I think I'm famous

Written: 11/20/08

Well, I finished that 300 hectare field that the next morning, finished the headlands (they do the headlands last, weird I know), and headed to the next mammoth. The next task included 3 fields connected at their headlands again (to eliminate 4 headlands) and the total area is around 800 hectares(2,000 acres). Each pass is almost 6 Km!!! Well Tuesday I only got one round in due to more rain.

The next day (Wednesday) was a little delayed because of rain, but I was running full speed by 10 a.m. We had some trouble at first with some plugging up but that was cleared up when I had 4 Brazilians on the back of the planter of course "riding Brazilian". I went til about 7 when the next intern jumped in the tractor. He didn't get very far due to another shot of rain. Overall I think we took out about 200 hectares of the field.

Today, I was excited to take another big chunk out, but like the past week, it rained again. It pretty much rained all day today, and I am concerned if we will get to go tomorrow. I think only if the sun comes out, we will get a shot at it.

It seems like everyday that I have been out planting, there was someone there taking my picture that I didn't know. I don't know who told them that Ryan "The Lazer" Hrubes was going to be planting in the area, but it sure worked. I must be famous. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the 72' planter behind the tractor, that is at least 3 times the size of any planter in the country. (There are 6 Bauer Planters in South America and GAI has 3 of them)("The Lazer" is refering to my excellent driving skills.)

Dino jokes with the guys that I am learning the first time how to drive tractor, because in the United States all our tractors have AutoSteer. He thinks all we do in the United States is take naps in the tractors til the turning alarm goes off. Haha

Hope the sun comes out tomorrow to make some grain.

Take care everyone!!!

Signing off.........

- "The Lazer"

Hold the Staleness

Written: 11/17/08

Yesterday was a pretty good day considering that it rained. However after getting kicked out before noon by rain, I went back later in the day to finish the 750 acre field in the dark. This morning I was ready to hit it hard once again, but the rain gods decided to rain on my parade, literally. After almost 2 inches of rain and about 4 hours drying time we went back out to the field to see if we could go. Once out there I knew we could, so we did. This task included two fields linked at the headlands (the long way), making the total area around 300 hectares (750 acres) again. This means it will take another 24 hours to tackle this project. After 4 rounds, my shift was up and the other intern was going to give it a try. I really hope he gets a whole night in, but before I left there was lightning in the distance.

Today was another good day, except for the fact that my daily snack did not live up to par. I opened my little bag of Doritos in hopes of some satisfying chips. What I got was a very stale chip. These chips were more stale than the chips you would find at your grandparents house. The freshness date was Christmas this year. Well the local grocery store might be getting an early X-mas gift in the shape of a letter announcing my displeasure of stale chips. This isn't the first time I have gotten stale chips from this store. I hope it doesn't happen again, or Fruti Mart (local grocery store) might get a personal visit from me.

Anyways, goodnight and hope everyone is staying warm. FYI it's so warm here I sleep in my underwear with no covers!!

Signing off..........



- (a displeased Fruti Mart customer) Hrubes

VAMOS (Let's Go)

Written: 11/15/08

Well the last time I wrote we were in the middle of a broken down tractor. Well kids, I have good news. IT'S FIXED!!!


The day after (Wednesday) we took the tractor to the mechanics place, it rained on us a lot. In the last 4 days we have gotten over 4 inches of rain at Rondonia, however we have ran the planter the last two days. We are able to do this because of the types of soil (very sandy) and the power of the sun. Anyways, we are starting to get things done pretty fast. Today was a full day and hopefully a full night. During the day I was covering about 40 acres an hour, only stopping for seed every 4-5 hours. It's pretty cool when the sun goes down because you can see everyone else scrambling to get seed in the ground as fast as you can. It's different here because it's so flat that you can see a long ways, which you can see many farms in action. If we get 4-24 hour periods of planting, we will have our corn done. (around 8,000 acres total)

Funny thing happened to me today. I think a lot about what I want to eat when I get back to the states, and today when I got out of the tractor in the field I smelled maple syrup. I thought to myself, "boy wouldn't it be nice to have a big stack of pancakes tomorrow morning??" I think possibly the Furadan is getting to me........ (Furadan is a insecticide that we have treated our corn with. Oh by the way, its been banned in the United States for like 20 years)

Well I'm off to bed, hoping to wake up to a tractor still planting.

Signing off................

- Hrubes

Hurry up and.............wait

Written: 11/12/08

Well today we were up early in hopes of getting in the field with a tractor that will work flawlessly. In hopes of putting in a full day of planting corn. Well, it didn't go as well as planned.

Firstly, we had a mechanic look at the tractor. He thought it was the fuel pump or maybe the sensor. After pulling out of good sensor, we think we have narrowed it down. He wanted to ride with me to see what it was actually doing. So after the planter was greased, a tire put on the tractor, we were back in the field. Not 100 feet into the round the tractor acted up. So I shifted down to my previous snail pace and chugged along. The mechanic got out, did a couple of things, and it continued to be underpowered. So after our 40 min round (that should take 20 min or less) we took the tractor to the mechanic's shop. Hopefully tomorrow it is done and ready.

Next, we went out into the planted field to check population with the "technical" of the farm. Now the technical is a person generally with a 3 year degree in agronomy. All of GAI's farms have at least one technical to help the farm manager with the agronomy aspects of the farm. We did a couple of samples and our average was just what we were looking for. The seed that we planted Saturday is already emerged, even though we haven't had that much sunshine and rain.

The rest of the day included calibrating the sprayers that just arrived on the farm. These sprayers are called "Jactau". They have 70'ish booms, and I would call it a 400 gallon tank. Anyways, right as we were finishing calibrate the sprayers, more rain decided to fall. Dino was happy because now he knows it's time to roll.

We were having some fun talking to each other on the CBs, making fun of each other. I would make some fun at one of the technicals and all he would say back is that I can't drive the planter straight. It sure makes the day go by faster when this sort of thing happens.

Anyways, I am off to bed in hopes (I have been hoping a lot lately) of a big planting day tomorrow.

from Brazil.........

Signing off...............


-Hrubes

They call me........

Written: morning of 11/12/08

Well the past couple of days have been so so. We have been planting both of the previous days, however we haven't gotten much done. The reason is because our 8410 has been acting up. Ever since the first day of planting, the tractor seems to have a power issue. Somewhere in the diesel pump I presume. Anyways, I have been planting the last two days around 3.5 km/h. SLOW. That's 2.2 mph slow. That's the corn emerging on the previous pass before I get to the other end slow. That's getting out of the tractor while it's moving to go to the bathroom and still get back in slow. Thats even Francis Child SLOW. Regardless were getting corn in the ground, and we hope to fix the tractor today. We might get to plant corn today at, wait a minute ................ 6 mph!!!!

Sounds like the other farms are getting started as well. One of the south Farms, Global, has been planting popcorn for the past couple of days as well when there is no rain. So were slowly but surely getting things started down in Brazil. Hopefully they will quickly speed up and get all the seed in by the end of the month. I'm crossing my fingers!!!

Take care everyone!!


Signing off............


- Hrubes (aka Francis Childs)

And were off.......

Written 11/9/08

Today was a pretty good day. We figured out our hydraulic problem (which only involved switching some hoses around), and started calibrating the planter. The planter is a 3 year old new planter. Yeah it sounds wierd but heres the story. This 72' planter use to be just a 24 row/36'' spacing for the last couple of years. Well this offseason since GAI now has a 36 row/36'' spacing planter just for cotton, they decided to convert the 72' to a corn/soybean planter. What this entails is putting another 24 rows in between the existing rows. So we really have a planter half new and half 3 years old. Anyways, we got that calibrated and just before we headed for some more seed, it started to rain. This was what Forest Gump would call "big ol' fat rain" So we quit at about 6 and headed into town.

Tomorrow we will head back and really should get a lot done. No more calibration or little things to dink with. The tractor was having some power issues so we may have to change some filters, in hopes of solving that problem. It's funny, a person cannot really plan in Brazil, because nothing ever seems to go they way they are suppose to. It really sharpens a person's problem solving skills.

Ever since the rain started, the bugs have had a coming out party. They are RIDICULOUS!! You can't keep them off of you. They are more annoying than little brothers. (see Nathan, you aren't THAT bad....... ;) )

Other than that everything is going good. I really hope to get some planting done tomorrow!!!


Signing off..............


- ( a bugged) Hrubes

Maybe too excited......

Written 11/8/09

Well today did not go the best. In the morning we got the land roller going good. Dino was concerned that it was going to compact the soil too much, but later saw that it was doing a good job. I would think it would be pretty hard for a farmer in Brazil to adapt to the new technologies us Americans are brining to this country full of opportunities. Dino does understand however, that these challenges (new technologies) will help advance production for Brazil and really put them on the map.

Early afternoon came very quickly, and so did the clouds. We had the planter ready, tractor ready (we found out later it wasn't), and some seed ready. It took us 45 mins just to move the tractor and planter to the field. Reminding everyone that this field is touching all fields belonging to Rondonia, it's just that much land!!! Anyways, we had filled the seed boxes with about 1/3 full of seed to start since we were going to calibrate. Out in the field, the planter unfolded, we were ready to get started. Well, the hydraulic hoses were leaking right out of the CVs. Just thinking they were loose fittings, we tightened them and continued. Eventually it led to the fill cap on the hydraulic fluid to fly off. Hydraulic fluid was everywhere. Obviously not a good thing.

We're back in town for the night because we do not know if we have a little problem on our hands or a big one. We are getting up extra early tomorrow to head back out to try something, but if that doesn't work, we have a big problem.

Lots of rain is forcasted to start at the middle of the week through the end of the week, so it would be nice if we could get 7,800 acres of corn in before it rains!! It's been pretty nice since the rain has started, the temps haven't been close to 100 for the past handfull of days.

Well, lets hope tomorrow the planting gods aren't hungover.


Signing off.........


- Hrubes