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).