Easier Seed Handling (part 1)

Bill & Tim bought this fork lift when Glenn sold his shop last year. Having it has made it possible for them to go ahead and get several boxes of seed to have ready for planting (2nd picture). Before having the forklift, they had to just get two boxes at a time. That's how many fit on this seed tender. (some can hold 4)

The black boxes hold the equivalent of 50 bags. Before getting the seed tender 2 years ago, they had to lift and empty all of those bags into the planter! They would need to get and handle 1300 bags of bean seed and 700+ bags of corn seed!!! The seed tender and these boxes have really saved wear and tear on their backs - wow!

They do still have to handle a few bags to make the quantity for a field come out right. (3rd picture) The next blog post will show getting the seed from the boxes into the 2 yellow tanks on the planter (Bill says the tanks are officially called central commodity system or CCS).

Diane called me yesterday a little after 6:00 am asking if I could come to their house by 7:00 to stay with Lacey who had been vomiting and had a fever. The post office didn't have a sub available for her and Todd was in Des Moines at school for work. Lacey's still not keeping anything down today. Diane took her to the dr. this afternoon. They want her to bring her back tomorrow if she isn't better.

Today was a mostly sunny day with little breeze but still way too wet to do any work in the fields. We were all able to cut grass starting yesterday.

I thought this was kind of interesting the first time I saw it. They just pile up the empty seed bags in the field and burn them.

Below is a video showing lifting an empty box off the seed tender with the forklift. Click on the arrow to view.