This week we concentrated on harvesting our soybean crop. We rely on two Massey Ferguson 550 combines to get the job done. These are late model combines from the early 1980′s with thousands of hours on them! We bought both of them used at auctions within the past three years. Roger and Scott are great mechanics, and will become better as they keep this equipment running.
Soybean harvest earlier this week 10/19/09
So far, we have taken off 50 acres of soybeans and our yield has been about 43 bushels to the acre. We had most of our crop contracted in the early spring already for fall delivery. We will get between $9.00 and $9.83 for beans we deliver at the elevator in the next few weeks.
These beans are providing the income to catch up on feed bill and seed purchases from the spring and summer months. Milk prices, as low as they have been this year, do not generate enough income to pay monthly bills. In most years, soybean and sugar beet income is used to purchase seed and fertilizer inputs for next year’s crops. This year we will most likely be using an operating loan to make those purchases for next year.
Scott has decided that he is going to go to the local two year college and learn more about diesel mechanics, welding and related skilled vocations that will be useful on our farm, other farms or at a local farm equipment dealer. Roger is happy that he will be around next fall to help with harvest. I am disappointed that he is not going to follow Margie to MSU for an ag degree or attend WMU or another university for music. Scott has a wonderful talent for playing clarinet and enjoys many kinds of music. His iPod has more than 1000 songs downloaded from iTunes, I think! Country, classical, rock, Christian, jazz, he likes them all! Still, I know it is best to stand aside and let him make his own decisions right now.
Scott is a senior at Frankenmuth High School and will be eighteen soon. He also is a boy at heart sometimes! He has a room in the basement FULL of lego pieces from a lifetime of collecting them! He has been building all kinds of aircraft and fighter planes the past year or two. I noticed at the end of the soybean picture file he had some photos of a helicopter he finished last night…what do you think!?
Boys and their toys! Scott is a lifelong lego lover!
Tags: Family Life, Farming
