This semester has 44 students eager to get out of the classroom and get their hands dirty. With the nice weather lately, many of the committees have been outside doing things on the farm working hard to make the farm look nice after the long, cold winter! During the first couple weeks of class, the students were divided into eight committees based on their interests. Since those first few weeks, each committee has been very busy accomplishing tasks, both in and out of the classroom!
Buildings and Grounds Committee: Has been busy cleaning up the shop and working on tearing down some un-used grain bins. They also worked with the Swine Committee in hanging a curtain on the finisher.
Finance Committee: Has been working hard at putting together a budget for 2011 and paying off bills as they come up. They have been really good at staying organized and keeping every committee award of our financial status.
Public Relations Committee: Has been working on the 100th Anniversary Celebration plans of the Agriculture Curriculum at Iowa State University. They are continuing with updating their web resources and taking pictures of the students.
Custom Crops Committee: Has been doing a lot of work with researching manure handling, and possibly cattle. They have been also planning which fields we will be planting first.
Swine Committee: Has been doing a lot of work with our pig provider, making sure we do our best for the pigs. One way they are trying to reduce problems is by hanging the curtain on the finisher. Their latest activity is looking into installing a Call System in the finisher for the farm manager.
Crops Committee: Has been busy doing research on buying new SMS mobile devices. These devices, which were approved for purchase March 1, will help with soil sampling and crop scouting during the spring and summer months.
Machinery Committee: Has been working with Buildings and Grounds Committee in getting the farm shop organized. They also recently ordered parts for the tiller and will purchase parts to repair the ripper. They are eager to get everything ready for the spring planting.
Marketing Committee: Has been busy selling the last of our beans and meeting with the co-op about insurance and our current grain situation from last fall.
Public Relations: Last week we had committee work time and worked on the strategic issue. We also took pictures of the farrowing building being torn down.
Buildings & Grounds: Our committee with the help from a few other volunteers got the whole west side of the farrowing building down. We also took a load of scrap iron to Bell Salvage and received $250.
Marketing: We sold 1/4 of the 2011 corn crop and 1/3 of the 2011 bean crop for a total income of $106,000 guaranteed for next October delivery. As for our current crop in storage, we has about 1,000 bushels of unsold beans left in the bin so we sold 500 bushels for $12.10 per bushel.We also had a nice surprise of 582 bushels of corn that had been stored in Slater since 2007. Sold that for $5.40 per bushel. Prices are at record setting levels!
Machinery: We've been keeping up with the machinery, but it keeps breaking down.
Customs: We are winterizing the hog barn, curtain repairs, blowing out the furnace, getting the pump ready for manure hauling!
Crops: We're in the process of purchasing seed for next year. We currently have met with AgriGold and Pioneer. Last week, we met with TJ from VanWall and went over our maps from harvest out of the combine unit.
Finance: We are working on our experiential teaching project for Thursday. Other than that we are just updating the cash flow daily and getting departmental things taken care of.
This week we are having committee work time to be outside and work on out strategic issues.
Public Relations: Last week we started working on our strategic issue assignment and will continue working on it this week.
Buildings & Grounds: We continued tearing down the farrowing building and started to work on our strategic issue assignment.
Marketing: Last week we future contracted 15,000 bushels of corn and 3,000 bushels of beans for next October 2011 delivery. Corn price was $4.93 per bushel and beans were $10.93 per bushel totaling to $106,000 worth of commodity sales.
Machinery: We are working on the chisel because the seal is out. We are also going to take the corn head off.
Customs: We worked on our strategic issue.
Crops: The test plot was harvested last week. We are completely done with harvest now! Still in the process of ripping....rippin and the tearin, rippin and the tearin. We have good dirt!
Finance: We are continuing to update the cash flow including updating the departimental statement.
Last week (October 18th-22nd) we had a short week due to the College of Agriculture and Life Science Career Day that was held on campus.
As for this last week we kept busy working during class on our strategic issues as well as listening to presentations from class members!
Committee Updates:
Public Relations: We were busy last week giving out Experiential Teaching Assignment to the class. They had to write scripts and film videos about what each committee does. Overall, I think the class had fun making the videos!
Buildings and Grounds: We are still tearing down the farrowing building.
Marketing: With the higher grain prices right now, we are looking at selling some of next years crops. We also need to sell a little more of the current crop to cover some of our costs at the end of the year.
Machinery: We are going to be cleaning machinery now that harvest is complete. The committee will be putting machinery away and getting ready for winter.
Customs: Last week we made a video. This week, we are working on our strategic issue.
Crops: Harvest is complete. We will be harvesting the test plot tomorrow with our seed reps. The corn stalks have been baled from the dairy farm as well.
Finance: We are working hard to keep the cash flow updated and we are currently working on getting all the necessary information together for a net worth statement.
Welcome to another beautiful day in the neighborhood.... :)
We have been busy with harvest! Beans are almost done for us.
Committee updates- Buildings and Grounds- Tore the tin off of the farrowing bin that we are tearing down. Marketing-We have held off on selling anymore of our commodities. Fortunately the prices for corn and beans have increased significantly with over $5/bu corn and $11/bu beans. as soon as we have all the crop harvested, we will make the decision the sell more. We believe the prices will continue to increase due to the report from the government that came out stating our yields are lower then expected. Also, we have one 3000 bushel contract of beans filled already. Machinery-All harvest machinery is running in good shape and tillage equipment is almost ready. Customs-Working on bills for soybean harvest. Crops-Almost done with beans, looking to finish tomorrow. Continued to monitor moisture percent in corn fields. Yields are right around 50 bu/a. Corn will be ready to go as soon as we get done with the beans and switch heads. Finance-Updated cash flow, we are going to approve bills to be paid and work on our experiential teaching. PR-We are working on our experiential teaching as well. We also are taking the class picture on Thursday! :)
Today in class, we had a guest speaker. Brad Pfantz from Jansen-Pfantz Insurance came to class and talked about Crop Hail Insurance.
Public Relations: Last week we gave a tour to Helen Olson's orientation class on Tuesday. On Thursday, we took pictures and participated in the Buildings and Grounds experiential teaching activity.
Buildings and Grounds: Last week we had our experential learning activity as well as the Farm Operations Club clean-up day. We taught the class how to construct a windbreak, seed lawn and how to use different chemicals around the farm. 450 clean-up day was a success, we had a decent turnout, but hope for more next time. Overall, we want to thank the class for their help. This week we will continue with odd jobs around the farm.
Marketing: We sold another 1000 bushels of soybeans at $10.43 per bushel. Yields are looking better than expected so it should be an excecptional profitable year considering prices are still above breakeven costs.
Machinery: Soybean harvest has begun and to our knowledge there have only been a few minor breakdowns on the bean head. Our next project will be to make sure the new ripper is field ready as it has dried out enough to start considering some tillage. We will work with the customs committee to make sure everything is ready for them as well.
Customs: We are currently working on our experiential teaching project, which we will present to the class on Thursday.
Crops: We are currently working on our experiential teaching project. This past weekend we were busy with harvest and with no rain on the forecast, we will be busy this week.
Finance: We approved bills last week, worked on the buildings and grounds learning activitiy. This week we need to approve more bills, and it is our clean-up week.
