Combines Ilnh how about you

Hello JD, Wish I could help you but one of the duals sprung a leak today and went flat. lucky that it is an outside tire and I kept combineing today(just kept putting air in). We had an 1.3" rain over weekend but the ground is holding up the combine better now than before, I can't explain that. I would trade you corn crops as the field I was in tonite was yielding about 10 bpa (same field two years ago made 160). And to top that it also has aflatoxin in it. I was starting to wish the hopper on the 98 wasn't so big as I didn't think I would ever fill it up before I was going to fall asleep. O'well thats why they pay us the big bucks. Better days ahead, Ilnewholland

Sorry about your tire leaking air. We had a crop like yours once. I just put two pigs in the grain tank and changed pigs over the noon hour.

Don , A bad crop happens down here about every 10 years or so. When great-grand-dad came in 1890 he didn't want the swamp land like you have but the nice draining, rolling, white soil down here. Makes me want to go dig him up and kick his butt. This to shall pass, Ilnewholland

Il N H, I have thought the same thing. Why did my ansestors ever stop here. Sorry to here those yeilds. The {This to shall pass} makes me think of the guy who writes in the Agri-News. He said that all year long. The bad thing about this year is that we are another year older, the good part about this year in farming is mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm let me think. I cant think of anything good about this crop year. Illinois Gleaner

Guys,we do feel very fortunate. I know why my ancestors came over from Germany to this then "foresaken" swamp in the 1870's-90s'. Nobody else wanted it. They made sod huts and talked about building windmills like in the"old country" of Oesfriesland next to Holland They had nothing but freedom when they came. Most of them were duck tenders and sheep herders. My grandfather came to America by jumping ship and stowing away after hitting his school master in the head with his wooden shoe. He learned surveying and he started surveying which way the water had to flow to get to the rivers. By the turn of the century they were digging drainge ditches and blasting to get through the limestone rock ledges that surrounded the swamp on three sides. Anyway thats history,and it has brought us to todays well drained prductive soils that are not drought proof, but the good soils will hold about 11" of moisture in the top 40" of soil.My dad in his 87 years told me that he had only witnessed one drought in 1936. So on the average that wasn't too bad. So in 1980 when we had a drought I thought I may never see another. Well, that was followed by a worse drought in '83, '88, and '91. You never know what the weather may bring.

Don, I think me and John sometimes think the grass is greener on the other side(of course this past summer it really was greener) of the fence. The history of your family is a very nice story Don. My greatgrandfather came to SWIl in the early 1890's from Poland to a farm here, but he did not like his farm and knew of a better one 5 miles away. So he sold his farm, packed family up and went out to the great northwest of Washington and Oregon and worked as a lumberjack for 3 years. He then came back here and had enough money to buy the farm that he wanted. He purchased one of the best 80 acre farms in Perry county. The only problem is there is not much more good farmland(flat, darker soil) than that 80 acres here. I am just not sure why you would leave and then come back here. I suppose we still all have a choice of where we want to farm but not to many people can pack up and move nowdays. I told you we have a year like this about every 10 years, but I looked back and 80,83,84,88,91, and 95 was dry summers so its more like every 4 years on avg. Somehow I try to forget the bad years. I just hope the new, young bankerman will understand this also. I am going to try to be very nice to him year. Ilnewholland

Ilnewholland, It's interesting to me read about how things developed back in the early days.It's almost impossible for me to realize what an undertaking it was to pack up and travel across the country to new territory. My ancesstors on mom's side especially moved out Hastings, Neb, NW Iowa, Sibley Ia. and a few tried SD. Most of them came back after the dainage showed promise and the dust bowl was hard on them too. Some are still out there, but many in recent generations got more education and took off on to other careers. I have often wondered why your area had more variable weather. Could it be that lake Michigan could be influencing the weather up here more than we thinkIJ Anyway, I don't think I would have been so brave as to pulling up stakes like they did.I have often said that there is no other place in the world I would rather be than right here, but I do love the rocky mountains. In fact we owned a log home on the Rio Grande a few years ago which was a beautiful place to be. We lived there when we harvested malt barley for coors in the San luis valley of Colo. We have 16 grandkids around here and we were just to far away out there. Speaking of changes. The last 20 years has changed this area. The rural estates have just sprung up everyehere. We are only 60-90 miles south of Chicago and lots of people are moving out. The people selling land for development and buying down here accounts for most of the sales. I still love it here even if we do have neighbors that don't know what asoybean plant looks like. Some of them commute to Chicago area every day. My youngest son lives on and operates the home farm. I live at Bayles lake, which is the cloest I could get to water and still be close to family.