Schnekloth Farms

10/02/2023

This guy wok me up at 5:30am Saturday morning and then rode in the combine with me all day. Life is so good sometimes.

09/29/2023

I told ya, one day later and she’s in this thing.

09/28/2023

Some times I have to think about decades of change around here. I grew up wearing out plows, Hans has never plowed a day in his life and in fact we don’t even own one. This picture is Kaitlyn, my city raised daughter in law learning to seed cover crops with our small rig before she moves to the big rig. These 2 will and are doing it differently. It’s all good.

03/23/2021

It's March 22, 2021 and we are back in Colo for a short ski vacation. Now I have to tell you that at 72 skiing does not go as well as when in 40's, but I guess the point is it still goes We left here about a year ago in hurry to avoid the covid scare that hit Colo at that time, and now that we are both vaccinated I'm not worried about being here, but it still is sure different. Places are closed, faces are covered, and things are not very social.
Somebody out here asked if we were planting already( there's a little disconnect between farm and urban nowdays), I told him no the soonest would probably be the 20th of April, and then i got to thinking about what we have to do between now and then and wondered how are we going to make that happen?
I've seen enough cold and snow for this year that I'm ready for heat and golf clubs. However just grateful our family stayed healthy this past year, the markets are great, time to move on to the 21 crop season. Hans and I will probably be sharing more on that later.

12/25/2020

Haven't said much on here because I'm never sure what to write or how much to write, but today I feel motivated to do so.
It's Christmas Eve and Cindee and I here at home alone just the two of us. More on that later.
It's been a very strange year to say the lest. We were in Colo skiing when the virus hit out there, wo we left immediately and drove straight home. We then did basically nothing for a couple of weeks and decided we were ok, so started to see family here again and have enjoyed a sort of family bubble since then if you will. It's really been a blessing to be a farmer though this thing, we work out doors, we are a small local community, and it's easy to stay social distanced, and oh, it's hard to get fired.
After spring planting and thru early summer we had some of the best crop conditions I've ever seen and the crop showed it. Then some dry weather hit and then of course the Derecho. We were not hit that hard but had a very bad two weeks without power and some tough harvesting, how ever no complaints compared to those who lost crops and buildings. After all was said and done the crop turned out better then expected and the markets this winter are even better.
Cindee has become a pro at getting everything we need either curb side of delivered. We are both high risk because of age and health issues, so life is a little different around here, but I think that goes for all of us. I can't even tell you how ready I am for the vaccine to hit my shoulder.
So, why are alone to night? Hans and his family are with Kaitlyn's side of the family, Valerie and her kids like to home for Christmas eve, and we will be getting together with all of them tomorrow . Clint and his family in Arkansas have wisely decided to stay at home and not risk traveling. We hope to them later this winter.
Here's to Merry Christmas to all, and if I don't get back on before a Very Happy New Year.

05/02/2020

04/19/2020

The planting season is probably going to start around here tomorrow, if all goes right. I've got a new planter to run and it needs some set up done by a really great technician. The question is, how do socially distance in a tractor cab?
The normal plan around here is to get done planting as fast as possible, get some yard work taken care of, get the grain bins empty, and the head for Colo. or some vacation. This year will be different. There will be no interruptions during planting like church, school concerts, social functions, dinner parties, granddaughters horse shows, and the list goes on.
We had a cruise planned for this summer, that will not happen. Our life style in Colo. with golf, bridge, dinners, and socializing, will probably not happen. So where does this leave me? I'm going to enjoy this planting season and try not to kill myself, heck nobody cares weather we grow this crop or not. Just for the record, planting lends itself to social distancing really well. We've got good help to haul grain and clean bins out and I think that's going to be happening more. I think I'm going to look into buying a new road bike, I left my old one in Colo. to use this summer, great planning right. Biking tends to lend itself to social distancing, getting in shape, and clearing the mind. Stay Healthy

03/12/2020

OK, so here I sit in Colorado skiing for close to 3 weeks right ahead of spring planting. Probably not the best thing to be doing, but hey, flying down a mountain at 10,000 ft. is the best. So that's one thing. Then Colo. seems to be having a bad time with the corona virus, and it's affecting the high country and tourist areas the most, and elderly with lung conditions. So for me that's another thing. Markets are another thing, trade agreements that we all had been waiting for got zapped by this virus, and the world seems to have found the off switch because of this thing. OH well, I think I'll make another adult beverage, turn off the news, and hope for snow tonight.

11/28/2019

On this thanksgiving I suppose the list of things to be thankful for could go on and on, but I'm not interested in going that direction. I'm most thankful for a few main things this year. The fact that we got a crop planted in some of the worst conditions I've ever dealt with, cold, wet, and late. I'm thankful the dry spell we had this summer did not do more damage then it did. I'm thankful the Mississippi finally quit flooding and commodities could move again in late summer. I'm thankful we got a pretty good crop harvested in spite of the extremely late wet fall. I'm thankful for the joy being a Grandpa is currently bringing and the fact that the family is all healthy.

I write with somewhat of a heavy heart, we lost Endie yesterday. Endie was Katlyn and Hans's dog. He developed a spinal problem and could not use his hind legs, and there nothing could be done. I'm thankful I knew Endie, he was a ball of energy and joy to be around. He always greeted me with unbounded enthusiasm and could jump into any tractor or truck, didn't matter how high. Whenever he stayed with us he would always stay around me no matter where I took him. He will be missed.

I hope everyone has a Great Thanksgiving. We've been invited to my cousins and told the will be plenty of food, adult beverages, and football. What's not to be thankful for?

07/10/2019

Hans Peter Schnekloth was this after you were there?

05/09/2019

It's May 8th and here we sit waiting for dry weather. We should be done planting or at least close to it. Instead we are just below 25% done and not sure when we get back at it. Pretty safe to say a lot of operation in eastern Iowa have not even started planting. Conditions have been so bad that they may have made the correct decision, who knows. Now it will hard to be patient and let dry out, that could create a mess later if it turns dry and hot.
Then there's the issue of the flooded Mississippi River. No we do not have flooded land (although there are some small areas around here), but barges cannot operate in a flooded river. So grain that was sold for March and April and May delivery is still sitting in the bin which creates a cash flow problem for farmers, truckers, elevator operators, and local tow boat operators. Quality can also become a concern, grain likes to be dry, cold, and moving, sitting around is not good. On top of all that there is the depressed market situation created by large world reserves, higher interest rates taking some liquidity out the market, and a trade war created by I love tariffs I can't make a deal Tweety Bird in the White House. We have gone from being a suppler of large volumes of quality grain to the source of last resort. What took years to build was ruined in a few months and will take years to build back.
Here's hoping for dry weather, warm sun, and smoother sailing for the rest of the summer.

11/09/2018

Yesterday turned a little nostalgic for me. It started with taking a semi to Urbana Iowa for an ABS light problem. The whole trip took about 6 hours, but when I got home I still had time to load a load of corn and take it to River Gulf in Bettendorf and get home to load another load to go at a later time. I've been wanting to get back to doing some exercising to get ready for skiing this winter, but since I was short on day light I decided to walk around this hilly 80 acre we live on. At one point on this walk you can get on top of a certain hill and pretty much see the whole 80, it's the first 80 my great great grandfather bought. This took place in 1860. As I walked I wondered to myself if he had walked all around this 80 before he bought it? I wondered if my great grandfather, who would have been a young boy but old enough to walk along, was with him? What would they have said as they looked at it? There was water, there was a third of the house we now live in, there were some out building, but I don't know what, and the ground was rolling so there drainage. We farm this piece of ground today with a day in the spring and a day in the fall, they would have been looking a whole years worth of work and wondering if they could handle it? It had taken them 5 years to get from New Orleans to this point and was it the right place? They paid $3200 and borrowed $2600 of it. How did they make that work, where did money for livestock and supplies come from? Man would I have liked to hear that conversation and talk to those guys, they had guts. I then finished the day giving Theodore John (one of the 4 month old twin grandsons I have) his bed time bottle, and it got me thinking. My grandfather passed away when I was 4 years old, but I remember him. However I don't know if he ever gave me a bottle or changed my pants, but I decided after all this that if all works out well I'm going to tell these boys how much I enjoy them, and maybe give them some history that will probably bore them.