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An early spring has gotten the grain bin project well underway at the Reskovac farm.

Mike and Sheilah Reskovac, Bloggers

April 15, 2021

2 Min Read
Mike Reskovac's grain system
MAKING PROGRESS: The design for the new grain system came right out of Mike Reskovac’s idea book, but sticker shock forced changes to the original design.Mike Reskovac

Spring sprung on the farm this year in early March. The nice weather helped us get started on our grain facility upgrades.

Mike: After fighting a worn-out auger all fall, and finding out that one of our older grain bins had a bad roof, Sheilah and I decided it was time to make some upgrades to our grain system. We had one bin on our farm for soybeans that we built right after we got married.

And at Jaws (the farm I grew up next to), we had our dryer, wet bin, an older storage bin and a storage bin that I built when I started farming. To make our life easier, Sheilah and I decided that we should move everything to our farm to be more efficient.

Sheilah: Ever since I have known Mike, he has always had a book of drawings that he works on every fall during harvest — his idea book. It was full of pictures of layouts of grain bins. I told him I had three requirements for what he wanted to do: It had to be safe, efficient and cost-effective.

Mike: My idea book didn’t get me very far, because sticker shock was a real problem for what I wanted to do. I spent lots of late-night hours in the early part of winter going through prices of bins, legs and conveyors. Both new and used equipment seemed expensive, and labor rates were also high. 

Sheilah: Interest rates were low, and we knew that steel prices were going to go up, so we decided on a layout that we were confident we could afford. We decided to buy a new bin to replace the oldest bin we owned, which had a bad roof. Now, all of our bins will have stairs instead of ladders, and they will have safety platforms around the top.

Mike: In early March, we tore down the wet bin and hauled the bad grain bin off to the junkyard. We sold all the useful parts from that bin, too, to help fund everything we were doing. A couple of days later, we broke ground at our farm for the new upgrades.

Sheilah: I was surprised as to how much dirt we moved and how nicely everything was coming together.  Mike tore down a couple of old buildings on the farm as well. We were making good use of the excavator that we rented for the month. And just about two weeks after we broke ground, my uncle and cousin came down for a week to do the concrete for the grain bins.

Mike: We have a lot of work to do yet on this project, but so far things seem to being going well. We are looking forward to seeing the bin builders real soon. 

Sheilah and Mike Reskovac and their sons farm near Uniontown, Pa. Check out all of their "Two Hearts, One Harvest" blogs

About the Author(s)

Mike and Sheilah Reskovac

Bloggers

Mike and Sheilah Reskovac are a young farming couple just starting their second year of marriage and farming together, near Uniontown, Pa. He's a first-gen farmer who met his fourth-gen farmer-bride online, and married in November 2012.

Mike grew up next to and working on his neighbor's Fayette County dairy farm through high school and college. After graduating from Penn State University in 2002 with a B.S. in Ag Systems Management, he worked as a manager at Tractor Supply stores for three years.

In 2005, he began farming his neighbor's land. Today, he and Sheilah farm 900 acres of corn and soybeans, plus do custom planting and harvesting.

Mike is president of the Pennsylvania Corn Growers Association. He also serves on the local Penn State Extension Board and is a Farm Service Agency county committee member.

Sheilah grew up on her family's Indiana County dairy farm. She graduated from DuBois Business College in 2008 with an associate's degree in Specialized Business and Medical Assistance, then worked for DuBois Regional Medical Center for four years. She also volunteered as a firefighter and EMT for the local fire company.

Since moving to Fayette County, Sheilah has been chief bookkeeper and farm assistant, along with taking classes at Penn State Fayette for Nursing. She enjoys “taking care of” groundhog problems, raking hay and mowing cornstalks.

While she enjoys cooking and baking, Mike enjoys eating the goods. Both enjoy hunting, attending concerts and county fairs, and spending time with family.

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