Farming Fridays!

July 18, 2014

Beautiful Bean Footage

After taking a “break” last week, I feel like it has been forever since I’ve posted a photo of the beans, so here you are. Roll that beautiful bean footage, as they say!

As you can see, the plants are filling out and turning into little “bushes.” We can just now see that the flowers are starting to come out (sorry, not a very good picture of it this week). That means that soybeans are ready to go into “production” mode.

The weather has also been problematic. We had such a wet and cool spring/early summer that some of our fields were flooded right as the beans were starting to pop out. And some fields are quite as full as this one. As a result, that means we might not see the yields that we would like to out of those fields.

But harvest is a ways away for now!

Farming Fridays!

April 18, 2014

RoundUp Ready, Part 2

Last week I announced that our soybeans seeds had finally arrived! This week, I want to share a little bit more about the type of soybeans we’ll be planting and why.

This year we will be planting Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield Soybeans. The seeds are the second “generation” from the old standard Roundup Ready soybeans that first hit the market. Our seeds, as you probably noticed last week, are from Stine seed. However, the herbicide resistant trait is from Monsanto.

And we’re definitely not alone in planting them! This is the fifth year that this genetic trait is on the market. So far, Monsanto estimates that 50 million acres in its first four years on the market. In 2013 alone, it was predicted that 39 to 41 million soybean acres are planted with Genuity Roundup Ready soybeans.

What’s the difference from the original Roundup Ready soybeans? The second generation is supposed to have higher yields, while maintaining the herbicide resistant trait. From my understanding, it is the placement of the gene that made the difference. That difference resulted in soybeans averaging a 4.5 bushel per acre advantage over the first generation of Roundup Ready soybeans.

If you’re interested, here is a video giving a bit more information:

If you’re interested in a really cool “interactive” tutorial about these Genuity soybeans, click here.

Farming Fridays!

October 18, 2013

A Trip to the Granary

…With Soybeans.

This week my mom was kind enough to chronicle a trip to the granary so TFD readers can see it up close. I hope you’ll enjoy her picture diary.

Driving up to the granary.

Up ahead on the road is the scale. The red light tells you that you’ll
need to stop and weigh in.

Here the probe is going to take a sample of the beans. It checks the moisture and then
the test weight. It also checks for any foreign materials or damage.

The green light lets you know they’ve weighed the truck and the beans
meet the requirements. Time to dump!

A fellow trucker coming out of the dumping area

The granary was filling a train. The cars are loaded up with corn or soybeans
and transported. Each car can hold up to 4,000 bushels of corn.

Train cars being filled.

Driving up to the grain bins where the corn and soybeans are stored until moved
to the train.

You can see the square openings up ahead where the truck goes in to dump.

Dumping pit.

Our trailer is called a “hopper bottom.” This means it opens up underneath
so the corn and soybeans can fall into the pit.

Here you can see the beans pouring into the pit. The guy in the red
hat will sweep up any that fall off the grate.

Before we leave the granary, we stop on the out-going scale. The truck is weighed
again to compare the weight with the full truck. This gives us the “tare” weight
and lets the granary know how much we delivered.

Waiting for the ticket that will show the two weights, the grade of the soybeans,
and the name of our farm.