The Science of Growing Corn - 2020 Edition

One could just plant the corn. (Of course, there is a lot more than "just" planting corn: soil prep, weed prevention and then control, fertilizer, the right seed, more weed prevention and control, possibly more fertilizer... it takes some corny wisdom to get it all right within budget!  But anyway....) 

OR one could plant the corn and keep a scientific eye on it, just for fun.  The corn is going to grow whether or not record keeping is kept, but Josh keeps track of the weather each day just for fun and interest. Here's why:

A piece of seed corn takes so many "heat units" to mature into the corn that is harvested.  From the time the kernel is planted, Josh keeps a running record of the high and low for each day.  He plugs the highs and lows into a formula: high - low / 2 - 50 = the daily heat unit.  He keeps a running total of the heat units acquired throughout the growing season.  It takes approximately 2500-2600 heat units for corn to go from being dropped in the ground to being mature and ready for harvest.  From this amount, he can determine at what stage the corn is entering or finishing.

Josh has always loved farming and weather. This is an interesting way to combine the two.
Here's an example of his records, a picture of this year's chart so far into the year.

Obviously each year varies depending on what day the seed is planted and how warm and cool it is.  Out of curiosity, I went back through all of Josh's records and compared each year's amassed heat units up to this date, June 11:

2020:  550.5

2019:  185   

2018:  790.5

2017:  574  

2016:  593 

2015:  550 

2014:  590.5

2013:  401 

2012:  611

2011:  577.5

2010:  323.5

One interesting item to note is that corn will reach different milestones as it matures.  One of these milestones is called "black layer".  When the kernel of corn is done growing, it will develop a literal layer of black at the base of the kernel at the cob.  This indicates the kernel is done growing and now will start drying down, readying for harvest.  As mentioned previously, the black layer indicating maturity happens between 2500-2600 heat units.  

This picture shows the stages of black layer: from still milky on the right to black layered on the left.
Photo credit: arkansas-crop . com

                                   

As Josh is keeping track of his records, he always notes the date he discovers the black layer in the corn.  Here are the past dates:

2020:

2019: not noted (hmmm... I wonder what happened there?)

2018: August 28

2017: September 9

2016: September 5

2015: not noted (tsk tsk, another record slacking year)

2014: September 12

2013: September 13

2012: August 31

2011: August 30

2010: September 9

If you compare the June 11 heat unit dates to the black layer dates by year, you can tell how much difference each year can be.  The warmer the weather, generally the quicker the corn matures.  Even if the corn is planted "late", it could still catch up to a "normal" year if the weather is right.  Likewise, if the corn is planted "on time", it could lag if the weather is too cool.  You just can never tell what the year will bring!

It's always fun to keep track of the heat units, check on the corn and discover that once again the heat units and the milestones match up.  It's like the Jack that's in the box that pops up every time and yet, still a surprise!  

Cattle Vaccinations and Branding

Any good livestock producer puts a great deal of time and effort (and money) into maintaining the health of their animals.  It doesn't matter if it's cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, chickens, llamas... you name it and there's a protocol to maintain their quality of health and happiness.

There are a number of routines that we do throughout the year, depending on what time of year it is.  This post is specifically about the way we prepare our cattle for their optimal health throughout spring and summer and how we freeze brand to identify ownership.

First, optimal health:

Some people assume that a livestock producer's main goal is just to accumulate as many head as they can, throw everything in a pen and push the heck out of them to maximize profit.  Unfortunately, there are a few - and I mean JUST a FEW - of those people out there; in any group, there's always potential for a bad apple.   However, the overwhelmingly majority of livestock producers take great pride and care in tending their livestock.  

One of the ways we tend our livestock is to keep them up on their annual vaccinations.  

SAY WHAT?!?!  

You heard me right! Vaccinations.  Every year, we gather every single head of livestock we own - from the mature to babes -  and give them the vaccinations they need to keep them safe from a number of illnesses or conditions that would otherwise potentially afflict them in summer pastures.  Some vaccinations are just needed once in their life, some come with boosters and some are annual.  It's no different than human vaccinations: we give our children vaccinations in their young years to protect them from potentially deadly diseases; and similarly, some are once, some come with boosters and some (like people's flu shot) are annual.  Just like people have people diseases that the vaccinations help prevent, cattle have cattle diseases that the vaccinations help prevent.  So, every year before the cattle are turned out to wide open pasture for the spring, summer and fall, they EACH get their OWN diagnoses of what vaccinations are needed and they get them.  We keep records so we know who needs what.  The vaccinations cover things as simple as pink eye to more complicated issues like respiratory viruses and a whole gamut of things in between.

This is one of the bulls in the chute.  Josh and Sarah were the in charge of the branding (noted later in the post) and Loren and Caleb were vaccinating.  Loren did the shots and the device in Caleb's hand applied the dewormer (also mentioned a little later in the post).

Our operation is something called a cow-calf operation.  That means we raise the mamas (cows) and their babies (calves).  At every point in time throughout the year, we have pregnant mamas.  And just like pregnant women, they need special health care.  So the cows get a shot that helps protect their pregnancy from a disease that would hurt both cow and calf.  It's kinda like prenatal vitamins, except you can't really give a cow a daily pill so you give her an annual shot instead.

This is a little bit of an older picture, but shows a few cow-calf pairs.

The cattle also get a dose of dewormer, just like your pets at home do.  And a little bit later in the season, we'll also give them a dose of pest (flies, tick, mite, flea, etc.) control, just like your pets at home get through shot, collar or liquid application.

Later in the summer, the cattle get an application of a pest control in the form of a shower.  It actually feels pretty good to them because the water is nice and cool on what is usually a very hot day.  It's like playing in the sprinklers for them... by the time their turn in the pen is over, they're usually nudging each other out of the way to get a better shot of the water!

Something to keep in mind is that each year is different and could pose a health threat that might not have been present the year before or that was present the year before but isn't the current year.  Livestock producers have to keep a constant eye on their herd to watch for signs and symptoms and keep up to date on research for what is the best method used to keep their herd healthy.

One last thing to note about vaccinations: we don't use any kind of hormonal supplements.  The vaccinations do their job to build up the animal's immunity but do not stay in their system, so what we offer is natural beef without any kind of hormonal additives.

On to branding.

When you say branding, most people think of hot branding, where the ranch's logo is burned into the cattle hide and the resulting scar from the burn is the brand.  That method is still used in some places, but there is a much more humane method that is quickly replacing the hot brand.   That method is freeze branding.  The method of freeze branding uses either liquid nitrogen or a dry ice and alcohol mixture to cool a branding iron so cold that it causes the hair follicle's pigmentation to stop forming.  The hair stays on the animal (there is no scar) but turns white since the hair stops producing color.  The length of time the cold branding iron stays on the hide varies depending on its age; calves run about 30 seconds and aged cows are about 70 seconds with a variation of times for ages in between.  The cattle don't feel any pain, but it's kinda funny because they give a little jump about 10 seconds in like they're saying "Hey, that's kinda cold!"

Once the hair turns white, it stays white forever so we only have to brand each animal once.  Also, brands will grow with the animal so when we brand calves, we brand with a smaller iron so that the brand will be a normal size once the calf grows into an adult.

Why brand?  Well, for three main of reasons.  First, unfortunately cattle rustling still exists.  However, if your brand is registered (which ours is), wherever the cattle is sold must check that the name and address the brand is registered to is the same name and address the check is going to when the animal is sold.  So someone can't sell branded cattle that they've stolen since the name on the check and the name for the brand won't match.  Second, fences don't always work!  If neighbors' cattle get mixed up, it's easy to tell apart whose is whose when at least one of their cattle are branded.  And third, for us anyway, is that our (ours and Josh's folks) cattle run together.  So depending on how the brand is placed, we know if the cattle is theirs or ours.

Our registered brand is VZ.  The steam you see coming off is from the cold iron meeting the warm skin, just like when your warm breath meets the cold air on a winter morning.

The skin on which the iron is applied is imprinted with the iron for just a few minutes.  The imprint leaves (like bed sheet marks in the morning when you wake up) and the area will be white in just a few weeks.

The method of branding we use is the alcohol and dry ice method because dry ice is much more easier to acquire than liquid nitrogen.  We do have to use pure 99% alcohol, so we have to get it from the vet.  The dry ice comes from HyVee.  It's always fun to play with the leftover mixture when we're done branding with it.  Sarah had fun freezing plants that then shattered when she dropped them on the ground.

Caleb discovered feathers don't easily freeze!

Here's an example of how the hair becomes white.  This is Olive Oyl and Caleb at the fair a couple years ago.

You can tell by how little Caleb is in this picture that this was taken a few years ago too, but here's Milsap's brand all white and pretty.  We used the "little iron" on him since it was a calf and knew the brand would grow as he grew.

And here's Milsap all grown up.  The brand grew to be "normal" size.

We have different herds depending on when they're due to give birth or when they last gave birth.  When the time comes in the spring to work cattle, we will usually do one or two herds a day, depending on how sizable the herd is.   This time, it took us the better part of three days to do all the work.  The boys do most of it, but they call in us girls for backup on the days they do the big herds so we can help with record keeping, keeping a steady line in the chute, branding and the simple vaccinations.  It can become a long, hard, often hot, day's work, but it's rather enjoyable.  

Going UP... Amanda's View

Fair warning:  lots of pictures ahead of building a silo.

But before I show pictures, I have to give so much credit to the four men who put this silo up. Pouring concrete is not an easy job to begin with, even on the ground, but to do it on a six inch platform and eighty feet up in the air is just crazy.  They are seriously some of the hardest working men I've ever met.  They climbed the silo in the morning, pouring up to three loads of concrete a day, battling cold, rain and ridiculous wind gusts of up to 50 mph (the weather just didn't cooperate at all the first week) and didn't come down until the end of the day when the job was done.  I don't think anyone can really appreciate just how hard these men worked unless they've done the work themselves.  My hat goes off to them.

A look coming down the road.  Exciting to see the truck back up and things starting to take shape!

Setting up the forms and what I call the tripod.  I'm sure there's a name for it and I'm not right calling it that, but it has three arms on it, so it makes sense to me to call it a tripod.

The form sits on the ground or otherwise the last form that was poured (which I'll point out in a later picture).  It's the dark ring you can barely make out between the pickup and the company truck.  It's actually two steel rings: a larger one that forms the outside ring and a smaller one that forms the inside of the ring.  Between the two rings is a six inch space that the rerod is woven together an then concrete is poured into.  Once the concrete cures (concrete does not dry, folks), the forms is removed, inside and out, and moved up onto the last form that was poured (again, I'll point out in a later picture) and the process is started all over again.

Now, the tripod - that spider looking thing you see in the middle of the picture.  I'll be honest, I don't know much about the tripod.  But to the best of my understanding, it's the muscles of the job.  The tripod sets up in the middle of the silo, using legs pressed against the form to hold itself up and is moved up with the silo as the silo gets higher.  The arms that extend up and over provide the lifting support, holds the forms, brings up the bucket of concrete (you'll see later), raises and lowers the forms as they're being built, holds the cart that carries the concrete around the whole circumference of the silo and I think it's what the guys attach their safety ropes to, too.  I'm sure I got a detail a little off and missed a whole lot, but we'll be safe to say that the tripod is the heart of the build.

The concrete truck backs up to the silo and unloads into a bucket (that you'll see in a few pictures).  Here you can see the silo is getting taller, from one form to now three.  The forms are four feet high, so here the silo is twelve feet.

Here's a first picture of the bucket used to lift concrete up to the top of the form being poured.  There is a man standing in the middle of the silo with an orange hat on.  To the right of that you can see the bucket.  The bucket is filled with concrete, about the amount that fits in a wheelbarrow, and hydraulically sent up to the top of the form being poured via a cable.  You'll see more of this in future pictures.  See how the tripod arms are being used to bring up the bucket? 

The bucket of concrete is poured into a cart that travels around the rim of the silo.  See the guy in the orange hat again?  He is on a cart that he can control to stop and go.  It actually travels around the rim of the silo.  As he moves around, he can dump the concrete from the cart into the forms.  It takes less than a minute for his cart to empty and then he zooms back over to the bucket, refills and does it over and over again until the load of concrete is poured and the form is filled.

Meanwhile, as the cart runner is pouring concrete, the other two men are walking the rim of the form tamping and vibrating the concrete to have it pack just right.  You can barely see the man in the orange hat on the far side dumping while the man in the blue hat is in the foreground tamping.  There's also someone else on the left of the silo here, which is unusual.  Almost all the time, three, if not all four, were up on top of the silo working.  While pouring the concrete, the fourth man stands by the concrete mixer running the bucket up and down.

A cool picture of the truck, tripod and the men working.  You can also make out the three forms here, meaning it's twelve feet.  This is a good picture to explain how they move the forms up since you can easily see all three forms. The forms are connected to each other with buckles.  They buckle around the circumference to make it a tight ring and then they are buckled to the form below it to make the connection tight. Once the concrete in the bottom form cures, which takes several hours, the outside ring of the form is unbuckled to make it loose.  Then, using the hydraulics of the tripod, the form is lifted up and put into place.  After the outside ring is placed, the men put the rerod into place within the forms.  Once the rerod is placed, the inside ring of the form is brought up and put into place.  Once that's done, they're ready for another pour.  They move the forms up and over each other, time after time, until all nineteen forms were poured.  Sounds simple enough, but it's a lot of muscle work to get it all done. 

Another picture of the concrete going from the bucket to the cart.  You can see the cart our buddy in the orange hat is standing on.  That cart has the ability to go completely around the circumference to pour.  

The guys reach out, grab the bucket and then dumps.

We're getting there!  Looks like seven forms have been poured here.  Twenty-eight feet in the air.  They poured either two or three forms a day.  It really depended on the weather and the concrete company getting the mix here.

Looks like nine forms here, thirty-six feet.  Could you walk the six-inch rim, pouring concrete thirty-six feet up in the air?  And notice the gray sky.

A few days later, and we have fifteen forms poured.  The silo is at sixty feet now!  This picture is a great one to point out the chute.  You can see the vertical "tunnel" on the side of the silo.  This is the chute and serves two purposes once the silo is in use.  The first is that this is where the silage will fall out as it's being fed.  The silo unloader (which will be another post) pushes silage from the top of the silage inside the silo out a door.  (I'll show a door in a later picture.)   The silage falls down the chute, whether it's all seventy-six feet high or just five, onto a conveyor that carries the silage to the bunks for the cattle to eat.  The second use of the chute is that it acts as an inside access to the doors and a ladder that goes to the top of the silo so that maintenance can be continued.

Pretty neat picture of the chute.

There is also an outside ladder formed into the concrete as it is being poured.  When the silo is finished, there will be a safety cage around this ladder, in case one would fall while climbing it.  But for now, the fellas just climb it with no cage.  

There's part of the cage that will go around the ladder.  It has a "wall" in case someone were to fall backward and also has two (or three?) platforms that can be kicked into place as the climber goes up to catch them in case they were to fall down the ladder.  Better to fall twenty feet onto a platform than eighty feet onto the ground!

Here's the hydraulic machine that sent the bucket up and down.  The buck is there on the bottom left of the picture.

 

Here's the bucket that's filled and raised full of concrete.

This is a picture taken from the ground looking up into the chute.  The day I took this picture was so windy, it was miserable.  I literally ducked my head, stuck my hand into the chute and took a blind picture.  I think it turned out pretty cool.  The light at the end of the tunnel is at seventy-two feet if I remember right.

Thumbs up from Caleb.  The date is wrong on this picture, as it is on many of them.  It should be April 12, the day of the last pour.  The nineteenth form was poured on this morning, making the silo height a total of seventy-six feet before the dome (roof) is placed.

A thing of beauty.  The thing that makes a cattle farmer's heart go pitter-patter.

Caleb and Sarah watching the last load being poured.  We got to the yard pretty early just to be sure we wouldn't miss it!

Caleb and Sarah again.  They just sat there on the mound and just watched.  At this point, the top of the form is at seventy-six feet.

It's hard to make out, Paul, the head honcho, is there at the truck filling the bucket to be sent up.  He's looking up, so I'm sure the bucket is in the air at this point.

 

The bucket is hanging full while Paul steps back to pull the handle to lift it up.

Beautiful blue sky!

Now, I have some videos on YouTube if you'd like to see the action live:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oDjYIwOZwg - filling up the bucket

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWSkDXvzSn8 - going round the top

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksMvDei2ado - the whole process

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QItj7V1UdiI - taking down the form

Stay tuned for the next post, Going Up... Josh's View!

Unloading - The Beginning

So.  After ten months and lots and lots and lots of cleanup, we have begun to build again!  The first step, unloading part of the materials. Take a look:

A "before" look coming up to the farm.  You can see the cattle barn, but there was once two silos, a cattle shed, machine shed and a big "horse barn" before the tornado went through.  The horse barn was huge and hand built, used to keep the horses in way back in the day when horses were still used for field work.  The legacy of that barn can never be replaced.

Just a closer up view.  The new silo sits on that concrete pad in middle and to the right of the picture.

Up bright and early to greet the part of supplies that were in the first delivery.  

Paul was the silo builder expert and delivered the load, which had, among other things, the doors that go inside the silo chute, the pipe that goes on the outside to blow silage up and into the silo, the dome and all the rerod that, along with the concrete, is the main support of the silo.

Just another look at the pad where the silo sits.  The circle you see on the left is the foundation where the silo will actually be built on.  Thankfully, the foundation of the old silo was still solid enough that we could use it.  In fact, the old foundation was preferred because it had been there for so long we knew that it wouldn't settle over time.

Unloading the pieces that will be put together to make the dome (or the roof) of the silo.

These are the doors that go inside the chute.

The pipe that goes on the outside and a cute little photobomber.

And tons of rerod. Or whatever you call it.  I call it rerod, I know some call it rebar.  It's a loose term.  The concrete is poured over the rerod and becomes the skeleton, so to speak, that provides the strength of the structure.