This is a paper based on farm reports. It looks at two different farms in Kansas and gives details of the type of planst they deal in, the chemicals applied, the kind of support they have and from which organizations and the harvest or output that there is at the end of the day. It also highlights the challenges that are faced in the farms.
Farm Report in Kansas
Terry Carey is a very famous local farmer in Kansas City. She deals with horticultural farm produce such as apples, ornamental corn, popcorn, water melons, cucumbers, winter squash and pumpkins with pumpkins being her major crop. Pumpkins are generally warm-loving crops therefore she plants them in June and they are often ready by September or mid-October. The size of her farm is 1,025 acres where she normally tries to distribute all the crops that she grows evenly on the land. However during the period between June and September she dedicates her entire farm to pumpkins and leaves out other crops. She plants mainly two varieties on her farm which are the giant ones that are greater that 20lb in size known as prize winner. This one takes 120 days to mature and they have a good color and shape. The second variety she plants is Jack-o'Lantern which is between 7-20 lb. The specific one in this category which she grows is Gold Rush which takes 120 days to mature, it has a large handle and it has a deep orange color.
Her farm does not have perennial weeds and it has very good quality of soil. Normally she does long rotations of between three and four years and uses soil tests for the application of potassium and phosphate. She ensures that her farm has the ideal pH for growing her pumpkins which is between 6 to 6.5.she makes sure that she tills her land beforehand since she grows her pumpkins in the late season hence this would help in killing late-germinating weeds.
The pumpkins grow in vines that which spread between 15 and 18 feet, she therefore does a traditional spacing of 12 to 15 feet between rows that have pumpkins between 2 to 4 feet .she uses a variety of farm equipment for the planting and harvesting of her crops these include; tractors, combine harvesters, seeding, planting and tillage equipment. All these equipment are necessary due to the size of her farm. The control of weeds is a critical management practice when it comes to growing pumpkins and the weeds are a very big problem since pumpkins are planted late when many annual broadleaf weeds are growing. She uses some of the few herbicides which are available for pumpkins and she ensures she uses very little due to the succulent nature of the plant that is not tolerant to improper application of the herbicides.
The pumpkin high demand season normally begins in late September to early October and therefore her pumpkins are ready for this market season. She sells her produce at the old Town farmers market which is a common market for many growers. She starts marketing her pumpkins way before harvesting whereby she contacts potential buyers and prepares advertising and sales promotions. Her stand in Old Town Farmers market has a very creative display that has decorated pumpkins and pumpkins that have been incorporated in arrangement of fall flowers and other items.
Farm report in California
Jane Blank is a local farmer in California who is known all over the sate at least by marketers and retailers of her produce. In California horticultural crops bring in a 60% of the total farm revenue in the agriculture of the state. Jane has a 2000 acre land where she grows mainly vegetables and fruits .among the fruits she grows are apples, oranges, strawberries while the vegetables include legumes, spinach, eggplant, peppers, and carrots. This crop diversification enables her to grow so many crops all year round and therefore means that she has crops for all seasons and thus can not fail to have anything to sell from her farm. She is a certified organic farmer which means that her produce are free from pesticides and other chemicals as well as maintain the ecological balance and biodiversity.
She ensures that she protects has crops against weeds and pests.in California there is a crop protection organization where she buys her crop protection materials and fertilizers. She uses full dry and liquid fertilizers which is a blending facility that provides her farm with what she needs according to the soil tests that have been conducted. This means that before she buys or applies any of these crop protector materials she always does soil tests so as to determine what will suite her farm best.
The large size of her farm can not allow for farming without the use of machines. She therefore uses heavy agricultural equipment including tractors, tillage equipment, combined harvesters, mowers and more. She also practices rotational farming whereby she does not grow the same type of crops for a long period of time on the specific area of her farm. She does her rotation after every two years in order to prevent any weeds or pest from infesting the crops.
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