Brownfield

Meals in the Field

Julie Harker and I enjoyed a great meal Thursday with Bruce and Sherry Thompson and a few of the neighboring farmers in northern Morgan County, Illinois.  For the past few years, Farm Credit Services of Illinois has been taking meals to the field of customers during National Farm Safety Week and the fine folks in the Jacksonville office have invited us to tag along. 

Bruce and Sherry's 12-year old son represents the sixth generation on the Thompson family farm.  They are also parents of a daughter who teaches high school agriculture and another who is a senior, majoring in ag business at Western Illinois University. 

The Thompsons raise corn, beans, cattle, wheat and hay. 

Pictured:  Bruce Thompson and Mike Lonergan, Vice President, Ag Financial Services, with FCS of Illinois

Farm Science Review

Dave Russell headed back to his home state of Ohio earlier this week to cover the 2007 Farm Science Review at the Molly Caren Agricultural Center near London, Ohio.  At the Ohio Soybean Council exhibit, Dave interviewed John Motter of Ohio County. Motter told Dave that some corn and soybeans around Findlay, Ohio probably won't be harvested because of the late August flood that made national news.

Pictured is Dave Russell interviewing his former high school classmate, John Motter.

Dave also interviewed Ohio State University ag engineer Robert Hansen about natural air grain drying for Brownfield's Managing For Profit program.

Combining in Scott County, Illinois

Late yesterday, Julie Harker and I stopped by my parents' farm in Scott County, Illinois where corn harvest is underway.  A very dry season and two strong wind storms downed several acres of corn, so Dad has attached a reel to the combine to aid with harvest.  He is pleased with the attachment and believes it is a good investment. 

Not only did Julie ride along to see how the reel works with corn harvest, she took the controls and drove the combine through the field.  Yields vary considerably from field to field.

Reflections from a wind farm

Julie Harker traveled to King City, Missouri yesterday for the dedication of Bluegrass Ridge Wind Farm.  A reflection of the day, in her words, follows:

"It was a beautiful day with a blue sky, fluffy white clouds and these giant, white turbine towers popping up out of the fields of soybeans.  The sunlight reflected on the long fiberglass three-prong propellers as they were spun by the wind.  The propellers themselves are huge.  The farm is high enough that we could see all 27 turbines spread out on eight-thousand acres.  It was really something.  The sound the turbines make is a sort of "swoosh, swoosh, swoosh. . .", but it's not an overbearing sound;  we could still hear the crickets.  I'm told the turbine towers themselves are as high as the state Capitol building."

Photo: Julie interviewing Eric Chamberlain with Wind Capital Group

Husker Harvest, Pioneer and NAFB

Most of the Brownfield Farm Broadcast team had wheels beneath them at some point last week.  Tom Steever covered Husker Harvest Days near Grand Island, Nebraska.  Dave Russell spent the day at the 40th anniversary of the Pioneer Rushville Production Facility, which was also the site of the Rush County Farm and Field Day sponsored by Brownfield affiliate radio station WIFE.  I spent a couple of days in the offices of Osborn & Barr Communications with members of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Foundation Board for strategic planning.

Not your grandpa's windmill

When I was a kid, my sister and I would count windmills to pass time as we traveled across central Illinois in the backseat of our parents' 1966 Impala on our way to an implement dealership 2 counties away or to a relative's home for Sunday dinner.

Driving across the Midwest today, there's a whole new generation of windmills. Windmills of today are called wind turbines and you see them scattered across the heartland of this country. The one shown here is located just outside of Pittsfield, Illinois [Larger photo]. I snapped the photo earlier this month as I was driving through Pike County. Illinois Rural Electric Cooperative's Pike County Wind Project was completed in May of 2005. IREC's website features a gallery of wind turbine pictures that takes the viewer from groundbreaking to the point when electricity began flowing from the 365-foot wind turbine.   

Next Monday, Associated Electric Cooperatives, Inc. and its three-tiered system of cooperatives and partners Wind Capital Group and John Deere Wind Energy will dedicate Missouri's first wind farm,  Bluegrass Ridge Wind Farm, just north of King City.

Earlier this year, Affiliate Relations Manager Mike Cady and I drove for miles across northwestern Iowa with enormous wind turbines in view.  According to Iowa Wind Energy Center, Iowa is the third largest producer of wind energy in the nation, just behind California and Texas. 

Wondering how a wind farm works?  MidAmerican Energy features a virtual wind farm tour on their website.

Web visitors from across the pond

It is always nice to hear from those who listen to our radio programs on Brownfield Network and from those who read/view/listen to our website.  I received a nice note this afternoon from a web visitor who lives in the U.K.:

Read your website with interest.  Thought you might be interested in the following artilce which profiles a new electronic Spore Trap called "SporeWatch" for monitoring Asian Soybean Rust.   The trap is designed and manufactured by Burkard Scientific Limited in the United Kingdom. . . .

With Kind Regards

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Terry Mabbett

Retirement

Mary Thompson, M.S. has served as Nutrition Educator for St. Louis District Dairy Council for more than twenty years.  Mary retired last week and left me with some great memories.  Instead of hum-drum same-old stories about the dairy industry, Mary would tantalize not only my taste buds, but my creativity with great story leads and ideas.  Together, we visited Buck's Ice Cream Place at University of Missouri and a dairy farm near Fulton, Missouri.  She brought dairy treats when she came to visit, but every treat had a story behind it, so she was always promoting and educating.

In a note Mary sent to me, she talked about how she had enjoyed working with me in the areas of nutrition education, food production and food enjoyment.  The dairy industry was fortunate to have Mary Thompson telling their story for more than twenty years.

Here comes the judge

Dave Russell yesterday joined Jay McCants of the Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation and Lori Tennell of Farm Credit Services to judge the Indiana Farm Bureau Young Farmer Achievement Award contest. 

Dave said the three judges spent an afternoon interviewing the three finalists. The state winner will be announced during the Indiana Farm Bureau Convention in December. [Photo L-R: Jay, Lori, Dave]

Back to school

I was the guest speaker in the Ag Journalism 1160 class at the University of Missouri today.  The seventeen young men and women seemed to be quite interested as I talked about Brownfield ag networks, how farm broadcasting has changed since I started in the business in 1985, and how many opportunities there are for young people in the industry. 

Sharon Wood-Turley and Bill Allen teach this entry level course in the Agriculture building on the MU campus.  This is the fourth time in as many years that I have had the pleasure of speaking to the class.