What do farmers do in the winter?

Before I talked about farm shows and cleaning out bins. Another thing farmers do in winter is go to farm auctions. They go with the idea of picking up a bargain for something they need/like to have. Farm auctions are usually for some retired farmer selling out his life-long accumulation of stuff. Generally 4 rack wagons of junk: gas cans, rusted tools, ect. Then his old equipment and tractors. But this farm sale that we went to was extremely unique. The guy wasn’t retired. He just quit farming and rented out the ground. His tractors and equipment were disgustingly new. (no twinge of envy here) You don’t see auctions like this in a coons age.

You may remember my predictions for this year about a purchase of a tractor in our future. We were looking at a couple of tractors on the sale. But we did not end up going home with one. The prices went too high for what we were willing to pay. Our search continues. Below is a quick video of the sale. The last tractor shown is the one we bid on. The last bid on it was $151,000. Like I said. We’re still looking.

One more thing. Do you recall in my Carhartt review about what I said about the Carhartt conventions at farm sales? Oh, yeah.

In the comments, tell me if you would have bought that big green machine.

Step #1 find a calf stranded on a pond of ice.

Some of my videos are not posted on this site but you can see all of them on my youtube channel. Leave comments under the ones you like most.

4 Predictions for 2011

These are my totally unrelated, random predictions for the new year. I am not one to believe in fortune telling. But at the close of next year you might be thinking, “That girl’s got a gift.” Or farmnwife needs some professional help.

New Tractor:

In the crystal ball, I see a new/used tractor chugging across our fields before we start planting in spring. William really wants to use planter shut-off on the units to save on seed.  He also wants to put the planting data on Green Star to add to the yield maps. We’ve got to keep up with the Niemeyers. our current planting tractor

Paleo Diet:

Okay. This one will likely make you scratch your head. This year the paleo diet will gain in acceptance directly taking on vegetarianism. I don’t follow this eating plan but I have listened to Robb Wolf’s podcasts. He is on to something even if he is a little out there.

Farm Land Prices:

Farm land prices here in the mid-west are the highest they have ever been, hovering around $9000/acre for good black dirt. William thinks it will go to $10,000. My prediction is it may get there, but the high will be in 2011. Prices will then slide south most likely because of interest rates and a few other factors.

Big Green Combine Blog:

Going out on a limb here. I foresee this blog hitting it big this coming year. Imagine it: National recognition, servers crash, speaking gigs, book signings, the O’reilly Factor. And I don’t even like him.

There you have it. I know what you are thinking. Did she really put all this on the internet? You betcha. Now I need to go write a book.

In the comments, tell me what you think of my predictions and what my book should be about.



Every December we move the corn out of the bins to the grain elevator. Intermittently, the elevator sends out 5 trucks to haul the grain away. While waiting for another truck, we fill the grain cart. This makes emptying the bins go much faster. We are out in the cold all day, usually for 2 or 3 days. This year we only had the 2 larger bins full of corn. So it turned out to be a day and a half. William and I used to do this by ourselves. But it is so nice to have the kids helping out. They do get paid and a day off of school work.

Tell me what you think of the video in the comments.

At a photography class, a friend asked me, “What do farmers do in the winter?” An excellent question. I proceeded to give her a list of work and activities that are accomplished on our farm in the cold winter months. This must be a burning question for others who lack a farm acquaintance to ask. All farms are different. I can only speak for what happens on our grain and livestock farm.

One thing farmers do in the winter is go to farm shows. I’ll say right up front. I am not a looker. (Did I just say that?) I don’t like to look at farm equipment, just to look. Big yawner. Now if we are looking to buy, I’m there. When funds are to be exchanged, that turns my head. Farm Shows are held in convention halls to exhibit what’s great and new. We had not been to one in a while so, I tagged along.  This one was not a big show like the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville. But it is big enough that it took 4 hours to wander around the halls. We did purchase brush clippers and a grappler. The clippers hook on to a loader tractor and cut off trees up to 9″ round at the ground. The grappler fits over the bucket of a loader and helps stack the wood. We always have brush to clear.

So to sum it up, we looked at tractors, atvs, trucks, trailers, cattle chutes and sundry equipment. We talked to a few friends we ran into. A few unexpected exhibits were jewelry and back massage people.

Keep checking back to see what a frigid farmer does all winter long.

The kids showed three calves at Louisville last weekend. It was a good time.
See the second video at Kids' Cattle Blog

Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
No this not me. But I do feel sorry for the guy.