Makin' Memories on the Farm

We are welcoming August with a new flock of chicks!

At the start of our previous flock, we had a few extra warm days, so we had to adjust our ventilation practices accordingly. Summer heatwaves require poultry and livestock farmers to keep an extra eye on ventilation to ensure all systems are operating properly and not causing extra stress on our animals. Modern poultry barns are equipped with temperature sensors and alarms to alert us when temperatures are outside the parameters we have set in our controllers. Though all the extra technology in our barns is nice, we also make sure we are around the farm checking the barns regularly to see how the animals are handling the temperatures.


The chickens will let us know if they’re too hot or too cold by their actions. For instance, in the colder months of the year, the birds will huddle together in big groups to stay warm; if we see them huddling, we know they are too cold. If the birds are too hot in the summer, they will gather near the sidewalls of the barns and they will pant to help expel extra heat. We can also run too much air on the birds and they will not be as active as we typically like to see. Ventilating the barns can be tricky, and the needs of the birds often changes throughout the day. Just another reason we have to stay close by to monitor our bird comfort!


Have you smelled the corn pollinating lately?


August is typically a big month for our crops, however this season has come with so many stressors on our crops that farmers are having to make tough decisions about inputs.


The drought has been hard on our crops, and the heatwave in early July did not help. Did you know that high temperatures during tassel can actually damage the pollen on the tassels? Corn is a monoecious plant, meaning it produces its own male and female reproductive components all in the same plant. The tassels on top of the plant produce pollen and when the pollen falls off the tassels, it fertilizes the silks. Each silk is attached to a kernel on the ear of corn. Those kernels then rely heavily on moisture and rainfall to fill the pollinated kernels. Needless to say, the drought has taken its toll on corn production this season.


Cover crops are going to be flown onto fields soon; if you see crop dusters flying low, they’re likely spreading cover crop!