March 28, 2024

A Year in the Life of a Farmer: New technology growing pains

Follow the Kindred family throughout the entire year. Each month, look for updates about the family members and the decisions they make on their farm.

ATLANTA, Ill. — Technology has come a long way since Ron Kindred started farming with his father in 1980, and he was taking another major step into the tech realm this month.

Ron and his son, Jay, fourth- and fifth-generation farmers, were installing new Precision Planting units on their Kinze planter when AgriNews met with them Jan. 15 for the first installment of the 2021 “A Year in the Life of a Farmer” series.

“We’re a little behind times. We’re putting vSet and vDrive on our Kinze planter. It’s a 15-inch 16/31 planter, and it takes a little while to get all of that on there and taking all of old harnesses off,” Ron explained.

“We started out with a KPM monitor that came with the Kinze planter and then we upgraded to the 20/20 and had to put that monitor on. Now we have the Gen 3 20/20 monitor and so we decided to do this.

“We’re also looking at maybe putting on a couple of SmartFirmers on so we can map some fields and get a little more detail on what’s going on out there. It is amazing what technology is out there.

“My son is 37 years old and he’s just at the right age to utilize all of that and pick it up real quick, where I’m 66 and it’s just a little bit slower on my end.

“I used the same kind of equipment, the same kind of planter, for over 40 years and it’s just hard to adapt to all of that. I think it does make it easier in the long run. It’s just more growing pains right now.”

Family Team

The Kindred family grows 1,600 acres of corn and soybeans and looks forward to partnering with another farmer this year to help him farm his 1,200 acres.

“It’s the first year for that, so we’re going to see how that all works out and what equipment we have that we need to upgrade or if we’re fine with what we have we’ll just go from there,” Ron said.

The Kindreds had cattle as part of their farming operation until 2012.

“I had cattle for 32 years and I was having trouble with my back and decided it was time to give them up. They’re a lot of work, especially with my commitments on the Illinois Soybean Association board and I’m the president of the Logan County Farm Bureau board. That takes time away from the farm,” Ron noted.

“It’s nice to have Jay back so he can do a lot to keep the farm going when I have a meeting here or there. My wife, Jayne, helps as well. She runs the auger wagon in the fall. She retired from teaching after 32 years. She’s been retired about 10 years now.

“It actually is just a family operation to this point because it’s just Jay, Jayne and myself. We’ve been able to get over 1,600 acres and get it in and out and get it done. We thought about hiring someone at various times for seasonal help, but we’ve been able to get it done.”

Broad Perspective

Ron started farming with his father in 1980 after working at a local implement company and a fertilizer business, giving him a perspective of the other side of agriculture beyond growing corn, soybeans and cattle.

“I think that did help when I got started. It made me a little handier working on things than I would have been otherwise. I worked with Dad for several years and then my father-in-law retired from farming in 1988. He and my uncle helped me farm. We used to joke that it was Ron with his Medicare crew, but that was farming,” he grinned.

Soil Stewardship

Conservation and soil health have been an integral part of Kindred’s farming operation since 1983 through no-tilling and cover crops.

He began no-tilling corn in 1983 and no-tilling all of soybeans in 1988.

“It was around that time when conservation plans for highly erodible land came in and we thought we could no-till soybeans. At the time we had a 12-row planter and we went over it twice and tried to split the rows to get the 15-inch rows on the no-till. We did that for a few years until we could finally afford a 12/23 planter,” he explained.

The Kindreds now no-till about half of their corn acres and make one pass on the remaining acres.

“I just feel like it’s a little more consistent. Getting the crop up is a challenge, but our equipment is better. We have a better opportunity to get the crop up than we did when I first started the no-till. The equipment dealers are going to supply you with what you need and be happy to sell it to you,” Ron said.

Cover crops were added to the mix three years ago when the Kindreds planted cereal rye into corn stalks ahead of soybeans. They also were accepted into the Conservation Stewardship Program.

“We’re doing two farms with cover crops where soybeans are going to go. We have not done cover crops ahead of corn yet. So, that’s probably the next phase we have to get into and decide what we can use in that mix to try it. We’ll probably start small the first year or two to see how it works out, what issues there are and then go from there,” Ron said.

“But that’s something that if you look toward the future, especially with this administration, I think there’s going to be real push for climate change legislation and carbon credits and farmers might be able to trade some of the carbon credits they have and they might be worth something. If we’re doing cover crops and no-till, I think it gives us an opportunity to capture more of that market.”

Technology

Going back to the technological advancements in agriculture, including installing Precision Planting units on his planter this winter, Kindred reflected on the four decades of progress he’s witnessed from the ground floor.

“It’s phenomenal how far we’ve come. Some of it is finally getting affordable for some of us small farmers. Nowadays the 1,000- to 1,600-acre farmers are small farmers where when I first started 500 acres was a small farmer. It’s all relative,” he said.

“This Precision stuff has been around for a while. It’s shown its benefits. We know it works. It was just getting it to where it was economically feasible for us to invest in, and we’ve gotten to that point. Now, everything new is really high priced, and I think that’s the biggest change.

“Almost everyone has autosteer now. It makes operating a tractor longer hours much easier. You have these monitors that tell you almost everything, especially on the combine. If there’s one thing that’s starting to go wrong, the monitor will go off.

“All of the mapping, the grid sampling for soil samples, the variable rate technology that’s been around for years. When I first started we had none of that. You just broadcast your fertilizer. The monitor now tells you you’re 99% accurate with seed spacing. It’s crazy, but it’s a good crazy.

“That’s one of the reasons we’re producing more. It’s helped us along with the development of new traits in our corn and soybeans that has helped us, but I think a lot of this technology has helped us. It’s fine-tuned things. Our spacing on our corn plants is better so it gives us the opportunity to yield more and we are yielding more. There are a lot of things that play into it, but I think the technology is a big part of it.”

Advocate

Beyond the farm, Kindred is active in local organizations and an advocate for soybean farmers.

He is in his second stint as an Illinois Soybean Association director representing District 9, which includes Cass, Logan, Mason, Menard, Morgan and Sangamon counties. He is the government relations chair and a member of the ISA executive committee. He is currently chairman of Illinois Soybean Growers SoyPac and a Soy Advocate for ISG’s Voice for Soy program.

He previously served for 13 years as ISA director, including time as vice president, secretary, legislative chair and a number of committees, and represented Illinois on the American Soybean Association board where he served as vice president and secretary. That director term expired in 2013.

Kindred is president of the Logan County Farm Bureau, has served on the East Lincoln Farmers Grain board for 12 years, including five as president, and was an Atlanta Township trustee for 12 years. He’s in his fourth year on the church board.

“I’ve been around and served in a lot of various places, and I think it’s helped me grow as a person and given me a lot of background and knowledge on different topics. I think when you’re more well-rounded you make better decisions,” he said.

Tom Doran

Tom Doran

Field Editor