EPISODE 337 RESPONSES TO THE 16 ROW SEED DRILL (HOOKED TO GPS)
alan skeoch
May 2021
I got some interesting comments on this 12 row seed drill. Some small farms have survived but the big farms
are still getting bigger.
Our farm? Very small. 25 acres of the poorest land in Wellington County. Best crop is rock. The rocks just keep popping
up no matter how many times we pick them. Yet my grandparents, Ted and Louisa Freeman managed to eke out a living
from 1908 to 1958…with a lot of help from my mom and her brother Frank. The secret was a big garden and jobs off the
farm in two World Wars. The seed drill pictured above could not turn around on our farm…we would have to carve a highway
through the forest, over the swamps from the Fifth line to the Fourth Line. Then the drill could turn.
(If bored…take a look at the guy with big ears in the cloud above he tractor…right beside the guy with
no brain, just a hole in his head…Reading clouds is a pastime…see the snake with its mouth open?)
alan
Comments from friends
Well, Alan
…never saw a seed drill anything like this…points out how a young prospective farmer can no longer learn from his parent, nor manage anything like him. The future lies in specialized university education and revolutionizing everything that existed beforehand.
Hi Alan
Our farm friend in Illinois calls us every Saturday. She just told us that she rode along on Friday while her renter planted corn. He has a new 24 row planter.
First, they drive the perimeter of the field so the GPS learns the dimensions of the field. That takes the time as they needed to skirt buildings. They planted 259 acres in 5 hours! They were also fertilizing from two tanks at the same time. The types of fertilizers are determined from soil analyses done earlier. The planter computer gives feedback about coverage of the planting. At one point they were getting a 96% reading and he stopped to adjust and then they were back up to 99 or 100%.
Amazing productivity and science. Her renter and his son farm about 5000 acres and grow both corn and soy beans in her area of Illinois.
Monica
Good morning Alan,
There are some 100 acre farms still surviving … My friends’ organic farm (100 acres) was purchased 40 years ago from a Mennonite family. It borders the Thames River just outside of St. Mary’s and has a gorgeous old farmhouse (2 storey brick, reminiscent of yours.) My sister and brother-in-law’s farm is just south of Owen South and part of it is included in the Niagara Escarpment trail. And our daughter Martha is married to Remi, who has always been a full-time farmer in Norfolk county. His land is spotted with gorgeous woods and ravines and ponds, all spring fed creeks which flow into Lake Erie, 15 miles south. He started with 100 acres, but now farms closer to 500 acres. He farms the land and rents out the farmhouses for another source of income. You’d enjoy meeting him. Very self-sufficient guy. Martha has 4 chickens that scratch around the house and 3 bunnies, plus a huge vegetable garden. They hope to get 2 goats this year and have a goat house and fenced yard ready for them.
Patricia