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- Thread starter SoapyCy
- Start date
Near the edge of glaciers, they are embedded very deep and work their way to the surface via freeze/thaw process and get pulled up during tillage.
We have a number of farms along the ridge that marks the eastern extent of the Wapsi watershed, which is the line between the less glaciated Driftless, and the rest of Iowa. Just tons of rocks that keep coming up year after year
If it were all up to me I would agree. Zoning is not a good thing nor productive use of time. If the land is worth more with a house or with a farm I do not care. Let the owners decide how to best use their property.
Hmm. strange. I guess it makes sense that the freeze/thaw cycle pushes up rocks, though that's probably more complicated than it may seem. But, even in the worst year that only freezes what 48 in deep at most? I'll bet that just water moving and drought will move rocks around as well.
Hmm, found this in my quick search. I'd known that large particles tend to rise to the surface.
Granular convection - Wikipedia
Horace Greeley noted "Picking stones is a never-ending labor on one of those New England farms. Pick as closely as you may, the next plowing turns up a fresh eruption of boulders and pebbles, from the size of a hickory nut to that of a tea-kettle." [12] A hint to the cause appears in his further description that "this work is mainly to be done in March or April, when the earth is saturated with ice-cold water". Underground water freezes, lifting all particles above it. As the water starts to melt, smaller particles can settle into the opening spaces while larger particles are still raised.
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Field rocks are reminders that geology is kinetic, by human means and natural processes. In my youth no new tractor was field ready until it had a rock box.
I mostly agree with this.
Only difference is in our operation, no one is above any crappy job. This July I laid out approximately 5 miles of straw mat on newly seeded grass waterways by hand. I had hired guys helping, but I was actually out there working with them.
You’re right in that, many times, the pick up jockey isn’t too involved.
A couple of friends and I were hired to walk a beanfield one summer for $5/hr. We get there and the field is completely overrun with weeds. We worked all day and didn't make a dent on anything. You couldn't even tell it was a bean field. It was frustrating work but my Dad was one of the "you took the job now finish it" people. After day two we had made what appeared to be no more progress. I know how Sisyphus felt. The three of us decided we were going to quit. Dad wasn't having it. The next morning Dad drove me over there to give my friends and I a "pep" talk. He saw the field and said "it would take 100 of you to get this done before fall". And he let us quit.
One of the biggest victories of my 12 year old life.
Bingo, great explanation. Rocks are a never ending battle and for those who ask why picking up rocks is such a big deal, well let's just say it's no fun when one damages an expensive piece of equipment and sets your planting or harvest back while you repair it. I remember a few years ago my in-laws plowed up a hay field to plant corn for a year before seeding new alfalfa and we all walked the field 1 weekend we were home helping pick up rocks. Two of my nephews were whining about it and grandpa says to them "this is part of farming boys, just remember that if you think farming is easy." One of them chimed back "that's easy for you to say, you just sit on the tractor while we throw the rocks in the loader bucket." He laughed and said "well once you farm for over 40 years then maybe you can drive the tractor some day while your kids and grandkids help out." That wasn't the end of it "no I'll just hire someone to do it for me." Grandpa laughs again "if I could afford to hire someone to do this we all wouldn't be out here right now. If I had enough money to hire someone to do this I probably wouldn't be farming for a living."
The guy that mows and bales my parent's hay field hit a rock while mowing a few years ago and it ricocheted off something and shattered his back window in his tractor. To add insult to injury when he was going through the last gate to leave and had to swivel the angle of his mower to get through the gate apparently some of the glass got down into the hydraulic levers and the lever got stuck and the mower wound up getting binded up on the gate and tore it right off the fence post.
Walked a lot of beans, but we did get to use hoes. When driving by a field that had been walked, Dad's pickup stopped if one weed had been missed. The gift of having pride in the quality of one's work was instilled at a young age.
We don’t have any full time help, but go out of the way to give our seasonal help the easy jobs and we take the crap work. They don’t need the money and we want them to keep coming back, plus just as a general rule of treating people decent we don’t ask anyone else to do something we aren’t willing to do ourselves.
No prob, I know you were joking but waiting on a combine repair for four days now has made me edgy. I’m facing that legacy issue myself right now. My mom passed away one year ago yesterday. I left corporate world to come back and take care of her due to heart issues in 2002. Farming was there if we expanded, which she agreed to without hesitation. It’s been good to me and dont care if people insult it or make fun of it. The estate should close any day now. I could liquidate and retire, but I have three kids and the oldest (at ISU) has started showing interest so I don’t want to walk away, because like I posted earlier, once a family does, you don’t go back. I’m 5th generation, so I will ride this out and see what the kids decide (I don’t push them one way or another) and then figure it out in my 60s what I will do.
I think when Iowa is upside down as the earth rotates, they fall out of the ground to the surface!!!
So the spinning kinda flings them out also? Wish they would just launch into space though.
Does anyone here actually know of anyone starting up a farm from nothing? No deeded land, no access to Dad's equipment, just someone who decided to become a farmer and was able to come up with the million+ dollars to start one?
Gramps always left a few weeds next to the road so if he had to piss he could act like he was pulling a weed if someone drove by.
There was a thread a few years ago about this question and the answer was basically no, with the exception of hobby farms.
I know one, went into the hog business but don’t know any grain farmers who did t have an “in” that got them going.