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Makin' Memories is a glimpse into ag-business through the words of Kristin and Levi Hayman, poultry and row crop farmers from Greensboro. Each month, they will give you a peek into life on the farm.
This month on the farm has been busy! Chickens are growing, our main concerns this time of the year with the flock are keeping up with ventilation, making sure feed pans are full and at adequate heights for the birds, and making sure drinkers are also at the right height for the birds.
Ventilation has been a little challenging with the drastic temperature swings that we’ve been experiencing. We run extra fans on the warm days to provide the birds with as much fresh air as possible; however, on the colder days and nights, we run minimal fan time to maintain fresh air, but not chill the birds. We can tell if the birds are chilled by their actions. They will huddle together in big groups to stay warm if they are cold. Checking the barns regularly throughout the day helps us monitor their behavior to know if they are too hot, too cold, or just right.
Our fans and vent boxes work as an air exchange system inside the barns. When the fans are on, we have vent boxes on both sides of our barns that open up to a certain percentage and fresh air is brought into the barns while the stale air is pulled out of the barns. The outside weather helps us determine how many fans to run and how long those fans will run; we are able to use a controller to cycle the fans automatically. Simply because we have controllers that run the fans automatically does not give us permission to just leave the controller to determine the appropriate settings; we are still responsible for checking the conditions multiple times a day to ensure the settings are providing the necessary conditions for bird health and comfort.
On the row crop side, we were busy prepping soil last month; the windy weather made spreading lime, potash, and poultry litter a little challenging. May is the month we like to get our planting finished for the season. We have crop insurance dates that we have to abide by to maximize our coverage, if we happen to have a claim. If we are delayed in planting and we plant past the deadline date, the coverage is decreased by a certain percentage each day.
During our planting season, we conduct emergence testing to ensure our planter is set up properly prior to planting all of our acres. If we notice some seeds emerge later than others, we make necessary adjustments to the planter to help prevent yield loss. Our kids even help with emergence testing, it’s a family affair with all hands on deck!
Planting season is a favorite around our farm, a fresh start to a new crop year!
