The memories and events that took place this year are stories we will tell our grandchildren. This year Shooks Farms celebrated a Centennial year, 100 years of the same family farming the same land. We always knew we wanted to host a big open house so that the public could celebrate with us. In August after months of planning and partnering with Michigan Farm Bureau we threw one heck of a party. The weather was perfect (probably the most comfortable weekend of the summer) people were entering the farm from all directions so it was hard to get an accurate head count but we managed to count over 800 people that attended the event. Everywhere I looked I saw smiling faces, kids running and jumping, farm tours, a petting zoo, face painting, bouncy houses, corn box (a.k.a sandbox filled with corn), tractor displays, farm history tent, snow cones and people eating our home grown hamburgers.
What a historic year for the farm.
This was the highlight of the year for the farm but we were also blessed with bumper crops. 2014 started out cold…I mean really cold and snowy, all over town (and the farm) I heard from everyone was “This was the way winters used to be”. Well after witnessing a winter from the good ole days I’m sure glad that I haven’t experienced too many of those seasons.
Once spring sprung we were in the fields planting corn, soybeans and cherry trees. A major part of this year was waiting for warm weather to dry the fields enough so we could plant. As many of you know the spring took its sweet time getting here so were not able to get in the fields until mid-May. We normally like to be in the fields in late April.
Once spring sprung we were in the fields planting corn, soybeans and cherry trees. A major part of this year was waiting for warm weather to dry the fields enough so we could plant. As many of you know the spring took its sweet time getting here so were not able to get in the fields until mid-May. We normally like to be in the fields in late April.
Summer came and brought excellent conditions for growing cherries the slow transition from spring to summer put us past the frost scares of April and May. We began cherry harvest the second week in July with comfortable temperatures and cooler nights. This cold weather is good because the cherries will be firmer when shaken off the tree and into the tanks for transport. A firmer cherry will travel better without juice loss than a softer hotter cherry.
Summer gave way to fall and the row crop harvest season was upon us. Much like 2013 this fall was difficult to harvest corn and soybeans. This year we bought a second combine so we could get the crops off faster. I swear it rained for 40 days and 40 nights making it very difficult for us to harvest the grains and for the crops to dry out so that they can be stored properly. We put up high moisture corn this means that we store the corn at a moisture percentage above 15% this is fine because we’ll feed the corn to the cows from upright silos or AgBags where no air is present so the corn won’t decay. We recently finished our harvest at the end of December, I can remember many years being done with harvest before deer season (Nov. 15th). We also custom harvest for neighboring farmers which we just wrapped up harvest yesterday December 30th.
So that in a nutshell was our year we also welcomed two new twin boys to the Shooks Family as Rob and Mishelle were blessed with Drew Paul and Jordan Carter in July. Since 2007 just about every year someone in the family has welcomed a new baby….to the best of our knowledge we are unaware if this trend with continue in 2015. Thanks for making our year so special and historic we look forward to growing our food next year. There is an old saying in Agriculture that goes “there are only two good years in farming, the year everything is paid for and next year”. We hope next year (2015) is a good year for farming. May God Bless you all in 2015.