Complete tasks as you think of them. I can’t stress this enough. You see, there’s this rock. It’s big. And it’s sitting along the western edge of the pastureland I broke last fall. I nicked it with the Wishek disc I rented in October to mince the sod. I should have dealt with it then. […] Read more
The soil test results have arrived
The best results are only as good as the plans you implement to deal with them
Reading the farm machinery classifieds
Toban Dyck is new to reading machinery classifieds, but now he’s hooked
It may be a stage I’ll pass through on my way to becoming the farm’s big cheese, head honcho, big man on campus, but I have become quite focused on farm products and machinery. I scour the “agriculture” section of the classifieds more now than ever before (that bar is low, as I didn’t really […] Read more
A project for a cold winter week
Need a place to store your back issues of Grainews? Try this at home before it's time for seeding
We had been talking about it for a long time. We would either purchase shelving for our living room or I would make something. In summer, such deliberations seem like a waste of time. There’s farming to be done. Well, it’s done. And it’s pretty nifty, I must say, a giant raw-wood bookshelf hewn from […] Read more
That’s the way we’ve always done it
How much can large-scale farmers to change to meet urban consumer demands?
Traditions are thoughtless, lazy, convenient, oh, I could go on. Because you’ve always done something a certain way is not a reason for anything. It’s not an argument. And it’s certainly should never be used to retaliate against new ideas, new ways of doing things, that creep up in the agriculture world. Before you get […] Read more
The stuff of my new small town life
In a small town, simply getting a pizza can bring back memories and renew old friendships
To have met someone I knew wasn’t what made the encounter rare and memorable. No, it was more than that. I rarely go to town. But I did the other day. I rarely engage in anything but the most surface, innocuous chats with the people I meet. But I did the other day. It’s the […] Read more
New farmer breaks new ground. What a wild ride
The first step in the process was a pretty rough ride
Riding an angry bull is probably worse. It has to be. But, they don’t have to stay on for 120 acres. I did. I held on with both hands, and around corners would bounce out of my seat. It was the roughest tractor ride of my life. The tab that allows the driver to fill […] Read more
Pastureland gets prepped for crops
With the help of a kind couple, Toban Dyck is investing in 120 acres of new-to-him land
What was at first a distant possibility, a fragile idea, discussed over scotch and left to simmer has become something much more. It’s now real. It is as real as a custom applicator killing the pasture grass. It is as real as me looking for a disk to break the ground before it freezes. It […] Read more
A potential opportunity knocks
For a young farmer, the opportunity to buy land close to home is a life-changing prospect
I brought Glenfiddich but they offered Laphroaig. I’ll chat about land with either brand of scotch in my hand, but if put to a fight, the smoky and absolutely delicious Laphroaig wins every time I’m not buying. I put up nominal resistance, saying something awkward and barely intelligible about how they shouldn’t waste their good […] Read more
When the rubber hits the road
Making decisions and paying the bills is turning Toban Dyck into a real farmer
Two days ago it was way too early. But that morning, driving by my field of soybeans, I wasn’t sure. In fact, it’s hard to be sure of anything related to the fate of my 110 acres. I drove to the approach, walked in a few feet, there didn’t seem to be much for weed […] Read more
Everyone wants to be a farmer
City folk may not understand all the realities of farming, but many dream of doing it
It’s frustrating. I want my city friends to get it. I want them to understand how nuanced issues and trends like livestock production, genetically-modified organisms, fossil fuels, and eating farm-to-table are. It would be unfair to say city dwellers are vain, but I want to. Just as it would have been unfair of me to […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
