Georgia | Field 2 Field

April 6, 2019April 6, 2019

Spring Planting Waiting for Drier Weather

By Chad Smith

Farm country is getting closer and closer to spring planting. Farmers are starting to look at their planters longingly, dreaming of being out in the field. After a wet winter that resulted in serious flooding problems, the nation’s midsection is looking for a spell of dry weather. However, ag meteorologist Ryan Martin of Warsaw, Indiana, says planters are likely going to sit a spell yet. It’s important to remember that we’re way too early to think about seriously-delayed spring planting.

“It probably going to be late this month or early into next month before planters get rolling,” Martin said. “It’s way too early to start thinking about serious spring planting delays. We’re actually not even at first planting dates in a large part of the Corn Belt yet.

Heartland Forecast

“As I look at the pattern stretching all the way from the Great Plains through the Corn Belt, we’ve got a big weather system that wants to move through late this weekend (Sunday, April 7 possibly through early Tuesday the 9^th). There won’t be a lot of good drying time after that running through the end of the week.”

After that, there’s another system in the 11-to-16-day forecast that may have 1-3 inches of rain coming across all the key growing areas. Martin says, flooding and current situation aside, the forecast doesn’t give farmers enough of a window in there to really start spring planting en masse.

Spring Planting — The Elkhorn River in Nebraska is way over its banks, covering up a lot of farm ground in Nebraska. Spring planting is likely to be delayed in a large part of the Midwest and Corn Belt because of flooding just like this. (Photo from Omaha.com)

Parts of Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri have been devastated by flooding this spring, and the dry weather farmers are looking for really isn’t going to happen. “I don’t think so,” he said. “The way the pattern looks over the next 10 days, I’m counting two systems that come through. One won’t have a huge amount of rain, but the second one could bring as much as a quarter-inch to as much as 1.25 inches.

“Normally at this time of year that would be good news,” Martin added. “But, the way things are set up right now it’s just not good.”

Southern Plains/Delta

There are some planters rolling deeper in the Southern Plains and in the Delta. Martin said the weather pattern in that part of the country shows that farmers may have to dodge some thunderstorms in order to keep spring planting going forward.

“Fronts will be coming through but as they do, they won’t hit everyone at the same time,” he said. “Over the next three weeks or so, those storms will end up with about 60-70 percent coverage at any given time. It doesn’t look too excessive to me right now. It’ll be a hodgepodge type of activity that should eventually allow crops into the ground and then get the crops the kind of rainfall they need to get going.”

The pattern for the heaviest rains wants to stay a little farther north into the Central Plains and the Missouri Valley Corn Belt areas. The interesting area to watch will be the far east part of the Deep South, where the likelihood of getting the crop in the ground on time is pretty good.

“Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and up into Tennessee are places where temperatures might lag a little behind normal,” Martin said. “There could be some thunderstorm development but I’m not quite as bullish on rain or bearish on getting spring planting in the Deep South done as I am farther north.”

Potential Flooding Possible in Upper Midwest

There won’t be as much happening in the western states in terms of precipitation like there will be in other parts of the country. The biggest story in the western U.S. won’t be in terms of new systems moving through. It’ll more likely involve snowpack runoff. The interesting thing about snowpack runoff is the problems won’t necessarily be just out west.

“The Red River likely will hit major flood stage in eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota,” he said. “There is snowpack that goes all the way back up into Montana and into the northern Rockies. The biggest question is just how fast we’ll see that snow melt and move through the area.

“The question is whether we’ll see a fast snowmelt with temps above normal,” he added. “That could be the story more than new systems coming through. Temperatures are still a little squirrely as temps likely will lag behind normal due to all that snowpack that still sits on the ground in those areas I mentioned.”

Here’s the entire conversation:

March 26, 2019March 26, 2019

Minnesota man is Bullfighters Only ROY

By Chad Smith

Here’s the best way to describe just what Bullfighters Only is:

It’s the kind of thing most people will only see in a nightmare. It’s the center of a rodeo ring and there’s just you and an angry 1,500-pound animal running directly at you with malicious intent. The only job you have then is to stay out of its way for a predetermined length of time. That’s the kind of thing that Mabel, Minnesota native Justin Ward does for a living. The 23-year-old has gotten quite good at it and was named the Bullfighter’s Only Rookie of the Year Award Winner.

NFL of Bull Fighting

Ward describes Bullfighters Only as the “NFL of freestyle bullfighting.” The contestant has to “fight” a Mexican fighting bull for a minute. And by fight, Ward says that means don’t let him kill you. As a bullfighter, Ward says he’s running around the ring “trying to do cool stuff for 40 seconds” and then really tries to up the score with one final trick in the last 20 seconds. The goal is to get the highest possible score between 0-100.

“While this animal is trying to kill you, some guys will do front flips, some do backflips, and some even get on their knees and try to juke out the animal,” Ward said. “The first 40 seconds is basically to prove that the animal can’t catch you. My big trick is leaping over the top of the charging bull from a flat-footed position, all the way from his nose to his tail.”

Ward said being off on a trick like that, even by a millisecond, gets painful in a hurry. He said a trick like that in Las Vegas “didn’t end up so well.” It’s tough to practice something like that leap every day. Ward says he just goes out and does it. But that’s not the only kind of bullfighting he does.

This is what Justin Ward looks like in action. Could you be brave enough to do this?

“I also do the rodeo protection bullfighting,” Ward said. “I had actually done that for quite a while. One of the guys that trained me to do that said I was pretty athletic and should go try out a Bullfighters Only competition. I went to California for a developmental camp, which is similar to an NFL Combine. I got an opportunity in my first Bullfighters Only event and placed in the top five.”

It didn’t stop there. At his very next event, Ward took home a $10,000 paycheck. It’s a giant step up from where he was the first time he stepped into a ring one-on-one with an angry bull.

The First Try

“The first time I stepped into the ring by myself, it was terrible,” he recalled. “I literally got knocked around for 30 of the required 40 seconds. I climbed out of that ring and never wanted to do that again. Then, they announced that I’d won my round and had to do it again after all. My first thought at the time was ‘are you kidding me?’”

Ward’s experience with bullfighting, as well as rodeo in general, goes back a long way. He and a partner were competing in a team-roping competition, as well as steer wrestling, at a rodeo in southern Wisconsin. One of the bullfighters didn’t show up so a rodeo committee member offered 50 dollars to anyone who would fill in.

With a laugh, Ward said, “I was 17 years old and dumb enough to take him up on it. My first bullfight that day was terrifying. I got wrecked up pretty good. However, it didn’t hurt as bad as I thought it would, I lived through it, and they paid me. I thought to myself ‘I can do this!’”

It’s important to remind people that he’s not out there completely unprotected. A collision with an angry bull is quite similar to getting hit by a car, but the bullfighters still have a full-sized plastic chest plate. So, they absorb the full force of the collision, but a lot of pain is kept at bay. Ward said it knocked the wind out of him, but it did the job of “keeping me alive.”

Practicing

Ward and his fellow bullfighters have come up with an unusual way to hone their skills. They take the front wheel of a bicycle and weld some handles to it. Then, they’ll attach a fake bull head to the machine. One bullfighter will operate the machinery as if it’s an actual bull while the other one works on his skills.

“I tell those guys that if I slip up, they need to whack me with it,” Ward said. “I need to learn that if I fall right here, it’s going to suck.”

Ward said he hits the gym regularly, doing HIT (High Intensity) workouts three days a week and works on cardio five days a week. He’s in the gym at least twice a day. It’s all about avoiding collisions like the one he referenced in Vegas and still remembers to this day.

Injuries Happen

“I did my big move and tried to jump over the top of the bull,” he said. “He hit me on the way by and when I fell to the ground, he just smoked me up against a panel three or four times and dislocated my shoulder. He actually hit me in the stomach hard enough that the doctor thought I might be bleeding internally. It was rough.

“I didn’t have long to recover,” he recalled. “I had another bullfight the following week, so I had to tough it out and compete injured.”

Not all bullfights are equally as challenging. A lot of the difficulty actually depends on the animal’s temperament. It all depends on what each bullfighter draws for a matchup.

“You can tell ahead of time if they’re going to be easy to perform with,” Ward said. “Then it’s a lot of fun knowing that you can pick on them a little and they can’t catch you. However, there have been other bulls that there was almost no getting away from. We’re talking pure adrenaline and pure fear with bulls like that.”

Most of the Mexican fighting bulls weigh between 1,200-1,500 pounds. You won’t see the giant 2,000-pound monster bulls because Ward said, “they’re not very quick.” However, the smaller Mexican fighting bulls are lightning quick.

A lot of miles

It’s a busy life of travel as a bullfighter. The first show Ward ever did was in Ada, Oklahoma, and his next show the following week in Washington state. He had a show earlier this year in Scottsdale, Arizona, followed by another one in Atlanta, Georgia. If someone from his area is competing at the same show, Ward said they’ll team up and drive there. If he’s traveling solo to a show, Ward said it’s easier to fly. He estimates putting on 50-60,000 miles in the last year alone. Ward said finding out he won the Rookie of the Year Award made it all worth the effort.

“I didn’t even know it had happened,” Ward recalled. “I was doing an interview just like we’re doing now, and someone asked me how it felt to be the Rookie of the Year. My first response was ‘I’m rookie of the year?’ He was a little surprised no one had told me yet.”

So, is this something that Ward is planning on doing for a while? “This is a long-term occupation for me,” Ward said with a smile that was almost visible in spite of talking on the phone.

February 19, 2019February 19, 2019

Minnesota Gophers prepare for spring football

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Clemson beat the socks off Alabama to capture the NCAA football crown. As over a foot of snow sits on the ground in Minnesota (with more on the way this week), it may be surprising to realize that spring football isn’t that far away, at all. Ryan Burns of Gopher Illustrated talked all things Gopher football on a recent episode of Minnesota Sports Weekly.

“We’re only a few weeks away now,” Burns said, “and considering the kind of February we’ve had, with all the snow and the Polar Vortex, it’s going to be a sight for sore eyes. Warmer temps are around the corner, the doldrums of winter are getting behind us, which is a good thing for Minnesota residents and for Gopher football.”Recruiting has basically wrapped up (for now). Burns said Gopher coaches spent roughly three weeks in January pounding the pavement on the recruiting trail. That second national signing day cut down on the number of recruits Gopher football signed this time around during the traditional signing day, which is the first Wednesday of February.

“Minnesota only signed one more scholarship player,” Burns said. “They’d signed 21 scholarship players during the early signing day in December. It’s the second year that college football had two signing days. I’d say roughly 70 percent of all college football recruits have signed during December.

Gopher football — Ryan Burns of Gopher Illustrated. (Photo from twitter.com)

“The Minnesota coaching staff should be back in the office this week and looking at more recruiting tape,” he added. “Just a couple weeks later, the staff will get started on their spring football season.”

How much time do these coaches spend on the road trying to build the future of the program? It’s astronomical. After the Gophers beat Wisconsin at the end of the regular season, head coach P.J. Fleck was out on the road 19 of the next 23 days recruiting, all the way up to the early National Signing Day. As Burns said, “There’s no rest for the weary.” Right after that signing day, the Gophers were off to Detroit and their Dec. 26 appearance in the Quick Lane Bowl.

“They (coaches) got a couple weeks off after the bowl and they were back out on the recruiting trail through late January and early February,” he said. “They get another week off and then it’s back to work figuring out who they want to recruit for the 2020 class, which is all juniors as we speak today. It’s spring football until April 15^th, after which they’ll be back on the road till the end of May.

“Once that wraps up, their home with their families for 6-7 weeks,” Burns said. “Coaching is demanding. I know several Gopher coaches that consistently work 12-14-hour days and it’s tough being away from your family that much. When you’re out for a six-week stretch of recruiting, you’re home maybe one day every week. You better have an understanding better-half who’s willing to put up with the lifestyle.”

Looking at recruiting specifics, Burns said they had a few holes in the roster to fill. “They were trying to add more talent into a young team. The Gophers might have been the youngest team in the country last year. You always want to continue to add talent, especially at the quarterback position.

“It’s the position at which the Gophers have the biggest question marks on how the program takes the next step forward,” he added. “I’d argue they have as good of a stable of running backs that they’ve had in a long time, they have as good a wide receiver group they’ve had in a long time, and the Minnesota offensive line really flipped a switch in the last month of the season. The O line was a big reason the team took a big step forward late in the year.”

Minnesota signed two quarterbacks in the offseason. One was from out-of-state and was the highest-rated QB to sign with the Gophers in decades. His name is Jacob Clark and he’s from Rockwall, Texas. They also signed Cole Kramer, a quarterback from Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Burns said Fleck did “a good job” of filling his two biggest needs at quarterback and along the defensive line.

One of the most amazing things about recruiting under P.J. Fleck is how the Gopher program is getting recruits who are being chased by school in the Power 5 conferences. A good example is defensive lineman Rashad Cheney of Atlanta, Georgia. The 6-foot-2, 270-pound defensive tackle, a four-star recruit, had previously committed to play for both Georgia and Alabama in the SEC. However, he signed a letter of intent late last year to play football for the University of Minnesota.

“Any time that you’re able to get a kid who had committed to Alabama all the way up to Halloween of last year before deciding to look around,” Burns said, “I think Alabama’s defensive line is absolutely something you should try to emulate. Think about it, they annually send two or three guys off their defensive line to the NFL every year.

“Winning in the trenches every year is a big point of emphasis for defensive coordinator Joe Rossi,” he added. “I think they addressed that well.”

Here are lots of Gopher football highlights from last season

The Gopher football team took many Minnesota football fans by surprise, finishing 7-6 overall, getting three wins in the Big Ten Conference, and winning five of their seven home games. The goal of spring football is to make sure the program takes steps to keep things moving forward.

“The coaches want to make sure they can build on some things,” Burns said. “They want to make sure the players who had difficulties last year with certain aspects of their positions can get those things corrected by understanding the cause and correcting their technique. As much as they want to get the kids physically ready to go, it’s more about the mental aspect as Minnesota will continue to install new things both on offense and defense.”

He added, “Going into year three, they want to take things up a notch.”

The big headliner for Gopher football fans to watch in spring football is definitely at the quarterback position.

“You had Mankato native Zach Annexstad win the job out of Gopher football fall camp and then gets injured during the season,” Burns said. “Tanner Morgan then comes in to finish the season. Tanner started seven games and Zach started six. Neither one of them really did enough to pull away from one another.

“You also have the two freshmen quarterbacks coming in, both of whom graduated high school early,” he added. “They’re already enrolled on campus and will be there for workouts, as well as spring ball, trying to compete for that starting quarterback job. Fleck has said the quarterback job is wide open, but I say that Annexstad likely has the inside track. However, they’re all underclassmen, all 18-20 years old, and they’ll all grow and develop at a different pace, so we’ll see what happens.”

February 6, 2019February 6, 2019

Applications Open for Beginning Farmer Institute

The Beginning Farmer Institute is National Farmers Union’s way of counteracting the aging population of rural America. Agriculture needs more young farmers and ranchers to take up the mantle and carry ag forward into the future.

National Farmers Union (NFU) today announced application period is now open for its Beginning Farmer Institute (BFI) program class of 2019-2020. NFU encourages new farmers of any age, from operations of any size, type, or location to apply for the class.

BFI’s hands-on training provides beginning farmers and ranchers in the U.S. with the tools they need to lead successful farm and ranch operations. The Beginning Farmer Institute is also a fantastic opportunity to grow as leaders in their communities and American agriculture.

The BFI program will host three in-person sessions in Washington, D.C., California, and Georgia over the coming year. Programming will focus on equipping participants with skill sets in business formation, accounting, taxation, labor, credit and business planning.

Farmers from all parts of the country that work on diverse types of farms have greatly benefitted from the Beginning Farmer Institute training. The most recent class of the program—which will graduate at the upcoming NFU Convention in Bellevue, Washington—has 18 farmers and ranchers from 13 states. Women and veterans represent a majority of program’s past participants.

The application period for the 2019-2020 class will be open until April 12, 2019. BFI is sponsored by FUI Foundation, Farm Credit Council and CHS Foundation. More information about BFI is available here.

About NFU:National Farmers Union advocates on behalf of nearly 200,000 American farm families and their communities. We envision a world in which farm families and their communities are respected, valued, and enjoy economic prosperity and social justice.

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