Planter Pictures

12 Row Planter

John Deere 8130 Tractor with Front & Rear Dual Wheels

Corn Planting

We sure have been keeping busy over the past month on the farm. We have begun planting corn! First, we worked up the soil to prepare a nice seedbed, then spread down fertilizer to increase the soils fertility levels. After that, all there is to do is plant!! We also do some no-til planting, where we do not work up the soil but rather plant the seed directly into the ground. This limits soil run-off and at times is better for the land.

We also just opened up our roadside stand. We are currently selling beautiful hanging baskets, as well as local strawberries from Lancaster County. The stand will be open Thursday's thru Sunday's during the month of May.

We will also be part of the Strawberry Festival this year at Brandywine Hospital. We will have a little area set up to sell farm fresh strawberries and hanging baskets!! This is our first year at the Strawberry Festival and I am grateful for the opportunity. Our donation to the Brandywine Health Foundation makes me feel proud of our business and family farm.

Other than that, we have just been keeping busy maintaining the farm by cutting grass, replacing fences, and trying to keep the place looking nice. Soon we will begin getting the hay equipment fixed up for a busy season. Hay harvest should begin around the end of this month. Until next time, enjoy the pics and thanks for reading!!

Fresh Strawberries!!

Spring Videos

Here are a few videos of planting and plowing up land.

Seeding Alfalfa

As the old adage goes in farming, "we hit the ground running" this past week. It's been a while since I've spent a 12 hour day working at the farm, but it felt good. We completed all of the work we anticipated getting done. We planted our field of alfalfa and also finished all of our spring plowing. In the plowed fields we will be raising corn this season. Corn is planted in mid-April after the soils have ample time to warm up for proper germination. Alfalfa can be planted as soon as the weather permits. It thrives on cool, damp conditions. This is the earliest we have ever planted alfalfa on our farm. That's 115 years!! That really says something. Lol.
We will most likely begin planting our tomato seeds anyday now and continue to prep for corn planting season. It looks like these above average temperatures are going to stick around for a while. Enjoy!!

In the field planting alfalfa with John Deere & Grain Drill

Plowing up land for corn planting

Magnificent Weather

Wow! This weather makes me think it's May already!! We have really been taking advantage of it on the farm. We are busy this week doing all kinds of different chores. We are still preparing our field to seed alfalfa. We have been disking it to prepare an ideal seedbed for the new crop. Disking works up the soil and levels it out.

We also just finished applying Nitrogen fertilizer to our wheat crop. The nitrogen along with these above average temps will allow the wheat to really take off and begin growing at a good pace. We are also preparing to seed tomato plants in our greenhouse. We are planting both large fruited tomatoes and smaller, cherry tomatoes. We will eventually plant them in our garden to harvest for our roadside market. Are any of you thinking about getting out into the garden yet?? I know that our local supermarket already has pansies available.
Until next time, enjoy this beautiful weather!!

The seedbed for our alfalfa crop

It is about a 15 acre field

The disk harrow which smooths out the field

Our wheat crop beginning to grow

Wheat field. We have about 50 acres planted this season

Preparing Fields for Planting Alfalfa

Spreading Dry Fertilizer on the field

This fertilizer is high in potash, which alfalfa plants feed on

Mentally Tough

Let's pray for a good alfalfa crop!! 

2011 Pics

Grain Cart waiting for Truck to Arrive

Combine Harvesting Corn Maze Field

Last Weekend of Maze "Snowed Out"!

Hay & Straw in our Barn

Load of Hay Ready for Delivery

Welcoming 2012 with Open Arms

Well, it has been way too long since I have updated the farm blog. Since the last check in, many things have occurred. We had a successful corn maze season, harvested our corn and soybeans, and have been preparing for 2012 all winter long.
The harvest last fall was a disaster. Due to drought conditions throughout the 2011 growing season, our yields were under half of what we normally run. Thanks to crop insurance we were able to stay in business for another year.
The corn maze & fall festival went really well except for the last weekend when we got "snowed" out! That weekend sums up my whole perspective of 2011.  Have you ever had that feeling where no matter what you do or how hard you try, things just keep going in the opposite direction? Well, that is how I felt.
If I took one thing out of the whole season, it was that you have to remain mentally strong. 
My family and I have been busy preparing for the 2012 season. With a positive outlook on things, I truly believe this year can be a success. We have a nice looking crop of wheat beginning to grow(planted last fall), and are currently preparing land for our spring planting. We intend on planting alfalfa hay towards the end of this week. Check back in & enjoy pictures we accumulated over the past 6 months!!

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).