Thanks Ron! When I have time to watch KZfaq videos, Pete from Just a Few Acres is one of my favorites too. I'd love to sit down with him some day and visit if the opportunity ever arose. It'd be a hoot!

@@ravenviewfarm we were in your area in June we went on 19 on our way to Hastings on the Friday before Father's day and Saturday it rained all day

@@ravenviewfarm You'd need to brush up on bad jokes. Although having a camera stand named Rod is a good start.

Thanks Larson Valley Farm! I might attend that event if it works around our haying schedule. Rush City isn't a long way for me to go. We've been so crazy busy here that I've missed a number of MSHC events that I wanted to attend. I especially wanted to go to the Premier Soil Health event last week, but we were baling hay. I'm hoping once oat harvest is out of the way we'll slow down enough to get off the farm a little and be back out in the world, lol!

Hey Larry! Good to hear from you! Yep, I finally pulled the trigger and got a bunch of worms, lol. I'll have some video updates about that in the future as well. Not much to see yet since I just have a small worm bin made out of an old garbage can. Those little guys reproduce fast though, so their population will outgrow that bin by autumn, and if I can keep them cozy through the winter I'll have quite the vermicompost operation by spring of 2025. Hope you're doing well!

Thanks Tom! I'm working on a few more videos already. My daughter has gotten interested in using the camera, so it's fun to be able to create videos together as a family. I appreciate you tuning in!

Thanks Douglas! I get a little long-winded I know, and most people would rather see the equipment working, but I think a tour is important for context once in awhile. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I just swathed the oats down yesterday and filmed it. Of course they got rained on last night, so we'll spend a couple of days getting the combine all tuned up and ready while they dry back down. Then it's go time!

Yes!

I totally agree Rusty Relics. Having worked in the construction industry, I've already got some rudimentary plans drawn up for it. We're going to focus on fixing up some of our other buildings first, since we can do that fairly affordably. The barn will require a loan, or a wealthy patron or something (I wish, LOL!) But the farm just doesn't seem right without it, so we'll have to try to get one put up one of these years. Plus I'd love to have hay storage on the farm so we can stop renting the neighbor's barn for our hay crops.

@@ravenviewfarm Posting more often should help.

Totally agree on all of your points. I've enjoyed it when our interseeded covers did well, but it's just so hit and miss. I honestly think we're doing more for our soil health by having a diverse cash crop rotation and using rye in the fall, along with the compost extract now.

I really think you hit the nail on the head with the two biggest things that make people averse to GMO crops. There's definitely a severe lack of good, scientifically grounded information available to the general public. Meanwhile there are a whole slew of unqualified fringe-ideas out in the digital universe that anyone can find with a quick Google search. So that drives a lot of the apprehension people feel about GMO crops. Herbicide exposure is another big one. I'm honestly not quite sure where I stand on that issue myself. Glyphosate is a lot safer than many of the other herbicides on the market, but I do also feel that we don't understand its long term effects after repeated exposure as well as we need to. One factor that I take into consideration - but much of the general public wouldn't include in their calculus - is that there is some evidence that GMO crops don't affiliate as well with native soil biology. Interactions between mycorrhizal fungi and corn root systems have been observed to be less vigorous and effective with modern corn varieties in particular. Whether that's because of genetic modification or simply really aggressive hybridization practices is hard to say, but it is a consideration for those of us focusing on soil biology in our crop systems. Again, more studies and information are needed since the industry isn't really focusing on fungal affiliation (why would you when mainstream corn farming is focused on heavy synthetic fertilizer use?) We'll get there eventually, but it'll probably be a long road. I'm a proponent of GMO crops as well. If I start growing non-GMO corn it'll be mainly for the savings in seed cost, coupled with a desire to respond to the wishes of my customer base. As long as we can put together an effective herbicide mix for it, there's really no reason not to give it a try since it should increase my profit margin.

Once you get started with compost - no matter how you initially do it - you'll learn a lot of lessons fairly quickly. If you have questions, I'll be happy to help with answers. We're still learning ourselves, so bear with me on the things we don't know. It's a fun journey! Regarding ear corn - we're sold out until harvest time. We actually kept a crib well into the summer this year because the commodity prices were so low, but shelled out what was left of it and sent it to the elevator earlier this month.

@@ravenviewfarm We ran out months ago, but never found time to head out your way.

We're still kickin! Life has been a blur this year.

Well I'll be danged! That's a new one for me, but I can see it. Now if only someone would bequeath me a chocolate factory!

Hey KPVFarmer! Thanks for watching! I definitely hear you on the cost of a discbine. We've kicked it around as well, but for our acreage and hours of use each year it just makes more sense to keep the haybine tuned up and running.

Hey Patrick! Thanks for watching! Full disclosure, we've almost quit interseeding our corn at this point. For us, the weather has been so erratic that we've had a heck of a time getting an interseeded cover crop to grow over the last four years or so. The last three years were really droughty, so we would interseed and hardly anything would come up. Then this year we had so much rain in late May and all of June that we couldn't get it done at all. Don't get me wrong, I still love the practice itself! It's just getting hard to justify the seed cost when barely any of it grows. Plus we've had to limit our herbicide options if we want to interseed, and the grassy weeds especially are starting to get away on us. All that to say we're still learning, and we will probably have another go at it in the future. I just need to figure out a little better balance with herbicide and timing and seed mix. My advice to you would be to keep the seed mix a little lighter than most people would recommend. Maybe 15 to 20 lbs per acre total. Keep the cost down so that it doesn't break the bank if conditions aren't favorable and the result ends up being lackluster. Best of luck! Any amount of extra diversity is good for the soil and the ecosystem!

Yep! The rollers crimp the stems every couple of inches, which really helps with letting the moisture out and getting faster dry down. Plus the bales end up feeling softer with the stems smashed, which I think makes the hay more appealing for my customers.

I would assume you can find one in Canada, but I'm not Canadian so I can't claim to be an expert. It's called a Brillion seeder. A quick Google search should get you started with learning about them and where you might find one to use.

@@ravenviewfarm thank you so much! I found it

Ours was a 1968 model with some nice features. Kind of amazing how many years they produced the same machines back then - with continuous upgrades of course. I liked that ours had variable speed control on the cylinder, and the FRONT concave spacing could be adjusted easily from the cab. Rear spacing still had to be done with a wrench on the outside, but since we only did soybeans with it I could kind of set it and forget it. Our 4400 now has some nice improvements over the prior generation of combines, but they also add a lot of complexity to the machine. I really appreciate how simple the 55 was, and how few belts and chains and bearings it had vs the newer machine.

Thanks for watching!

Hey Thomas! Our elevator is a Kewanee 500.

We got pretty lucky with this one. We're the third owners. The guys we bought it from had it for 23 years I believe. They're professional mechanics who farm on the side, so they kept EVERYTHING meticulously maintained. I've had to iron out a few minor bugs that they missed, but all of the most important elements of the machine were kept in tip top shape. We paid quite a bit for it compared to other 4400s I've seen for sale, but it was worth every penny. Plus it came with three heads that were also all in great condition, so it was a full package deal. AND it was only two miles from us. With all that going for it, we couldn't pass it up.

@@ravenviewfarm You did well. They are a great size of combine for smaller farmers like us. I don't need anything the size of a JD 9500 or any of the newer ones. Take good care of that machine and it'll last you a long, long time.

We’re on 38” wide rows. We talked about making the switch to 30” rows about a decade ago. I’m glad we didn’t though, since the wider rows work better with our interseeded cover crops.

I’m trying to get into picking but all I can find is wide rows… looking like it maybe what I end up with

LOL! It looks like a close one, right? I watched that a dozen times while I was editing and kept thinking, “Did we really cut it that close?!” After really squinting at it, I think the camera angle and the shadows make it look worse than it actually was.

We bought this machine from a neighbor who had only ever used it for soybeans and wheat. It doesn’t seem to mind corn a bit though! Good eye. We’re on 38” row spacing. Never made the switch to narrower rows.

I agree. We have a 4420 and always run ours in 2nd gear combining corn. We occasionally have to slow down if the corn is really good and overloads the clean grain auger. I really enjoy your videos as we have a small operation like yours.

@tomlines7181 and @danderson4096 - Thanks for the feedback guys! That really helps verify that I'm on the right track.

Hey Eric! Our corn isn’t carried in any stores at the moment. We currently only sell direct to customers right from the farm. If you live in MN and are within convenient driving distance, I’d be happy to set you up with some ear corn. We’re well stocked at the moment, and also have bags of shelled corn and cracked corn available. I don’t like to post my contact info directly in KZfaq comments, but if you check out www.ravenviewfarm.net you’ll find all of our products, as well as the best ways to get ahold of me. Even if it doesn’t work out, I really appreciate your interest!

The work can be pretty hard at times, and is occasionally downright dangerous. The money often isn't great either, LOL. And of course there are a lot of variables a guy can't control that influence your odds of success, so that's frustrating. But the scenery is pretty good, it's never boring, you get to work from home and to some degree set your own schedule. It's a good way to teach kids important values and life lessons. Really if a guy can overcome the money part of it, it's a pretty nice life if your brain and body are wired for it. I still haven't quite found out how to make it pay, but we're getting there!

Thanks for watching! I think there may be a market for the cobs, but the trick is getting them under cover or storing them somehow. Once they get wet it’s all downhill from there. A silage tarp might be our best cheap option. We’ve considered running them through a hammer mill with a really coarse screen and bagging them up for pet bedding, but we just don’t have the equipment or facilities to try it out yet. Until then, they go back on the fields to return to the soil.