Yesterday was another frustrating day.
I planted.
The fellow I'm planting for is applying humic acid in stead of 10-34 as fertilizer for his wheat seed. I don't think it works in the short term but I have no idea if it improves the soil in the long run.
He is getting it in 350 gallon totes and we dump it into the drill tank by lifting it up with a forklift.
This bypasses the filter on the drill pump.
Most farmers just bring me a 1000gal tank on a truck and park it in the field. This works much better.
All of a sudden the pump starts spinning too fast and shuts down. The auto rate controller is over compenstating.
I have a smaller screen on the filter to the booms than I have on the individual rows. The pressure gauge is on the boom side of the valve. So when the pump filter plugs I get low pressure and when the boom plugs I get too high a pressure.
I have not had a filter plug in a very long time. I did not figure out the problem right away.
Anyway, I had to pump all the fertilizer back out and flush the tank and filters. It was a pain in the arse.
I was listening to Lars....
Lars is opposed to guest workers on farms. He says they are taking the jobs of unemployed Americans and if there were no Mexicans than farms would have to pay more wages and get better help and the price of milk wouldn't go up that much.
I had to laugh, bitterly...
Lars needs to get a real job.
I have hired non Mexican workers. It is not that there are no workers it is that most available American workers past high school/college age totally worthless.
You may go through a few Mexicans but you will find one who works hard and cares about his job and if you treat him well he will stick with you. It ain't that way with second generation Americans anymore. The public school system has seen to that.
I am not hiring a drug addict or someone looking for a back injury or some idiot. AND, it doesn't matter how much you pay them, the quality of help is still the same. I've observed other farmers. Their good white workers have been with them since high school.
And that seems to just be how it is...
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I am just thankful that most of the work on this farm can be handled by me with occasional help from reliable family members. No need for over priced , unreliable "hired help" tearing um my machinery. I realize this is a luxury many do not have though.
ReplyDeleteI remember that my father always hired a crew
ReplyDeleteof "illegal" workers back in the 60's...besides
his children to work the fields. None of my
friends would work for him at the minimum+
wage and my dad was a good employer..you know the kind that bought you lunch, snacks, stopped at the local Dairy Queen. Every Friday night the group of workers would come to get their money, and have my Dad save most back to send home to Mexico to their family. Years down the road he got letters, pictures from those workers who always remembered his kindness.
My "friends" complained about not being able to find work....I still hear non Mexican complain about not being able to find work or is that work they want to do!
After reading the test results you had a link for, I wonder why he is using humic acid at all. And unfiltered?
ReplyDeleteOn the other subject: Maybe the kids should be taking 'Spanish as a second language' classes.
I just don't understand this economy. Why can't we just roll back the pay scale & costs of goods to the level of say 1970. I think this is why the 'guest' workers will work for less pay. Their home economy is where ours was back in the 60's and 70's.
I've thought about using humic acid but the N percentage is too low. Can it be mixed with some 32-0-0 or 20-0-0? I'm trying a new liquid fertilizer product right now called "Bolster", it's a 5-21-5 that i'm mixing 3 to 1 with 20-0-0 to bring the N up. Supposedly the P in it is more available than it is in 10-34-0. So even though you're putting less on, the plant can access it better. We'll see I guess. So far I know three things about it: it's poop brown, it's expensive, and it foams like none other. I was filling the tank using the sight tube and suddenly at about 3/4 full, I had brown foam spewing from the breather!
ReplyDeleteLars is clueless on Ag in our region and how much labor (skilled and unskilled) it takes. I'd love it if Dad and I could take care of everything and not have any hired labor but that's not reality for very many of us in this area.
Ralph, I like to have high school kids help. They are happy and have a lot of energy. The other problem is I just about have to have someone follow me around in the winter and make me work...
ReplyDeleteCOR, my point exactly...
Muddy, The Wilber-Ellis field man is a good salesman! Recent Immigrants have a much better work ethic and are more honest than the general rabble that apply for farming jobs. There are exceptions of course. And yes, the kids should learn Spanish. Lots of cash can be made if you speak Spanish. Lots of sales opportunities. (This does not mean I am in favor of the kind of wide scale illegal immigration we have now.)
Orin, I don't know about the additives. Ed W is more of an expert. I don't like the humic acid as it comes out of suspension and it rust my drill and it did not work in my unofficial test plot. With any of the additives you have to be careful that it does not come out of solution overnight or that it doesn't make a nasty goo in the bottom of the spray boom after setting. I filter everthing going into the tank and I have a fine screen filter before the valve on the spray boom. Then I have the more course filters on the individual spray fittings. That is one thing I don't like about Blumhardt, unscrewing and cleaning out the filters.
Lars just gets more and more annoying short pants country club Republican all the time. He broadcasts live from the Casino. I strongly dislike the casino and all it stands for. If he can gamble why can't I buy craigslist hookers... (hypothetically speaking of course... not that I would ever consider it...) I mean... why can't my employee buy craigslist hookers and pot. I know a number of lives that were ruined at the casino. Lars needs to learn that just because something is legal doesn't mean it is right and that the converse is also true...