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Farmers don’t get snow daysFarmers don’t get snow days

Between the Fencerows: Trying to limit time outside, this row-crop farmer focused on preparing 2024 tax paperwork and fixing equipment. They stayed off the road.

Kyle Stackhouse, Blogger

January 24, 2025

2 Min Read
Loading machinery onto trailer during a cold evening on the farm.
Kyle Stackhouse

Like most of the country, I did my best to stay indoors the first half of the week. I worked on year-end paperwork. Prepared and sent out 1099s. Reviewed 2024 tax files for accuracy and made updates. I got a good start on year end balance sheets. It won’t take me long to do some crop projections. Another ‘office’ day, and the banker and accountant should both be happy with me.

Equipment we sold in December continues to trickle out. A buyer picked up a nurse trailer. Another picked up the tractor on the second coldest day of the year. After dark. And so it was just cold, -3 is what my pickup truck displayed on the way home.

Though we post 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. loading hours, dad told the semi-driver he could come after that. He came about 6:45pm. We had the tractor loaded up quickly and the duals were on the trailer a few minutes after that. We were done with our part in about 40 minutes. The driver was outside securing the load for quite a while and finally departed for Colorado nearly two hours later. (Yes, we offered him a respite in the warm shop.)

I believe there is only one item left to be picked up. We are hoping to put some miscellaneous parts on auctions yet this spring.

Our trucks sat idle until Thursday. It just wasn’t worth the risk of something freezing up. We’re not professional truck drivers and don’t want to be. We should still have enough time to get remaining January commitments delivered.

Related:Prepping for planting

We also tinkered around in the shop repairing a 10” grain auger that broke last fall. It needed new bearings and bolts on the top end. We also replaced the brass bushing and holder at the bottom end of the auger. We checked gearbox oil and greased universal joints. It should be ready to go back to work for those bins that don’t feed into a grain leg loadout.

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About the Author

Kyle Stackhouse

Blogger

After graduating from Purdue University in 1999 with a degree in Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Kyle Stackhouse began farming in Plymouth, Ind., in northern Indiana. Kyle farms alongside his father Brad, not as an employee but as an owner who runs separate businesses in three counties in a 20-mile radius.  Kyle shares insight into day to day operations, current issues, and management of the family's mid-sized grain farm that specializes in NON-GMO and Identity Preserved crops.

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