We are fortunate to have excellent landowners whose farms we rent. We have a bright future with our expanding farming operation.
We give thanks to God for our many blessings…
Fifteen years ago, this was our team of "Horses" that did all our heavy work! The 8970 on the right had 400 horsepower and the 9400 on
the left had 425 "horses"! Best of all…in the winter, we never had to feed them nor did we have to clean up behind them!
This was our John Deere tractor power just before we started fieldwork in the spring of 2004. Beginning on the left is a 8970, a 9400,
a 8400, a 8420 with spray tanks and a planter, a 7800 and another 7800 with a loader. Each winter, we try to bring each piece of equipment
through our shop for inspection, repairs and a good cleanup before the spring season.
Our 24-row planter didn't have GPS Autosteer back in the year 2000…so we had to use the planter markers to show where to drive for the next pass.
Our John Deere 9610 combine unloading corn into a Kinze grain cart with side extensions that could hold 1,000 bushels of corn.
First day of harvest that fall!
We always do yield checks with seed dealers as well as with our own weigh wagons. This allows us to calibrate our combine
yield monitors as well as compare different varieties within a field.
We used to have to mow the cornstalks after harvest in order for our primary tillage implements to handle the heavy crop residue.
We no longer need to do this.
We used to use a MC continuous flow dryer to dry our corn to moisture levels suitable for storage in our bins. We have since
removed this dryer and depend on a dozen or so in-bin dryers with stirrators.
30 years ago, hopper bottom grain trailers were not common, so here is a photo of two of our trucks being unloaded at the
Bunge (now CGB) river terminal elevator at East Hannibal, Illinois. Just look at the powerful tilt-up platforms…bear in mind that these loaded trucks sometimes exceeded 100,000 pounds! (Especially really early in the mornings!)