With Harvest 2011 finally coming to a close I really wish I could find a way to add a song to this one blog post- just for fun.
I am thinking the musical Guys and Dolls. A Bushel and a Peck is a very catchy tune from that musical by Doris Day and when I started this post I was trying to come up with a catchy title and this one stuck.
Because I am talking about bushels of corn and nearly every time my hubby came to the field to get a load of corn this year he made sure to give me a “peck” on the cheek.
What is a bushel? Good question. Easy enough answer. A bushel is a unit of volume.
One bushel of corn weighs 56 pounds.
One bushel of corn weighs 56 pounds.
Immediately I am picturing holding a 50 lb bag of dog food, while holding a small 6 lb yippy little dog. (I have no clue where that vision came from, the teacher in me speaking I suppose.)
One big and very important thing to a farmer after combining a field of any commodity (corn, soybeans, wheat, sunflowers, etc.) is the YIELD to that field.
What is a yield right?
A yield is how many bushels/acre came out of the field.
A yield is how many bushels/acre came out of the field.
What is an acre right?
Picture a football field. One football field is equal to one acre. We farm almost 3,000 football fields. And people wonder why we need big equipment, geesh!
So, to calculate all of this you have to do a few simple equations. And I can easily tell you that as it was hammered into my head for 4 years of college.
But, I am guessing that may not be too important to you.
What I think you will find interesting and important is how our average yields have increased significantly in the last 50 years.
What does that mean exactly? That means that as farmers we are getting more corn off our acres. Which is important in feeding the world. You know, the 7 billion people we have on Earth.
But, in order to continue to have high yields, it means we have to take care of our soil. Which we do. It is recommended that soil tests be conducted every 3 years, which tells nutrient levels in the soil, along with the pH of the soil.
During harvest my sister in law calculates our yields for each field and we compare to previous years in order to help us make the best decisions for the following year.
This year she was nice enough to let me help and in turn helped me learn quite a bit about the soil and yields of our fields here on TKF.
As we work to increase our yields we also work to increase the number of mouths that we feed.
Some would say that as farmers this isn’t something we need to worry about, but if we aren’t worrying about it as producers and as consumers- who will?
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