Saying goodbye to 2011

First off I would like to wish everyone a marry Christmas. As we look back on 2011 how stress full of a year we all had with weather. Its a good time to remember how thankful we all should be. This most likely will be my last post for 2011. One of my new years resolutions will be to keep this blog more up to date. I appreciate all those who read the blog in 2011, and I hope you continue in 2012.

We have had a few changes on the farm the last month. We have decided to branch out in to custom hay production. Last week I purchased a John Deere 510 hay baler. I will have some time this winter to replace a few belts and chains. I look forward to using it in 2012. At this point we are shopping for a hay mower. We are leaning toward getting a self propelled haybine. With my limited about of time in the summer, I think it should speed up the cutting. I have a little hay ground that I will bale to sell the hay. I have also talked to a few friends and neighbors about doing some custom baling for them. With how hard it is for a young farmer to find farm ground, I think this will be a good way to "get my foot in the door" and get my name out there.

Also on the farm, we have been getting the shop organized for the winter. We are just moving equipment out off the way that won't be used till fall. We have some work that need to be done on the spring equipment, but for the most part its ready to go.

I have been working on getting more seed sales for Channel seed the last month. I even ran an ad on a local radio station. I have sold some to a a few friends and neighbors, but I am looking to improve my sales next year. Along with seed sales, I am in the beginning stage of possibly selling some equipment also at my shop. I have always wanted to sell used equipment, so I think selling for a few farm implement manufactures would also be a fun opportunity for me. I will be finding out in the next week more details. I will make a special post on here if I get to sell for the companies.

I will be be building a few workbenches for the shop in the next week. It has been long overdue, hopefully I won't have to work on stuff on the ground anymore. I also will be building a few storage shelfs so we can keep all the odds and ends (paint, oil, bolts, cleaners, etc.) off the ground and easy to find. As of now we will be pouring concrete for the shop after planting next spring. At that time I will finish off the shop area by putting in insulation and finishing the wall. I will also be putting in a small office which will be nice for seed and equipment sales.

I also would like to announce that in 2012 we plan to launch a website for Jarzen Farms. I plan to use this as a way to keep people more up to date on the farms activities. I will post pictures and videos of the farm on it. I don't have a set date to get the website launched, but it will be in 2012.

Again, thanks for reading

Marry Christmas!

Peter Jarzen

Harvest is done!

I know it has been a long time since I posted on here. It seems like I just keep forgetting to post something. Well I'm posting now, and that's all that matters! :)

Well we finished corn a soybeans a few weeks ago. The corn didn't do all that great, but it did better then I though it would. I don't know what happened. I question if my co-op didn't spray the corn or if the chemicals they used didn't work. I had some really weedy corn this year. Some areas were better then others, but I found 20 acres that was so weedy, I couldn't even see the snoots on my corn head. I do feel blessed though. For how dry and hot of a summer we had, I sill was able to pay down on my bills. My soybeans did really well this year. I had 5 variates in my bean plot, I don't think I had a number do less then 65. My highest was Channel 3701 and it made 70.7! From this wet spring I was really able to see where I need to put some tile in on my new farm where I put up the shop. My total yield was less then any of my numbers, but not much. Had that farm been tiled, it should have been over 65.

Since my last post, obviously Morton finished my shed. I got everything moved in over the summer. I ran electricity, but that it. I hope that next summer I can pour concrete in a 1/3 of it for a shop. That would sure be nicer then working on the gravel all the time. I do appreciate having gravel, it is a lot better then just working on dirt! I don't know if I will ever get around to it next year, but I would like to run water to the shed. I bought a sprayer over the summer, and it would be convenient to just fill it up at the shop and go spray. The sprayer I bought is a 220 spa-coup. It needs some work, but I got it cheap enough that I can afford to put some time and money in it and get a nice sprayer.

Right now I have been getting everything put up in the shed for the winter. I have also been shredding around the edge of my fields, trying to get it all cleaned up. After I get done shredding, I will keep working on cutting back the overgrown timber from the edge of the field. You can tell the farm had been neglected until I got it. It takes a lot of time, but I bet all the way around the field I can easily cut back 10' of over grown timer from the field. This will let me plant that much more, and hopefully have less shade and root pressure on my crops. I have been saving all the wood that I can when I cut back the trees, I hope that by next year I can sell it to people for fire wood because I will have a ton of it!

Well that's it for now, I will try to get a post on here soon with some pics from this years harvest.

Thanks for reading!

Peter Jarzen

They started on the shed!

Well yesterday, June 1 they started on the shed. I am really glad they finally go going on it. When we agreed to purchase the shed back in February, they said it should be done by the end of May. They are a little behind, but they say that it should be done in about a week. I won't hold my breath especially with all the rain we got last night, but I think they can do it.

Here are a few pics of what they got done yesterday.













The beans got a little hail damage last week, but I don't think it will hurt them much. They are getting taller!





That's it for now, I will get some more pics up here tomorrow.

Planting is done!

This past week as been busier then heck! I got started on planting corn late Friday night. I didn't quit till 3 in the morning. When I quit I found out my planter was not working right. The day after I found out that the planter was not working right, I went a borrowed a friends tractor and planter to finish planting. I spent all day Saturday planting corn and Sunday morning. I really really really hope it comes up good. I think it will, but with it being my first corn crop I don't know what to expect. The stuff from Friday night, I will have to wait for it to come up then I can go back with a small planter and spot in the stuff that didn't get planted.

I got the soybeans in today. I borrowed the same friends tractor and planter again and got them in. I probably started planting around 9 or so and I finished around 2. Beans went really smooth. That was my fist time planting on good flat ground, and what a difference it was from my corn ground where it seems like everything is on a hill and you are always turning around on steep hills. I also put in a soybean test plot for Channel seed. I have 5 different varieties in it, and I will be really neat to see how each does on my farm.

While I was planting. Morton Buildings brought in 2 semi trucks with the shed materials on it. It was pretty neat to watch them unload with the forklift on the back of the semi.

Here are a few pics of planting soybeans and the building materials.





















All in all, planting started off really rough but ended fast and smooth. I am glad I had good friends who were able to lend me their tractor and planter. I can't thank them enough!

Its May already and we don't have a single seed planted!

Well Its May already and the tractor and planter are sitting, waiting for the ground to dry up a little so we get get going!

Since my last post (which was a little longer then I intended) I have 100% finished up the planter. It look a lot longer then I expected, not because it was really hard work, but because I had trouble getting all the right parts from my parts dealer. It seemed like I would spend a week waiting on one part to only find out he ordered the wrong part and then I had to wait another week. I finally got it done and it is ready to go. Here are a few pics of the finished product.











The shed is getting closer and closer to being built. The date for the delivery of the materials will be Wednesday May, 4. Once the materials are delivered they should get started building it with in a few weeks after. We had a nice day last week "not dry enough to plant though" so we decided to put in part of the driveway. I have included photos of us installing the drive way. The first step to put down the driveway fabric. This gives the gravel a base to pack against and not to seep in to the ground making potholes and bare spots. We only put in part of the driveway so the truck can pull in to deliver the shed materials. When the shed is done we will finish the driveway, when we know exactly how much room we will need.













Well that's it for now. I will get some pics later this week of the building materials.

Thanks for reading!

Planting is right around the corner

You know spring is really here when the planters start going. There have been a few guys in the neighborhood start planting corn. I think its a little to early, and the ground temperature is a little to low to be planting. I will wait it out, especially after this rain we had. I don't expect to be plating till around the 22nd of this month.

I am planning to get the planter 100% done this week. I just have a few odds and ends to finish up, and then it will be ready to go. Last week we also got our Nitrogen applied on our corn ground. The ground worked really well and we should have a great seedbed to plant it.

Here are some pics of the Anhydrous Ammonia getting applied. (click on the pic to enlarge it)











Here is a pic of the "strip" of tilled ground where I will plant on.



That's all for now. I'll post some pics of the planter when I have it 100% done. I also will post some pics of the shed site. Pretty much all of the fill dirt has been brought in to make a level building site. The shed materials should be delivered by the end of the month and it should be be finished by the end of May.

The planter is coming along well.

Well I have been working on the planter for the last two weeks. I have only worked on it here and there when I had a few hours to spend so its not going extremely fast but a lot faster then I thought it would.

So far I have pretty much removed every moving part. I have sanded and painted all the row units. That took a lot of time because I could only do one side at a time on the row units or I would get paint on me. Thankfully I am done painting them now. I have stated putting it all back together now. I have installed the Yetter T adjust closing wheel brackets and I have also installed the accuplant independent gauge wheel are controller. I am going to start sanding and painting the gauge wheels, and start installing the Martin double spiked closing wheels.

I still think I will have ti done by the end of the month, but I have a lot of work left to do. Planting is just around the corner and I need that planter to be in tip top shape!

Here is a few pics of the planter before and after. Click on them to view a larger image.





Current





Old parts and new parts side by side







I'm glad I used the mask!



I still have a lot more parts to put on here is one of the piles.



That's about it for the planter. I got a few pic of the fill dirt they brought in for the shed site.






Well that's it for now I will post some more pics next week to show what else I have done. Thanks for reading!

Got a corn head today!

Well after looking for about a year, I signed a check for a 643 corn head today. I didn't grow any corn last year so I really didn't need to buy one but I wanted to get one early enough in the year I can go over it really well before harvest so I can have it ready to go. Its just a older metal high tin model, but it should work well for my operations.

I did end up getting the rest of the planter parts today, and I will officially start tearing the planter down tomorrow. I have a lot of work ahead of me, I plan to get the kinze in tip top shape before April. I will post pics of my progress along the way and do some before and after pics.

We did sign for the shed last week! I have been looking forward to getting a machine shed put up since I bought my first tractor, actually I wanted one before that so I would have a place to put it. I went with a Morton 60' by 120' machine shed. With 2 doors. A 30' double sliding door on one of the 60' sides. And a 18' electric roll up door on a 120' side on the opposite end as the 30' door. It will be plenty big for the equipment that I have now, but it will give me room to grow and not worry about out growing my shed storage in a short time. The materials will be delivered in late April and the shed should be done by the end of May. I cant Waite for it to be done! I will post pics of it along the way.


I think things are about to get real busy around the farm, before you know it mowing season will start up again.

The start of 2011

Well 2011 is off to a great start. We are in the process of getting a machine shed put up. Right now were are still waiting on getting the site prep work done. We are going to have about 20 truckloads of dirt hauled in to make level.

As I said last year, we added a little more ground this year and the shed is going on the new ground.

In the next week I am going to pick up part to rebuild my planter. I am rebuilding the whole thing. I am putting new seed disks, scrapers, seed tubes, spiked closing wheels and new adjusting brackets, I will also be getting new precision planting corn meeters and much much more. I have been looking forward to rebuilding this planter, it should be really nice when I am done.

I will try a lot harder to keep this blog updated this year, I really slacked last year but this year will be different.

I can't wait till the ground dries up and I am in the field, but before that can happen I have a lot of work to do.

Thanks for reading!