Four Monitors and a Vision

Yesterday I had the good fortune to receive a warm welcome by Kerry and Angela Knuth onto their Mead, Nebraska farm office which is a few miles from their home.  In the barn lot, their 48 row corn planter was detached from the massive green tractor while others in the neighborhood planted.  Angela informed me that Kerry had to run up to the John Deere dealership and would return momentarily (it turns out the several hundred thousand dollar tractor rear end had failed and was going to be replaced within the week.) 

I stepped into their farm shop and through the interior door leading to the community style office work space not unlike many professional farmers.  What then happened was fascinating... Angela invited me to take a seat at her work station and man the controls to her four monitor computer (yes, four... as in twice as many as two.)  She inquired of our software Optmzr.co and wanted a refresher on an earlier webinar.  This was fine but slightly awkward for me.  I was much more interested in knowing about their farm as I had driven from Indiana to "ride in a corn planter in Nebraska" just to find they had decided not to plant given the snow in the forecast for the next day.  (stay tuned for more on that later in this post.) 

As we got the conversation revved up I was asked to turn and meet her nephew who oversees their web site and is encouraging her to post on their newly created blog (visit it here.).  He has experience (and talent) in cinematography and production.  Although his Mac Pro only had one monitor his enthusiasm for his work resonated with me as did Angela's encouragement for him to share his business card.

Shortly thereafter, Kerry arrived, back from the dealership and was rather curious as to what we were messing around with (I'm sure April 30th farm visits are not generally a welcome thing... particularly when very little planting progress has been made.)

Nonetheless, he warmed up quickly and we wound up standing in the barn yard reviewing statistics, business strategy and weather forecasting as it relates to production systems management on the farm.  Bubba (given name of Terral), the main sprayer operator, joined us in the barn lot and shared a quip about telemetry systems allowing Angela to read the tractor monitor while he is in the field so "I can get an ass chewing today instead of tomorrow" afforded us some comic relief.  (Angela quipped back, "you haven't had a chewing in a while!")

As if from an AB Production, the scene was back dropped by an elderly man on an open cab tractor discing up a patch of the front yard which I hoped was going to be a garden.  They all laughed and said, "We'll save you from an introduction to him.  He wouldn't like you anyways." 

I'm a long way from home but farms across our fine nation have a lot in common... and a few of them have just enough contrast in them to create massive separation.  It was my pleasure to visit and spar on tech ideas for the next few years with this farm family.  May they and the rest of you have a safe and productive planting season.

Oh, and Angela, may you plant on the day with the Mayflower tree is in full bloom! (do you even have Mayflower trees in Nebraska?!  ha!)