Making Hay
13/07/12 04:04
They’re making hay in Nebraska. They’re really making hay in Nebraska.
OK that statement needs an explanation for some of the regular readers of this blog. We left on vacation yesterday. We had a funeral in the morning and after the graveside committal, we went home, changed our clothes and got in our truck. We’re on our way to Warrensburg, MO, where we will visit our daughter and son-in-law. They’ve got some home improvement projects that are just the ticket for ministers on vacation. Repairing and refinishing a deck and painting are very different from our usual line of employment and as much as they wouldn’t seem like vacation to a carpenter or painter or home handyman, they are great projects for ministers who enjoy working with things that don’t talk from time to time.
But a further explanation is also in order. Vacation for me means leaving the Interstate behind. When we travel with our camper, 65 mph is just about the right speed, so we don’t gain any time by sticking to the Interstates. And I am interested in following different roads and seeing different sights. So our route to the campground in Onawa, Iowa, where we slept last night took us down to Valentine, Nebraska and across Northern Nebraska on Highway 20 through Norfolk and then on a smaller road to Decatur where we crossed the Missouri into Iowa. It is my kind of a drive.
So we had an opportunity to check out the crops in Northeast Nebraska. In that part of the world they grow corn, soybeans, alfalfa, corn, soybeans and a little corn and soybeans to round out the crops. Oh, and they grow alfalfa for hay. And this is a good year for hay in this part of the world. They’re putting up their second cutting here and prospects look good for a third cutting. The round bales are thick in the fields. We saw one field where they had four round balers working at the same time.
That is a stark contrast to the part of the world where we live. It takes water to grow good alfalfa. And water is in short supply in our neck of the woods. It is also in short supply for the folks in Montana and North Dakota, or so I hear. I have a friend in Montana who is talking about selling cattle early this year. There are fields where he won’t even get one cutting this year. It is better to just pasture cattle there and save the cost of fuel that it would take to harvest such a poor crop.
But they’re making hay in Nebraska.
This part of the world, where Nebraska and South Dakota and Iowa meet is a place where there are a lot of cattle get fed. A whole lot of the corn that we saw growing in the fields as we drove is chopped directly as cattle feed. They don’t bother to combine it, but rather use specialized harvesters that chop the entire plant in the field. Producing beef and pork for people to eat is a big part of the agricultural economy here. And what they do is different from the way ranching is done where I grew up and where I live now.
In the Western part of South Dakota and in much of Wyoming and Montana, the main crop is grass. Sure there is wheat and barley and alfalfa grown, but those are really variations on the same crop. The climate and the soils aren’t well suited for growing protein crops like soy and other bean crops. The way our land produces protein is by producing the food that critters with multiple stomachs eat. For centuries, the way humans got a balanced meal from the land was to hunt buffalo, with a little bit of deer, antelope and elk thrown in on occasion. Since the dawn of the 20th century, cattle have replaced the buffalo for the most part with a little bit of sheep thrown in.
Here, farther to the east, the soils are a bit richer, water is more abundant, and other crops can be grown. Even though the great buffalo herds once roamed this area as well, the land can be used to produce a wider variety of crops. Out here corn is king. It is grown to fatten cattle and push the production of meat to the market in a shorter amount of time. It is grown to produce sweeteners for a whole host of manufactured foods. It is grown and distilled into alcohol to fuel our vehicles. And growing all of that corn is chemically intensive. It takes a lot of different chemicals to keep from depleting the soil with such intense farming. Fertilizers are used to boost production. Insecticides are used to decrease pests. A farmer in these parts needs to be fairly skilled in chemistry as well as agribusiness. And they have to be prepared to work in a world of very expensive equipment and high production costs.
The hay we saw growing in the fields is not primarily grown to feed the cattle owned by the same rancher who is producing the hay. It is grown to be sold as a cash crop to feedlots that finish cattle for market. Agribusiness in this region is a series of specialized enterprises that participate in a network of buying and selling to produce food for the market. That’s different from a rancher who raises calves from birth to slaughter. It’s very different from the way agriculture worked in this region a century ago.
Today we’ll shift gears a bit more. By noon we’ll be in a place with even higher humidity and different crops. Central Missouri has its own agricultural climate and way of doing business. Part of the fun of travel is seeing different ways that people live and earn their living. Part of taking a vacation from our usual mode of life is to once again be reminded that we way we do things isn’t the only way that they are done. I’ll be blogging more on that topic in days to come.
For regular readers of the blog, please note that for the next two weeks, the time of day that I publish the blog will vary. I intend to write each day, but I’m going to mix it up and not always write first thing in the morning. I apologize for any inconvenience this may make. If you get up and there is no blog one day, check it again the next day and I’ll probably have posted something. Thanks for reading.
OK that statement needs an explanation for some of the regular readers of this blog. We left on vacation yesterday. We had a funeral in the morning and after the graveside committal, we went home, changed our clothes and got in our truck. We’re on our way to Warrensburg, MO, where we will visit our daughter and son-in-law. They’ve got some home improvement projects that are just the ticket for ministers on vacation. Repairing and refinishing a deck and painting are very different from our usual line of employment and as much as they wouldn’t seem like vacation to a carpenter or painter or home handyman, they are great projects for ministers who enjoy working with things that don’t talk from time to time.
But a further explanation is also in order. Vacation for me means leaving the Interstate behind. When we travel with our camper, 65 mph is just about the right speed, so we don’t gain any time by sticking to the Interstates. And I am interested in following different roads and seeing different sights. So our route to the campground in Onawa, Iowa, where we slept last night took us down to Valentine, Nebraska and across Northern Nebraska on Highway 20 through Norfolk and then on a smaller road to Decatur where we crossed the Missouri into Iowa. It is my kind of a drive.
So we had an opportunity to check out the crops in Northeast Nebraska. In that part of the world they grow corn, soybeans, alfalfa, corn, soybeans and a little corn and soybeans to round out the crops. Oh, and they grow alfalfa for hay. And this is a good year for hay in this part of the world. They’re putting up their second cutting here and prospects look good for a third cutting. The round bales are thick in the fields. We saw one field where they had four round balers working at the same time.
That is a stark contrast to the part of the world where we live. It takes water to grow good alfalfa. And water is in short supply in our neck of the woods. It is also in short supply for the folks in Montana and North Dakota, or so I hear. I have a friend in Montana who is talking about selling cattle early this year. There are fields where he won’t even get one cutting this year. It is better to just pasture cattle there and save the cost of fuel that it would take to harvest such a poor crop.
But they’re making hay in Nebraska.
This part of the world, where Nebraska and South Dakota and Iowa meet is a place where there are a lot of cattle get fed. A whole lot of the corn that we saw growing in the fields as we drove is chopped directly as cattle feed. They don’t bother to combine it, but rather use specialized harvesters that chop the entire plant in the field. Producing beef and pork for people to eat is a big part of the agricultural economy here. And what they do is different from the way ranching is done where I grew up and where I live now.
In the Western part of South Dakota and in much of Wyoming and Montana, the main crop is grass. Sure there is wheat and barley and alfalfa grown, but those are really variations on the same crop. The climate and the soils aren’t well suited for growing protein crops like soy and other bean crops. The way our land produces protein is by producing the food that critters with multiple stomachs eat. For centuries, the way humans got a balanced meal from the land was to hunt buffalo, with a little bit of deer, antelope and elk thrown in on occasion. Since the dawn of the 20th century, cattle have replaced the buffalo for the most part with a little bit of sheep thrown in.
Here, farther to the east, the soils are a bit richer, water is more abundant, and other crops can be grown. Even though the great buffalo herds once roamed this area as well, the land can be used to produce a wider variety of crops. Out here corn is king. It is grown to fatten cattle and push the production of meat to the market in a shorter amount of time. It is grown to produce sweeteners for a whole host of manufactured foods. It is grown and distilled into alcohol to fuel our vehicles. And growing all of that corn is chemically intensive. It takes a lot of different chemicals to keep from depleting the soil with such intense farming. Fertilizers are used to boost production. Insecticides are used to decrease pests. A farmer in these parts needs to be fairly skilled in chemistry as well as agribusiness. And they have to be prepared to work in a world of very expensive equipment and high production costs.
The hay we saw growing in the fields is not primarily grown to feed the cattle owned by the same rancher who is producing the hay. It is grown to be sold as a cash crop to feedlots that finish cattle for market. Agribusiness in this region is a series of specialized enterprises that participate in a network of buying and selling to produce food for the market. That’s different from a rancher who raises calves from birth to slaughter. It’s very different from the way agriculture worked in this region a century ago.
Today we’ll shift gears a bit more. By noon we’ll be in a place with even higher humidity and different crops. Central Missouri has its own agricultural climate and way of doing business. Part of the fun of travel is seeing different ways that people live and earn their living. Part of taking a vacation from our usual mode of life is to once again be reminded that we way we do things isn’t the only way that they are done. I’ll be blogging more on that topic in days to come.
For regular readers of the blog, please note that for the next two weeks, the time of day that I publish the blog will vary. I intend to write each day, but I’m going to mix it up and not always write first thing in the morning. I apologize for any inconvenience this may make. If you get up and there is no blog one day, check it again the next day and I’ll probably have posted something. Thanks for reading.