The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Farmers ready to plant - just hoping for more ideal weather
By Edward Freundl, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 1, 2008
To look at them, the fields seem to be ready for farmers to get in there and start planting crops.
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But you would be wrong.
And to look at them, the farmers are anxious to do just that.
But they would be wrong.
Farming is, more than anything else, a matter of proper preparation and timing.
"It's always hard," said Jerry Huehl of Huehl Acres, one of many Washtenaw County farmers who are simply waiting for the ground to firm up enough to support their tractors.
"You want to get going, but you have to wait until the ground is ready," Huehl added.
As hot and dry as it was last summer, this spring has turned out to be on the cool and wet side.
And just when things were looking good over the past couple of weeks, Mother Nature delivered a cold slap in the face with frost and freeze warnings this week.
"We're a little concerned right now, (this) week is supposed to be cold and wet," he said.
Unfortunately, farmers in this region are not alone.
"My son down in Indianapolis is just starting his corn, and they should already have it up by now," Huehl said.
Corn is a voracious feeder and needs a heavy supply of nutrients such as nitrogen.
Therefore, the first step in preparing a field is to spread fertilizer.
The most cost-effective way to do this is with nutrient-rich liquid manure, and the Huehls have a seemingly never-ending supply provided by their dairy herd.
"If you didn't have livestock it might not be so hectic, but then you'd have to buy commercial fertilizer," Jerry Huehl said.
"Usually we spread it where we're going to put corn; it cuts down on the amount of nitrogen we buy."
The manure spreader apparatus operates on a type of creeper gear, and moves slowly through the field.
The rotating spray head works on the same principle as a regular irrigation unit, said older brother Denny Huehl, and spews out a 40-foot brown arc
It is connected by a hose to a tank full of the liquid, which is refilled from a lagoon over by the dairy barns.
Farming can be a very rewarding career, but it is not without its thankless chores.
Going out in the field to start up the manure spreader pump is one of them, and on this particular day, Denny drew the short straw.
Once the spreading is finished, likely sometime next week, it's time to get growing.
Soil can be thought of as a living thing, and growing the same crop in the same place actually wears it out by depleting it of nutrients no matter how much fertilizer you use.
That's why crops are grown in rotation - some, like corn, use a lot of nitrogen; and some, like soybeans, actually attract and "fix" nitrogen into its root system to replenish the soil.
The Huehls' crop rotation is corn, soybeans, wheat, and sometimes alfalfa, Jerry said.
After corn is harvested the field lays fallow until the next spring to let the soil rest, but the other crops follow one after the other.
"We put the wheat in right after we harvest the beans, and it stays in all winter," Jerry said.
"When the wheat is harvested in July we'll put in alfalfa in August."
The fast-growing alfalfa, or hay, is used as feed for the dairy herd, and is cut three to four times a season, depending on growing conditions.
"Our first alfalfa cutting is usually the last week of May, we want to get that cut before it blossoms," Jerry said.
"We won't be done planting beans and we'll have to stop and make the first cutting of hay."
Another decision that is made before getting out in the field is how much of what crop to plant.
Many times that depends on market conditions and crop prices.
"We're doing more beans and less corn this year," Jerry noted.
The Huehls plant about 1,000 acres of the various crops each year, and Denny looked up the figures on what's going in the ground this year:
Soybeans 383 acres
Corn 346 acres
Wheat 144 acres
Alfalfa 101 acres
"That's what we have planned for now, anyway," Denny said. "That could always change."
Project RED
Even though they can't get out in the field yet, Jerry noted that there's never a shortage of things to take care of on a farm.
"There's still plenty to do," he said. "We have quite a bit of seed to deliver yet, and there's barns to clean out."
And there's also Rural Education Days, or Project RED, a partnership between the Washtenaw County Farm Bureau, MSU Extension and the Washtenaw Farm Council.
The three days of educational presentations for schoolchildren and the public to learn more about agriculture took place last week.
Huehl Acres has been an integral part of the project since its inception some 20 years ago.
In fact, Jerry's wife Sue was instrumental in getting it started.
"My wife, Nancy Thelen and Holly Porter came up with the idea," Jerry said.
And after being presented at a national Farm Bureau conference, the project really took off.
"I can't tell you how many Farm Bureaus have something similar now," he added.
One of their large tractors was prominently featured in the Project RED corn presentation, and the brothers continue to donate equipment, supplies and time.
Both brothers have been involved in the county Farm Bureau for decades.
Denny was on the board of directors from 1983 to 1995; and Jerry, the current Farm Bureau vice president, was president the past seven years, and a director "for six or eight years before that."
How now, red cow?
The Huehl farm was the site of a very uncommon event last month, when a rare Red Holstein calf was born on March 31.
"It's kind of odd the cow she came from was black and white and the bull was black and white," said dairy specialist Rachel Girbach.
"The gene is recessive, and the only red carrier I found was her grandfather."
As rare as those are, Girbach noted, having twin calves is more common than having a red one.
The "red" is actually more of a reddish-brown color, sharing space on the cowhide with the white just like a common Holstein.
"And no, they don't give chocolate milk," Girbach said.
All the Huehl calves are bred from the same bull, Girbach said, and it was "just luck" they ended up with a red one.
"I named her Brownie," Girbach said.
"She was born on opening day for the Tigers and the guys wanted to name her Homer, but I wouldn't let them."
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