K & D Farms

01/14/2026

Part 4 Farm Phoenix Rising, Putting some heat to it.

The grain bins unloading auger is belt driven and hasn't been used for around 20 years. The adjustment bracket is pretty rusty & crusty so it needed a little heat to help move the motor into a position where the belts were tight enough to drive the auger.

A little bit of heat from the Rosebud torch tip allowed me to move the adjustment nuts and get the belts tightened up on the auger motor. ...

01/11/2026

Part 2

From the beginning sorta, Follow along as I attempt to bring more relivance back to the row crop portion of our family farm.I began doing YouTube videos pro...

01/10/2026

Follow along warts & all

Starting over what my Father In law Kay began building back around 1967.

Maize Valley is the prime emphasis of most of my work, but we also have the home Farm that Todd and I have been working at stabilizing for my mother-in-law the past 3 years since Kay passed away.

We've been able to "stop the bleeding", but the farm economy is tough. We've got most of the equipment and the business I think stabilized.

Now I'm going to move on to trying to make better use of the old infrastructure that's still left on the farm. It's been largely let go since about the early 2000s. My father-in-law Kay did what he could but he was getting up there in years and his health wasn't the best.

I filled in fixing equipment for him & spraying now & then, Todd baled most of the hay but we were really busy building Maize Valley's business with the market Winery as such and didn't have a lot of time or Capital resources to help on the farm that started everything.

I'm not really a YouTuber/Social influencer type like many in the agriculture community have been able to monetize, but I thought maybe I should document this.

I have some pretty ambitious plans for this grain bin set up. We'll see if I can make it work. I don't know if I don't try.

It's going to be quite a challenge but at least I got a shot!

From the beginning sorta, Follow along as I attempt to bring more relivance back to the row crop portion of our family farm.I began doing YouTube videos pro...

05/04/2024

Some shots from around the farm as we get soybeans planted

10/12/2023

Soooo, I broadcast some winter rye cover crop seed on the soybean stubble fields. I put a pretty hefty rate of just North of 200lbs./ac based upon past experiences of not the greatest emergence rate. The trade off is I can broadcast spread seed way faster than using the grain drill and I don't get the additional wear & tear on an expensive piece of equipment.

Yesterday I went out and just lightly "scratched" the soil surface to see if I get enough better emergence to make the trip worth the effort. The added benefit i also get is I disturbed some fall annual w**ds in the process.

We also drilled a few acres & will evaluate the difference over the course of the next year right up and into spring planting 2024.


https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyS_36CuQs1/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

07/18/2023

Yesterday I Blended in some Red Crimson clover, Daikon radishes & Purple top white turnips with Ammonium sulfate topdressing our 2023 Corn Maze.

I did this a couple of years back and it worked okay. See how it works out this year. Round Up Ready Corn I'll spray today then I usually lightly cultivate the N in just a pinch. We'll rototill the paths "smooth" for stroller & power chair accessibility also.

*Yea, it's rough. We were super dry this spring and couldn't get the field worked well prior to planting. This corn maze is a GPS guided design that gets planted not cut. This method is head and shoulders above cutting a maze for multiple reasons. However my maze planter was sorta young and went at 90 degree angle to the worked direction of the field which is fine for him because he goes pretty slow but not so good for top dressing speeds! We had used a drone last fall to seed rye and management this spring was a bit challenging due to the dry weather.




https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cu1no_1sJ4m/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

06/07/2023

The tale of two cover strategies. I usually green plant into a winter cover crop but this year has turned my plans on their head.

Pumpkin Planting, it's a bit early but idk...do I plant now deep when I still can or gamble on rain, I decided they won't grow in the bag. See how GDD's play out I guess.

I had to terminate and roll my winter rye early to conserve moisture rather than plant into standing green rye. I usually sees it at about 100-120lb./ac. This particular field is a dryer one so I was concerned about getting pe*******on and if I could clear the laying rye. The Martin Razor wipes cut through it like a boss and I only had minimal wrapping on the closing wheels...whew! I do have some super "spongey" peat/muck that I will have some challenges with but it is a small area and you just need to get the seed close to good and it grows stuff well.

I have another field with leftover winter rye I ended up planting in March along with spring peas because we moved our U-Pick pumpkin patch this winter and I needed something. This timing and mix has really impressed me so far. Decent cover for w**d suppression and it plants really nice. Granted, this is the perfect field for this particular approach. (Sandy Muck)

Now it's time to see if I can get our 800' x 300' traveling gun I last used in 1988 to work. I figured once I dig it out and all the old pumps, fittings, pipe etc. that should make it rain.

03/09/2023

Time to Topdress the winter wheat before it breaks dormancy.

0 Likes, 0 Comments - Bill Bakan () on Instagram: "Time to feed the winter wheat before it breaks dormancy, taking advantage of the early morning fr..."