Midwest Farm Tour 2.0

[Nanu/Nanu]

@Tractorsdontfloat do kids still detassle corn in the summer? What exactly was that for? I honestly don’t remember, other than it sounded like a better job than shearing Christmas trees…

Can you please expand a little bit how the seed companies develop their hybrids?

I was thinking the same thing i detasseled corn in the summer. Couldnt remember what the science behind it was but it paid good something like 5 bucks an hour at the time.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Yeah, I was shearing Christmas trees for $3.35-$3.75/hr depending on rating and thinking detassling sounded pretty good, plus there were more girls detassling …

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Thanks Hydroskreemin I’ve been extremely happy with most all my new equipment. Considering the last item of the first package of machines just finally showed up Wednesday morning, yes the salesman and I have been in touch regularly. The sprayer was excellent and worked flawlessly. That is a whole discussion I should delve into as I really haven’t much.

Snowhammer, the four female rows are the only ones allowed to produce a viable ear. The full purpose of the detasseling process is to prevent those rows from producing pollen , thus the only pollen comes from the single male row, and thus producing the hybrid. If the female plants were allowed to shed pollen it would then produce another ear of its own self, just as the male plants do when they produce an ear that is pollinated by itself, and not the desired hybrid. This is why the male rows are completely destroyed before the kernels that pollinate on those ears can become viable.

once the hybrid is produced, then the seed Produced will continue as that hybrid by allowing the plants to pollinate themselves as they do in regular production.


And to both of you regarding shearing trees and detasseling corn. I was child labor.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Finished harvest for the season today. Been pushing hard for the past couple weeks, with a short break this past weekend for the annual deer hunt here in Cheeseland. Snapped a quick shot as I walked away from the combine as the sun was setting. Blessed with a bountiful and safe harvest again this year. Lots to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Hey guys. A little step sideways today.

Back in 2007, we added some grain storage to the farm. To do so, we tore down an old building. Not thinking much about it at the time, I didn’t take any pictures other than buying an arial photo around that time. Well, while cleaning the building out, I came across some old crap that was just too interesting to be thrown out. One of those was an old paper barrel full of old bags. Some old burlap tater bags, some miscellaneous seed bags.

To some, this may be simply an “oh cool, but so what” thought. To me it was an ah ha moment with a plan.. unfortunately it was also something that just got set aside. But not forgotten! Some of these things just got discarded. But I did bury a few for a “someday“ idea.

Well, one day finally came a couple weeks ago, when I dug a couple of those old bags out. These are canvas with a paper liner, and are starting to get a bit brittle, but still fully intact.

The two bags are both corn seed bags from the early 1950’s. The thing I find cool about them is they are DeKalb brand seed. This is a brand that still exists and is a leading brand in the industry yet today. I took them to a local hobby shop and had them frame these up. The fact they are still in such good shape at about 70 years old is what makes these so cool. Enjoy.

This one I believe to be from around 1954.

This one I believe may be a year or two older. Probably 1952. I also have a seed tag from another bag that was just too rough to do the full frame up. I added it with this one instead. The tag is dated 12/57.

I had them done very similar, just a little different frame on each. I tried to pull the red, yellow and green from the bags without washing the colors out of either bag or frame.

The one with the tags is now hanging in my office next to my DeKalb awards from this past year. The other is going in my new “Toy shed”. I’ve already put a few of my previous years awards for great corn crops up on the wall with the plan to keep adding fun farm signage and lit signs to the walls. Here’s a couple I have a photo of.

Anyone else got any cool old seed bags done up and displayed?

 

[mjc]

We have this as a pillow.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

We have this as a pillow. View attachment 1391526

That’s awesome. Not sure my wife would let me do a pillow with one, must a great decor piece.