Foo - Employed in Agriculture?

Well this is the thread for you!

I am now working for my 3rd summer in a row in this industry.

First 2 years (our summer is over xmas, like your winter you yanks!) I worked in Maize/cornfields for a Seed company. They bred seed to sell overseas, and they pollinated all the plants from the male plants (which were allowed to shed pollen) to the female plants. SO this meant that all the plants that were deemed to be female had to be de-tassled so that they couldn't shed pollen. We walked every field every second day. Day after day after day. Yay. It paid for the Cervelo though!

This year I am working at a Plant Nursery for $3/hr more, with more varied work and a better atmosphere (corn field workers were tired from working so many hours in the sun)

I work with Maintenance half the time, so far we've put up 320 sq m of shade cloth, and been going through a large greenhouse clipping some other shadecloth together. I also make up the boxes that the plants get sent away in (hundreds of the damn things) but that's cool I get to use this big staple gun that runs on compressed air! And there's the potting machine which fills puts with dirt and puts a hole in it so you can just dunk that seedling into it. They are then chucked into trays and carted off to the houses to be nursed into healthy plants :D

So what do any of you guys do for ag?

So what do any of you guys do for ag?

I have been around agriculture all my life. I was in FFA (future farmers of america) in high school, I raised these cute white faced sheep (can not remember the breed). I current raise about 100 bardrock hens (the black and white speckled ones), down from about 300 a few years ago. My father is a egg and poultry inspector for the USDA, he runs quality control at a few local egg plants (he is based at E&M in Fontana, CA), his home plant has over 250k birds.

I used to work every summer in the corn field, while in High School, detassling corn in the state of Iowa. It's removing the tassles (containing the pollen) from the "female" rows so that the "male" rows (a different variety of corn too), which have the pollen still on them, can pollinate the "female" rows and create a hybrid. It takes a good many years to make the hybrid that they are aiming for.

Why not get into the industry where they're trying to make that ethanol for cars (or is it methanol)?

Koffee

ethanol.... Mohawk Gas stations use ethanol blended fuel, but apparently its really bad for some cars..

I used to work every summer in the corn field, while in High School, detassling corn in the state of Iowa. It's removing the tassles (containing the pollen) from the "female" rows so that the "male" rows (a different variety of corn too), which have the pollen still on them, can pollinate the "female" rows and create a hybrid. It takes a good many years to make the hybrid that they are aiming for.
Yup pretty much what I was doing!

I used to work every summer in the corn field, while in High School, detassling corn in the state of Iowa. It's removing the tassles (containing the pollen) from the "female" rows so that the "male" rows (a different variety of corn too), which have the pollen still on them, can pollinate the "female" rows and create a hybrid. It takes a good many years to make the hybrid that they are aiming for.

My friend lived out in the cornfields, and every summer during school breaks, he'd detassle corn. He had all kinds of crazy stories about the managers and the detassling and how his hands would be all calloused and dried out from detassling. I couldn't do that job, no way. Hats off to anyone that can take that.

Koffee

well I am not in an ag related work field but i do have an impressive resume in the FFA.

In 2004 i was on the Dariy products team which involved indentifying defects in milk (like napoleon dynamite)
Dairy results
Districts-1st place
State-1st place team 17th indiviudal (out of 150 kids)
Nationals-12th place team 44th individual(out of 170 kids)

then in 2005 i was on the Agronomy team which involves identifying seeds and plants.
Agronomy results
Districts-2nd place team
State-First place team 5th Individual (out of 150 kids)
Nationals-6th place team 23 Individual( out of 136 kids)

Why not get into the industry where they're trying to make that ethanol for cars (or is it methanol)?

Koffee


No. That is what they put in cigarettes. :D ............(or is that menthol?)

i usde to mow lawns... but it makes it VERY hard for me to breathe to mow lawns... mask or no... pills or now... the breathing is difficult.

No. That is what they put in cigarettes. :D ............(or is that menthol?)

I think they put that in the breath freshener. I think it's called Menthos.

:D

Koffee

I did my time in peach orchards and tabacco feilds, then did some shop work repairing equipment. I was in FFA too. I'm able to maintian a Young Farmers of America membership with my Bachlor's Degree in Agriculture in Wildlife managment.

I'm a landscape designer.

Why not get into the industry where they're trying to make that ethanol for cars (or is it methanol)?

Koffee
Beacuse the energy used to make ethanol is more than the energy available from the metanol which is made. So you are always operating at a net loss.

Nice try, but no.

But then wouldn't it be an industry to figure out how to reduce the energy expenditure to make ethanol? I mean, if they'd stopped at making Betamax, we wouldn't have DVDs and mp3s. ;)

Koffee

Beacuse the energy used to make ethanol is more than the energy available from the metanol which is made. So you are always operating at a net loss.

Nice try, but no.

So tell me, which even remotely viable fuel source or energy conversion technology doesn't suffer from this same problem, to varying degrees? Provide more than anecdotal evidence, please.

So tell me, which even remotely viable fuel source or energy conversion technology doesn't suffer from this same problem, to varying degrees? Provide more than anecdotal evidence, please.
Well, the thing is most modern fuels suffers energy loss from refining, transportation, etc.

Ethanol article:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/06/05_ethanol.shtml

So what do any of you guys do for ag?

In the past I have bailed hay, detasseled corn, weed beens, etc, repair or paint tractors, and repair farm trucks. Since I live in NW Illinois, pretty much anything I do relates to AG. A lot of my family works or has worked for Wyffels Hybrids.

As far as Ethenal goes, I only buy gas with 10% added. Alcohol burns cleaner than gas, but gets less miles per gallon. When E85 becomes more popular and less expensive, I may switch.After I graduate, I could apply at SIU, because they got the grant to build a plant for experimation in the process of making Ethenal.

Spent more than a few summers picking corn, bagging corn, and driving the corn truck. (Though, oddly, the long-legged pretty girl got to sell the corn on the side of the road) Picked about 7 metric tonnes of rocks, ploughed, disked, drove the truck behind the silage cutter, built barns, moved irrigation pipes, picked carrots all winter, and, when all else failed, blasted stumps. That part was my favourite—Amex and dynamite. Of course, I am compelled to mention spending quality zen time with the Guernseys.

So what do any of you guys do for ag?

Eat. :)

Well, the thing is most modern fuels suffers energy loss from refining, transportation, etc.

Ethanol article:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/06/05_ethanol.shtml

Interesting article. Thanks for the link!