more than just Friday posting.


I also hope to share some of the joys and struggles of living in rural America, from the lack of shopping opprotunities to the local county fairs.  There are good times happening out here.


Plus, as a part-time working, mostly stay at home mom, how could I have a blog without talking about my kids and the issues I am working through as a mom.  And as a mom, how could I not dote on my two little blessings, they enrich my life everyday.  They inspire me, make me laugh, sometimes cry, bring my great joy and challenge me.  And as a homemaker, I will share some of the success and failures as I try to take care of them and Tyler.


And above all, even in the little things, we as a Christian family, hope that our blog shows God's hand in the life of 4 imperfect people.  He has provided us with acres of blessings and we are still discovering new ones every day.


Thank you so much for checking my blog out.  Please become a follower, add it to your blog roll, and/or make a comment.  I am looking forward to wherever this blog is going.