We at Nelson Family Farms love our family and our farm, so we are happy to share some of the memories with you. Please look through our photo gallery to see what is happening.

	SPRING 2011

	This spring we built a new strip till machine.  We ran the Yetter Prototype Maverick Row units. Here we are stripping the JD 1780 planter to repaint then mount the row units.		Employee Ted Pringer assembles the Yetter Maverick units on the freshly repainted toolbar.

	Corn on corn in strip tillage is one of our projects to champion this year.  Here, Dave makes a spring pass with the Yetter Maverick Strip till machine while applying 5 gallons of 32% nitrogen as a starter fertilizer.		Gary sprays roundup at smeltzer #4 on the ryegrass cover crop.

	See the beautiful spring strips made for corn on corn.  Pure black soil offers an ideal seedbed for Corn on Corn.		Total gallons of diesel fuel used for tillage and planting in our strip till corn on corn will be 2 gallons.  A conventional Tillage system will use over 5 gallons.  That's an average of $10 per acre in savings for us.

	We are currently working with Monsanto on their Prescriptive Ag Solutions Program.  This program required us to Pilot test the IndiRow Raven Planter system.  Notice the Hydraulic Drive Motor on each planter row unit.		On a cold rainy day in early April, Fonda's brother in law helps install the new Raven Indi Row Sytem on our planter.

	Spring made strips with our new Maverick Strip Till machine.  See the area (Strip) of soil tilled.  Roughly 11" wide and 3" tall. Notice the ideal seedbed and soil conditions...		Planting corn in the strip tilled cover crop on VanDiest Farm.

	Planting corn.		Planting corn on corn into strip till.

	Gary Filling the sprayer.  This year we used a used apache sprayer on our farm.		Planting soybeans!

	Filling the planter on Haire North with Soybeans.		Gary and Tyson wait by the soybean wagon.  Dave was in the planter.

	Tyson hands Dave the tools when they have to work on the planter.		Tyson bring the lunch coolers to Dad and Grandpa.

	One the newly rented Moran farm we had to apply spring Nh3.  Doing conventional tillage on this farm made us realize the value of strip tillage.		Dave planting corn on the VanDiest farm.

	This spring we ran the planter with the Raven Envizio Pro II system.  We are very excited about this new technology from Raven and Monsanto.		A beautiful seedbed behind the planter.

	A screen shot of the Raven Envizio Pro II monitor while planting. Notice the different colors on the screen.  Those are different corn seeding rates in the field.		We plant 80% Dekalb Corn.

	1 bag of seed corn contains 80,000 kernals.  It will plant approximately 2 acres. It costs approximately $250/bag.		This spring we installed the Dawn Curvetine closing wheels on one side of the planter row unit.  They gently crumble and close the seed trench.  They worked great.  Good investment.

	Kurt Loving of Dekalb stops out a couple times each spring to see how planting is going.		During corn planting, the Monsanto program leadership team from St. Louis visited our farm to assess the new Raven IndiRow planter system.

	Dave explains the workings of the planter and how the Raven IndiRow system work.  Our farm was 1 of 5 operations in the US to get this new technology from Raven.		Treated soybeans in the bottom of the planter box.

	Thank you for your interest in Nelson Family Farms. If we can help you in any way, please call or stop by. Visitors are always welcome.

		Nelson Family Farms Fort Dodge, Iowa 50501 Phone: 515-574-9519 :: Email: dave.nelson@nelsonff.com