Nuttygrass

Manager vs. Employee

There comes a time when you realize that you have to train someone to do a job that you are very capable of. It’s an easy job, one that’s so easy, as a now manager of the farm you think to yourself, “Now there is a job where I can just relax. I can think about what is going on at our farm, I can sing to the radio, I can sort of hide out from my manager jobs.” While sitting in a John Deere the other day this “hiding out” feeling was exactly what I felt.

I don’t know if I’m the only farm manager who feels this way. But there are times when having employees stare at you and ask, “What are we doing today?”, or “What is on the agenda?”, or “How do I do this again?” can seem a bit overwhelming. So the thought that it would be quicker if I just did it myself, creeps into my mind. And the harsh reality I’m finding is that yes, it would be much faster to just do it myself, but it would never get done, because quite frankly I just don’t have the time.

So last week I finally trained someone to drive that very same John Deere I was trying to hide out in. It went well, but as I drove away from the field after a few hours of training, leaving a huge tractor in the hands of a 15 year old with a cell phone I had a moment where I was pretty sure I was losing my mind. Until I remembered, I was driving that same sized tractor at 14…I survived…the tractor survived… move on!

Going through this transition of becoming the manager on our farm I’m finding that it’s not always easy being the main decision maker. And although some days, especially when it’s hectic in the summer time, I wish I could just go to the morning meeting and have someone just tell me what to do that day, what’s on the agenda, and how I do that again. But then I drive away the second day from the field, leaving that same big old John Deere, with the same cell phone enabled 15 year old, and I know that finally taking the time to train someone is paying off.

I think that I’m getting a very small glimpse of what it must feel like to hand over any type of management or jobs on a farm where you have worked so hard your whole life. When I think about succession planning a lot of times I don’t really understand why people wouldn’t want to retire and pass down what they have built to the next generation. Of course there are many generational changes between myself and those who have built this farm into what it is today. But I think that this feeling I’m feeling has something to do with it as well. I can do it better myself, I can do it faster myself, because I’ve been doing it for decades! So with my 7 months under my belt of management, I’m really glad I have a patient father who realized this part of letting go long before I did. So I’m off to our morning meeting today at the farm to look at those faces and tell them, what they are doing today, what’s on the agenda and how they do it.

The Final Crimson Post…for now…

I know that I’ve been talking a lot about crimson these days, well it’s mostly because that’s what has been on the mind lately, along with it also being the best for picture opportunities.

Here are a few last pictures from the final field. We had some research plots out in our field this year, to test some rates on a tool that we think will help us increase our yields in years to come.

That is what all the golf tee flags are for.

We dumped each small plot into a weigh wagon, where they took samples and notes on what the seed looked like. Then we celebrated…because we were finally done with Crimson Clover harvest!

The next step on our fields is to flail them up. This allows all the extra material to be chopped up and rot down over the next few months.

This too is a dusty job!

The best part though…is this time I’m in the cab!!!

Crimson Clover Harvest

As I said last week in my blog, ready or not…harvest is here! We started crimson clover harvest this past week, and we should hopefully finish up in a few days. We had about 140 acres this year, and it will take us about 5 to 6 days to finish it all up. For all you farmers who think that is a really long time to take to combine…in our own defense we had a bunch of small fields in crimson this year. Which means you can’t be nearly as efficient as you would like. More corners in the field means more time turning and less time harvesting. And believe me, it all adds up! Still it is wild to think that this crop was planted last fall. We took 10 months worth of cultivation, scouting for disease & pests, fertilizing, spraying, walking fields again…all just to take only a few days to get the whole crop in and off the land.This is the view from the cab of the windrow going into the header of the combine. Crimson Clover is really really dusty and the dust is really really itchy!! Makes me glad every year that we have combines with cabs, unlike the “good ol’ days!” Although if you’re like me and out in the field instead of in the cab…you still get that good itchy feeling every time you work on a machine! You can say after a day of harvest there is no water wasted on me!This is the view looking from the inside of the combine out the back window into the grain tank. The seed is brought up through the header, the material is then rubbed together with the straw and the seed falls out of the bell shaped casing it has around it. Then the seed is augered up into the grain tank, where it will be them be dumped into a truck and taken to get cleaned and bagged.This is what the clover seed looks like, the golden colored seed is what we are after. The off type colors are usually under developed seeds. Also you can see that we didn’t quite get all the bell shaped casing out, those are the larger fury parts in my hand.So just a few more days and we’ll be all finished up with our second crop. First Peas, now crimson and next up perennial grass seed. Hope everyone has a great week!