Gearing Up for the Fall Festival

As usual, summer was here and gone in the blink of an eye. The drought during mid summer did some damage to our corn crop and I anticipate yields will suffer. However, our soybean fields in the southern part of the county received much more rain than here at the home farm. The soybeans are above waist high. I believe we will exceed expectations with the soybeans. We will be finishing up the final cutting of hay in the coming weeks.

Right now we are busy preparing for our corn maze & fall festival. The maze was beat up pretty bad in Hurricane Irene, but we have the trails cleared and game stations in place. The fall festival opens Sept. 17th and we will remain open Saturdays and Sundays until Halloween. We have the corn mazes, corn slide, cow train ride, farm animals, hayrides to the pumpkin patch, and much more!! It is a great place for families to enjoy the whole day!! Things will be hectic throughout the next two months. Besides having the corn maze open, we will be making more hay, harvesting corn & soybeans, planting winter wheat, and more!! Check back in!

John Deere Pedal Tractors

Bucking Cow Train Ride

Beautiful Mums on Sale

Big Map at Entrance of Maze

Pumpkin Patch

Wheat Harvest Videos

Straw Baling

Raking the Sea of Straw

Making Small Bales of Straw

Loading up "Big Bales" of Straw

After the wheat is harvested, the straw is left in the field to be baled.  We are making both small bales and big bales this year.  We are in the process of doing this right now.

The Wheat Harvest !

Resting after a hard day's work

This past weekend, the wheat harvest took place.  The John Deere combine goes through the field harvesting the wheat.  It thrashes the grain from the plant, putting the grain in a storage bin in the machine while expunging the straw out the back.  The grain is unloaded onto a truck which hauls the grain to the mill where it is sold for either bread or animal feed.  Wheat yields exceeded expectations due to above-average weather conditions and farm management practices. 

Racing the Storm

Thursday, 7/8 - Attempting to Plant Soybeans

No sooner than we rolled into the field with the soybean planter, Mother Nature rolled us with a thunderstorm.  Not much rain, just enough to mess up our plans.

Meet Hurricane Hill's New Mascot - Cornelius !

Cornelius

New this year - Hurricane Hill's mascot - Cornelius!!  Cornelius will make special guest appearances from time to time at our farm market stands.  And we're hoping he'll stop back during Corn Maze season.  Stop out and say hello!

Building the Corn Maze !!

Delivering the maze game stations to the field

Mr. Nields & Farmer Ed installing the maze game station - Liberty Bell

 This week, aside from being very busy with the market stands, we spent over three hours in the corn maze field installing the game station posts.  We do this during the summer months before the corn gets too tall.  So we were out there exploring around the maze, yes - getting lost!!! Just like you will this Fall!

We were also busy making second cut Alfalfa hay. 

Hurricane Hill - Farm Fresh Produce!

The Market Stand has opened!  Stop by to "chit chat" and pickup some farm-fresh sweet corn, tomatoes, and other "in season" goodies!  Look forward to seeing you soon!  

Corn Maze - The Crop Report (by Farmer Steve)

Maze Field on May 29, 2011

Maze Field on June 26, 2011

Maze Field on June 26, 2011 - With the Design Cut Out (Paths)

The top picture was taken on May 29, 2011.  The field had been planted for three weeks.  The second shot shows the corn growing vigorously on June 26, 2011 (not even a month old!!).  The bottom picture shows some of the paths in the maze.  The maze was "cut out" using a New Holland 2210 tractor equipped with a GPS System and a roto-tiller.  Are you ready for September 17th - the date of the maze opening? 

Soybean Seeding

John Deere Tractor Pulling Grain Drill

It sure was a busy week!!! Aside from baling all of our hay, we also planted this years crop of soybeans. We plant Pioneer brand soybeans. The soybean seed is dumped into the seed box on our John Deere grain drill and the drill plants the seeds about 1 inch deep into the soil. The grain drill keeps the rows of soybeans exactly15 inches apart for maximum yield potential. Soybeans are a much tougher crop to grow than corn or wheat. On corn or wheat, you can simply add high amounts of nitrogen to boost yields but it is not that simple with soybeans. If your soil fertility is not near perfect, your yield results will suffer greatly. Soil pH readings must be between 6-7 and potash fertilizer needs to be applied to the soil. Soybeans need plenty of potash fertilizer to produce beans. The soybean planting is complete and now we need a little bit of rain to help with germination. Guess we will leave that up to Mother Nature.

Hay Baling Video

Hay Harvest Wrap - Up

Small Baler in Action

Pile of Big Bales Stacked by Skid Loader

Hay Rake

 We had plenty of sunshine and perfect drying conditions to complete the hay baling. The hay after being teddered (spread out) is raked into narrow rows for baling. We bale both small bales and large bales. The balers take in the row of hay and pack it tight together and then have knotters which tie the string to form a bale. The small baler (New Holland BC 5070) has a thrower which kicks the bale out and into a wagon. The wagons are taken into the barn when full and manually unloaded. The big baler simply drops the bale onto the ground and then we go around with our skid loader (New Holland L 180) and pick them up in the field and transport them to the barn on a trailer. The small bales weigh roughly 45 lbs. while the large bales weigh roughly 800lbs. The hay is stored in the barns until the upcoming winter. Then we sell it to horse farms who use it for feeding. The first cutting of hay is finally complete after a full week of work. The hay fields will begin to grow up again for the second cutting, which will occur in about a month or so. (Sorry we didn't grab a picture of the big baler).

Teddering the Hay Video

Cutting the Hay Video!!

Teddering (or fluffing-up) the Hay

Another sunny day permits the teddering of the hay.  This process spreads-out or "fluffs up" the hay so it will dry.  Shown above is the smaller New Holland tractor and the Claas hay tedder.  If the sun stays out, we hope to have a hay baling update tomorrow!

Mowing Hay

It finally stopped raining long enough to begin cutting hay.  Hay harvest takes at least three days to complete.  The hay is cut (shown above using John Deere tractor and New Holland Discbine).  Then the hay is "teddered" to speed-up drying and finally raked into rows for baling.  We will show hay baling in a few days, hoping the sun stays out.

Corn Planting - 2011

It stopped raining just long enough so we could get our corn planted last week (5/7/11). Pictures show the corn planter in action at the Corn Maze field - (please see www.hhfmaze.com for info on maze).  For the planting, we use Pioneer seed corn.  The seeds are dumped into the planter bin along with liquid pop-up fertilizer, which helps germination, as well as another dry fertilizer.  All of this is very expensive, but helps improve yield and gets the crop off to a great start.  Already the corn is popping through the ground!

Field Work - Fertilizer

After disking the field and prior to planting the crop (corn or soybeans), fertilizer is applied to the fields.  This helps to rejuvenate the soil quality for maximum crop yield.  For example, on our corn fields, we run a fertilizer mixture which helps increase the phosphorous and potash levels in the soil. The top two pictures show us applying the fertilizer with a "broadcast spreader" pulled behind the tractor.  The fertilizer is discharged at a certain rate.  The bottom picture shows fertilizer being delivered to the field from the FS Growmark plant, the company from which we purchase the fertilizer.

Field Work

Field work for 2011 has started.  Very busy disking the land, getting ready to plant corn and soybeans (in between the rain drops).  Disking works-up the soil in preparation for planting.  Also helps the soil temperature warm up quickly so seeds will germinate.

Report from the Fields

It's Monday, and today we scouted the crops currently growing on the farm to check progress.  We currently have growing winter wheat (planted last Fall), alfalfa hay, and rye (as a cover crop for our corn maze corn field).  Everything looks GREAT - we're very pleased.  Today it's hot (85 degrees) - which should give everything (including the greenhouse) a boost.

Alfalfa hay just beginning to sprout (perennial crop)

Rye growing as a cover crop in our corn maze field

Welcome to the Greenhouse!

Today we are busy getting the flowers ready for the Easter Season.  Daily care of the flowers in the greenhouse includes constant fertilizing and watering - and lots of tender love & care!  We are growing a wonderful selection of annual plants for sale at the auction in Lancaster County.  Big retailers purchase our flowers from this auction.  Some of the annuals (yearly) flowers we are growing include Wave Petunia Baskets, Marigolds (Inca variety), Geraniums (in pots), Petunia flats, and vegetable plants.  Our veggies include tomatoes (Scarlet Red), Peppers, Cucumbers, and Zucchini plants.

We're Starting a Blog!

Want to keep you up-to-date with farm happenings.  Check back soon - we're out working right now!