FARMING PRACTICES
Schmidgall Family Farms has the knowledge and equipment to grow the best crop possible each year. Our many years of experience and the fact that we are constantly adapting to new farming technologies and ideas make every year as successful as possible. Not only do we grow the best crops each year, but we also strive to find ways to bring our landowners greater financial returns.
The following are just a few ways we do this:
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We buy seed in bulk to capture the largest discounts possible and pass those discounts onto our landlords.
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We apply all our own chemicals which eliminates application costs. This also ensures that all chemicals are applied at the proper time.
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We work with the FSA to build waterways and field borders in areas that need them. All payments are passed on to the landowners.
We plant corn on 30 inch rows with two 40 ft John Deere Planters. We like to plant soybeans in 15 inch rows, which works well for soil conservation. On flat ground where erosion isn't an issue we do plant some soybeans in 30 inch rows. We spray our chemicals with a John Deere self propelled sprayer equipped with a 100 ft boom. Harvest is accomplished with two John Deere combines, two 8 row corn heads, and two 30 ft soybean platforms.
We prefer to apply nitrogen for our corn fields twice a year. We apply most of the nitrogen in the fall, following the harvest, by injecting it into the soil in gas form. We then apply more nitrogen in the spring shortly before planting time. We test other forms of nitrogen application and other time configurations each season to be sure we are applying the right amount, in the most effective ways, at the proper times of year.
Many aspects of our operation make us unique. One reason we are unique is that we have the equipment and ability to make many land improvements. With our excavator, we remove unwanted trees and place culverts for creek crossings, field entrances, etc. With our trenching machine, we can lay new underground tile and repair old damaged tile. With our dirt-moving machines, we can shape and build waterways and dry dams wherever they are needed.
We apply all our own chemicals and this makes us unique as well. We apply chemicals three times a year and timely chemical application is very important. Using our own sprayer gives us total control over when herbicides and other chemicals are applied.
We prefer to be right behind the cutting edge of farming technology. We implement technology once it has been tested and proven to provide a benefit to our operation and to our landowners.
One of these technologies is swath control. We use swath control on our planter and sprayer. On the planter, swath control uses GPS to individually turn on and off each row. This completely eliminates any overlap and cuts down on seed costs. Swath control on the sprayer turns on and off sections of the 100 ft boom to cut down on overlap and pesticide cost.
We have also installed some of the latest seed placement technology onto our planter that helps provide accurate seed spacing and placement. We implement variable rate seeding which allows us to vary populations throughout a field. For corn, we plant higher populations in high-yielding parts of our fields and drop the rate in less productive areas of the fields.
