Interesting Rider Last week

[ECIN]

Last week - We shelled the N-Plot we had out with Purdue - Along with Bob Nielsen , Jim Camberato was a Young Professor from China - he is here in the states for a year - with I think he said , 3 months to go till he go's home .

He was envolved with all the tests and plot work going on that day - He was here to learn and then go home to teach his people how to raise corn like we do here .

After the plot was done - we started to shell out the bulk rows - he asked to ride a few rounds - That was OK with me - the BIG problem was - he did not speak good Hoosier - Half Kentuckian - Hillbilly - but he did do  a very good job on the broken English - He was like my dog -- they bark at me trying to tell me something - but I don't understand -- give me time and enough barking - and This ole hillbilly will figure it out .

What I did  figure out was he said in China - in some parts - A big farm may be anywhere from 1 to 5 acres - it is hand picked then hand shelled and then spread out on boards to dry , but there are also some VERY big farms - Bigger than here ! If I figured that out right - 30 to 60 thousand  acres -  it sounded like there Gov. over there may be running the show on  them .  He asked about all the production costs , What i got from the Gov , Machinery costs , then said something about us ( US Farmers ) farming to make money , He said In China - Money no object --- as in what ever it takes to raise --- food - is the way I picked up on it .

I bet he took a hundred pictures of the corn as we shelled and several  of the yield monitor . After 2 rounds - he said he needed to get out and thanked me many times and Invited me to China -- twice , now boys that would be a trip -- won't it ? The only problem is my wife said I don't get 35 mile from home -- and as I looked at the atlas - it looks like to me -- China is at least 50 miles west of me - maybe make it a 2 day trip ?

As we are wraping up this harvest - I think i have thought  about that one day -- every day - about something he said - or I finnaly figured out he said -- I hope to go back up to Purdue and meet with him one more time - before he heads back home . Very interesting how different parts of the world are trying to come up to our standards in production -- Best of luck to them - but there is only one American farmer in this world --- and that would be us .

Have a great day

Ken

[roarintiger1]

Great post......that was very interesting.

I have a retired surgeon coming to the farm to "help" me next week.......He's not from China......he's from Cincinnati!  ha     Should be an interesting time with him as well.

[mnvtfarm]

Last fall my BL's business partmer and his son who own a huge mfg plant in China spent the day "helping" me harvest soybeans. Your correct about the barking dog thing, I'm sure they felt the same way, some how we all managed to form some type of communication.

The younger guy was really into the big red combine and 40' head, the grain cart,  unloading on the go, the trucks, our own private storage. They couldn't believe how fast the US farmer can clean off a field, lots of pictures. I let him drive the 8010, I think he wet himself... I had to take lot's of pictures.  He told me much of  China's soy crop is harvested by hand with a knife, any shelled beans are gleaned by hand off the ground, NO field loss, hauled to a local road or path, spread on a tarp and the foot and wheel trafffic does the shelling... All I could say was WOW! They did remind me of where soys orignated.

If I understood them correctly  rural born persons are given a garden size plot of land at birth, both of them had a plot in some small village that their cousins have combined with their own so the rural family was privately farming almost 14 acres now, sounded like kind of a big deal, every available inch of ground that can produce food or feed is utilized. The old M Farmall was sitting in the yard and they said  it reminded them of the level of mechanized technology that they see on some of the larger gov't run farms, again WOW! The did offer to purchase the M for the cousins.

Great guys, and I too was invited several times to visit China and they would give me a several day unedited, tour of rural China so we would could see how the country really operates. So if you get some time and want to go on an adventure ECI, give me a call, I plan on taking these guys up on their offer in the future...eighteen hours in a plane is a loooong time. 😞 🙂    

[Wolfcat9]

If you want to go to China, here is a suggestion.  Take a guided tour with Chinaspree.  For $1500 you get air from San Fran or LA, 12 days to see Beijing (Palace, Great Wall), Xian (terracotta warriors), Shanghai and more, 4-5 star hotels and all meals.  Great bargain.  Ask Chinaspree to delay your return flight for a week or so and go visit your friends.

[Palouser]

You'd be amazed how much grain is harvested by hand in this world. And how many differences here are from location to location. If you get a chance to go see farming elsewhere - do it.

Keep in mind that countries like India and China each produce much more than the US.

In 2001 I went to India and traveled in thier morthern grain areas and three weeks after I returned I went to Brazil to observe their practices and infrastructure. From several acre plots in one to 50,000 acre farms in the other. You'll never see a weed in a field in India as all are picked by hand and put in bags to haul for forage for water buffalo and cows (they also produce more dairy than anyone else in the world). The countryside and fields are filled with people in the most outstanding colors. They generally know all about us. We generally know nothing about them. They are completely aware of this.

While telling my conpatriots in Brazil about my experiences in India one old guy was silent for awhile after I mentioned that India had 700 million farmers. He then said that if there was a way to get all of them to this country they could probably pick the entire US corn crop in about an hour - by hand. The other observation that they puzzled over, since mechanizing to our level seems so much more efficient, that is you did so you would have 699 million people w/o work.