It rained today and I couldn't plant. I went to check out the field and attempt to get my iTronix Tablet to talk to my spray monitor and to see if my upgrade to FarmerGPS 5.0 would work. It didn't. I think I need a little more powerful computer. I am used to a computer that will tell you if something is not going to work, as opposed to just locking up. And, it is so unbelievably slow... I use my brother's old and slow powerbook with half the clock speed and I can get online and even run GPS programs in OS 9. It is slow but it doesn't lock up the whole computer with it's slowness. Which brings up the only problem I have found with FarmerGPS. It runs on a PC. I wish he would write the program for the new iPads and Android tablet computers. Any operating system is probably better than Windows XP.
After watching in amazement as the formerly $3,000 rugged tablet PC searched in vain for 1. an internet connection, 2. The serial port, 3. Just sat there and redrew the screen 4. Locked up so I couldn't shut it down, I just pulled all the cables out and tossed it in the pickup. It stopped searching when the battery went dead. Problem solved for today. What a hunk-o-crap! I suppose I should just buy a "netbook" but I don't want a tiny screen and a keyboard. I want a touch screen and no keyboard. I just really hate to spend real dollars on a windows computer. Seems like such a waste!
I then went to see the younger fellow who helps me bale from time to time. He was going to make pulled pork sandwiches. They were really good. I must have traded him some really good quality pig feed. As he was making me a sandwich I got a call from someone after hay. I do not understand why someone drives an hour and a half for hay and then calls me 2 minutes from my house. As I dashed out the door with my sandwich I ran into his 20 something or younger sister who is kind of a hottie.
Anyway, I mumbled something about this being a really good sandwich. She was disgusted and informed me she doesn't eat meat and thinks it is gross. I had to laugh. I guess we all need to cling to some scraps of virtue. I don't work on Sunday and she doesn't eat ..... pulled pork sandwiches.
When I got home the fellow had self serviced his hay and left the money under the seat in the combine.
I called around trying to find some Alfalfa seed and got into a discussion about round-up resistant and GMO crops.
You know I can see the point in boycotting Monsanto as they seem to be the stereotypical multinational corporation. But, it is never so simple. It seems as though the fellow behind the push to ban GMO sugarbeets raises lots of GMO sugarbeets in Brazil. Clever marketing plan.
I have mixed feelings about GMO Alfalfa. Alfalfa can turn into a weed. Ed Winkle has some reservations about over use of Round-up.
But... Round-up resistant Alfalfa is a wonderful crop to grow. You don't stress the crop like you do when you attempt to control weeds in regular Alfalfa. I have not seen any resistant weeds growing either. You usually mow everything before it goes to seed anyway. It makes a clean and long-lasting stand. Plus, if you are going to pay $4 a pound for Alfalfa seed why not just pay a little more and get the round-up resistant. You are kind of being screwed anyway. $200-$350 for a bag of Alfalfa seed? You might as well be buying corn seed.
Anyway, I'm waiting to see what the paranoia level is on Craigslist and I'll plant conventional if it will get me a premium.
I looked at ads for chicken feed tonight. Someone is selling chicken feed for $26 for fifty pounds. They swear it has no GMO soy or corn in it. Unbelievable! I guess people buy it. I've got to get my ad back on. I found out I can't sell feed without a license so I'm going to sell ground grain and you can use it for whatever you want. I could just get a license but that involves paperwork and paying a fee to the man and I find that annoying.
I find it amazing that even in a "post-relegious" society there is more superstition than ever.
I also find it pretty funny that the fellow I sold all our GMO soybeans and corn to last year neglected to tell his customers there eggs came from the devil. They are all still alive... I did quit using GMO bean and corn as I think you should be truthful and if you are paying the money you should get what you want.
Which is why on the other hand, I kind of like all this controversy. It helps me sell chicken feed!
Posts
GM alfalfa? I've always been a big fan of roundup ready canola. It has cleaned up the fields and simplified weed control. But then the RR canola becomes a weed itself next year. Since the GM Triffid flax problem came up a while ago and hurt our flax market I'm thinking we better slow down on releasing more "magic genies" because once they are out there its beyond our control. Growing (and selling) flax now is a way more complicated than it used to be thanks to the mostly unreasonable fears of the anti-gmo group.
ReplyDeleteRalph, I personally think the GM alfalfa is a step too far. I can see "somewhat fragile" annuals like corn and beans but the alfalfa could go crazy as a weed and I don't think cross=pollenization is an unreasonable fear. I also think that people who don't like or want GM alfalfa need to be protected from cross-pollenization. The issue is not if you are crazy in your criticism of GM crops, if you don't want it you don't want it. So if you are blowing GM pollen across the landscape shouldn't you are the company that owns it be liable?
ReplyDeleteI think if you look at it as a marketing issue instead of a political issue it makes more sense.
(I say this after being completely impressed with GM Alfalfa.)
I asked, and FarmerGPS has no plans to issue software for Apple products.
ReplyDeleteNow that RR alfalfa canola and other crops are out there, Monsanto will make another fortune selling something to kill them if yo should decide to plant something else next year. When will it end?
It's just a small part of the takeover of the free world as I see it. Today the small farmer will get worked. He will have cross pollinated crops weather he wants them or not. This will continue this until y'all give up and sell out. Tomorrow the rest of the world will be their pawns. Either do as they say or we'll withhold food and feed.
ReplyDeleteBetween Monsanto and KBR, there is no hope.
jmo
We are already paying. GM Triffid flax was never (supposedly) released into the growers hands. Suddenly it turns up in a shipment of flax. Now Europe does not any flax remotely connected to GM. So who pays to clean up this mess? Right, me and the rest of the flax growers. I have to buy certified GM- free flax seed to plant. Any flax I want to sell has to have GM lab testing (at my expense)to show it is free of the triffid gene. That really burns me up.
ReplyDeleteAin't progress wonderful?
ReplyDelete