What do Farmers do all winter?

A lot of people wonder what farmers do all winter since they aren’t out in the field.  There are a lot of things to do in the winter.  Here is a quick list of what they have been up to this winter.

      1.  Meetings.  Constant meetings around the farm with seed dealers, chemical dealers, grain brokers, insurance agents, bankers, landlords, equipment dealers, fertilizer salesman, real estate agents, peer groups, etc

      2.  Meetings.  A trip to Kansas City, thanks to Claas, to examine the newest Claas combine design and meet with some of their engineers from the USA and Germany.  They also met with executives from other agricultural manufactures.   

      3.  Meetings.  Bob and Sarah went on a trip to Germany to see the Claas factory and were also able to meet with the owner of Horsch Manufacturing, who build a planter that we are interested in.  The guys saw it when they were in Kansas City.

  

      4.  Meetings.  Bob and Brad attended an all-day safety seminar on farm safety

      5.  Manufacturing.  Brad had an idea to make a fast system for remotely opening hopper bottom doors.  It has been a true group effort between Brad, Bob and Craig from design to manufacturing to installation.  It is now on the road being tested and they are happy that there have been very few glitches.

      6.  Hauling Grain

      7.  Equipment clean up and repair

      8.  Land Purchasing

         9.  Installing field tile

     10.  Cleaning up fields: removing fence rows and shrubs

     11.  Working with a manufacturer in North Dakota (Norwood Sales) on making a seed/fertilizer tender.

         12.  Preparing equipment for the spring planting season.

What it boils down to is the winter is the more mentally draining season and the spring, summer, and fall are the more physically draining times of year.  Either way they work hard all year long!  For a more detailed explanation of some of the activities check out www.stewart-farms.com