Illinois Farm Families Blog

A WatchUsGrow.org reader recently asked us to define "modern farm equipment," so we put the challenge to our bloggers to share what's new on their farms. This is the fifth part of that series.

On our family farm, kids from two years to 60 years love the latest and greatest technology!  Here Grandpa and Granddaughter surf the our DTN for the weather and grain markets. Our DTN units provides us with corn and soybean market-specific information, as well as real-time weather conditions and forecasts. Our granddaughter Tess loves it when Grandpa lets her use the mouse to click through the pages that provide him with information and grain-pricing information direct from the Chicago Board of Trade. The weather pages are another favorite, especially when the "motion" tab is clicked and both can observe rain or storm systems as the weather moves across the country, our state and our farm.  

Donna Jeschke, Mazon

A WatchUsGrow.org reader recently asked us to define "modern farm equipment," so we put the challenge to our bloggers to share what's new on their farms. This is the third part of that series.

A new gadget we just love is our wireless rain gauge! As you probably all know, rain is very important to farmers. Too much or too little rain during the planting, growing and harvesting seasons is a constant concern on the farm. In the spring, we hope for just enough rain to provide moist, but not wet, topsoil for the planted seeds.  Tracking the rainfall and observing weather patterns and forecasts are part of our daily "chores". 

This wireless rain gauge helps to make that chore easier.  The gauge has a large, 6-inch collector component that we mounted on the post. The collector is self-emptying for better accuracy. Our old gauge had to be emptied by hand. The monitor sits on my kitchen windowsill. It features a 24-hour rainfall display and an accumulative display--up to 99 inches! The wireless rain gauge is one of the more simple technologies we have on the farm but it is one of the most useful!

Donna Jeschke, Mazon

 Crop scouting is time-consuming; but, probably the most important job we do all summer.  With the assistance of a 4-wheeler, my husband spent most of Sunday and Monday riding down the rows of the planted corn and soybeans looking for insects, weeds and diseases that could hurt the young plants.  He was also checking for any germination issues with the seeds.  As the plants grow, the 4-wheeler becomes less helpful and we have to do a lot more walking through the fields!  We “scout” each field at least once a week during the summer months, as those little plants grow fast this time of the year! 

Because we finished scouting on Monday, we played “hooky” on Tuesday morning and headed to Oak Brook to meet our daughter-in-law and 1-year-old granddaughter, who live in Chicago.  While our daughter-in-law and I shopped, Grandpa and granddaughter enjoyed a couple of hours of playing peek-a-boo, giggling, and strolling as they followed us from store to store on this very beautiful and sunny day.  Oh, what grandfathers won’t do for their grandchildren!!! 

Back at home later that afternoon, Grandpa headed to the farm shop---that’s the shed on the farm where we do maintenance and repairs to the farm equipment.  He needed to do some repairs on his crop scouting buddy---the 4-wheeler. 

At dark, we sat down for a late supper…a little tired, but so thankful for such a wonderful day.  I told Grandpa how impressed I was of his shopping skills and reminded him that in less than six months he’ll be entertaining two granddaughters while mom and grandma shop.  He just grinned from ear to ear!

Donna Jeschke
Farmer,
Mazon, Illinois