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.