Fertilizer, Fuel, Seed, and Tractor Driving -- Keraj

On Monday, June 26^th, we visited New Century FS, where they explained to us how the farmers get their fertilizer, diesel, seeds, and ammonia. Seeing where they keep the ammonia in the big tanks, and the safety measures they take to prevent accidents and spills was interesting.

They also showed us where the seeds come in and get treated before they go to the farmers. After they showed us the ammonia, they showed us where the fertilizer comes in to giant concrete rooms that get filled with fertilizer, and they took us in and let us go into one of the rooms where the fertilizer is kept, and they were unloading a semi truck at that time, so we got to see how the fertilizer is dropped from the conveyor belt into the pile. Then they showed us where it is mixed and loaded, they use an auger to mix what the farmer needs and it is then loaded onto a semi truck where it is taken to the farmer. After the fertilizer they showed us where the herbicide and pesticide are mixed and given to the farmer, the entire facility was sloped inwards to prevent any chemicals leaving the building and hurting anything on the outside. The entire process, besides the workers putting the hoses in was completely automated. After telling us about the chemicals building, they gave us a delicious lunch of pork burgers.

After FS, we went to Mr. Gienger’s home, where Tim Homan from Rabo Agrifinance spoke to us about the financial side of agriculture, and how loans are given and paid back to them. After he spoke, Mr. Gienger and his son Jason told us about how his machines work. They let us look at them and sit inside of some of them, after he explained the machines, he took them to a parking lot outside of a football field, where he let us drive them, there was a big New Holland tractor, a sprayer, and a tractor with tracks. Driving those vehicles was really fun and an amazing experience, my favorites were the sprayer and the New Holland tractor, both were easy to drive, had simple controls, and were tons of fun to drive.

When it was time to go to Mr. Gienger’s house, I got to ride back in the tractors with tracks, it was really fun and an incredible experience. We then went back to Mr. Gienger’s house where they had an amazing dinner prepared, when dinner was done, we thanked everyone present from the Tama County Pork Producers, and we returned to the hotel.