King Cotton

[RangerMan]

The cotton is in! Is this not gorgeous? Never posted a pic before. Our Segundo took this last week. Hope it works.

[Iowa Dave]

There is beauty in just about anything harvested in my opinion. Up here there’s no cotton but there are large round bales of hay. Vermeer made the early big round balers in our country. They are located in Pella Iowa. Excellent Tulip festival there every spring. Two good Dutch bakeries. Home of Pella windows ( they are hiring).
There are some epic stories of rookies setting off unwrapped bales on side hills on windy days. They are heavy but they will roll if provoked. 1500 lbs of grass coming at you at about 20 mph. Exciting
They are starting on the soybeans here. The seed corn is mostly out and the field corn is about to get going shortly. It’s going to be early this year. Nice picture.
Iowa Daven

[RangerMan]

Our second sorghum (millet) planting is in and should be good this year. Almost perfect weather, This will be a banner year for us.

[cpaharley2008]

Dave,
Is that Jake in the picture?

[RangerMan]

How 'bout them Iowa football teams? Maybe not Ohio State this year in the final four..

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

Dave,
Is that Jake in the picture?

That’s Jake. He’s seven now. He got about 10 or 12 pheasants up when Rita had him out
In the CRP ground adjacent to us the other day. Then they saw a big brood on the road Saturday when we had a heavy dew. The birds stand out in the sun and dry their feathers. It’s been hot and dry here this summer. In August and September 95% of a young pheasant’s diet is grasshoppers and we have a ton of them this year. Migrating Monarch butterflies are coming through now, saw several today. Spent the day mostly outside so hummingbirds, Hawks, and a garden spider were my entertainment. Hope you have a good week. We will miss you at the Mississippi River Rendezvous this week.
Iowa Dave

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by RangerMan

How 'bout them Iowa football teams? Maybe not Ohio State this year in the final four..

It’s early yet, time will tell. I used to have a dry erase board in my garage where I kept
Track of oil changes etc when the kids were in High School and College. In the fall on one part of it I would write We cheer for these teams; And list the colleges our family had degrees from. Never was a week that at least one of them did not win a football game. It was consolation when my Iowa State Alma Mater wasn’t doing so good. The game has changed a lot over the years. It’s hard for me to change with it. What is your favorite team? I used to follow the NFL too but not much anymore.
Iowa Dave

[RangerMan]

I went to the Univ of Tenn. Not much football being played there lately. When I was there in the 50's Gen Neyland was the coach and TN was boss of the block. Now Bama owns
the SEC

I don't care for pro sports altho you could make an argument that Collège ball IS pro ball.

I was almost disowned for not attending TX A&M but I wanted to go away a bit.

[MyronL]

I can relate. Burns me when they seem to never post the Rutgers' score on the tv scrolling notes of Saturday scores. Nobody ever roots for dear old Rutgers, Dave. Don't get me wrong-- I couldn't get into that school with a golden, gilded pass from heaven. This however, is looking like the year we been waiting forever for. Of course, Ohio State, Michigan, et al., might have other plans.

Ah, them scarlet fields of cotton...

[cpaharley2008]

and Dave knows all about Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa where I spent one cold winter attending school....

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by RangerMan

I went to the Univ of Tenn. Not much football being played there lately. When I was there in the 50's Gen Neyland was the coach and TN was boss of the block. Now Bama owns
the SEC

I don't care for pro sports altho you could make an argument that Collège ball IS pro ball.

I was almost disowned for not attending TX A&M but I wanted to go away a bit.

When I was at Iowa State, Johnny Majors was hired to replace a dinosaur named clay Stapleton. Majors could really fire up the students at the pep rally in the old Armory. He had success and brought some recognition to the program. He made what was considered an outlandish statement about the importance of football and some committee censured him. Pissed him off and the next stop was Pitt and then Tennessee where he had great success with each as I remember it. I agree that football even at the college level smacks of professional football. I watched the KC / Ravens game the other night and enjoyed it. I was kind of for KC but really didn’t matter.
Iowa Dave

[RangerMan]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

When I was at Iowa State, Johnny Majors was hired to replace a dinosaur named clay Stapleton. Majors could really fire up the students at the pep rally in the old Armory. He had success and brought some recognition to the program. He made what was considered an outlandish statement about the importance of football and some committee censured him. Pissed him off and the next stop was Pitt and then Tennessee where he had great success with each as I remember it. I agree that football even at the college level smacks of professional football. I watched the KC / Ravens game the other night and enjoyed it. I was kind of for KC but really didn’t matter.
Iowa Dave

Johnny was our tailback at TN. He took the snaps from the 'shotgun' and had an odd way of sorta standing sideways to the center when the ball came to him. Effective tho. He weighed about 165 if I recall. Out All American right guard, Johnny Michaels came in at about 170.

I pretty sure I'm correct in saying that not a single one of our lineman, offense or defense was over 200lb. This was 1955.

It was 1951 (TN National Champs) when Doug Atkins was there. 250 I think, a monster. Went on to become one of the 'Monsters of the Midway' with the Bears.

[NuthatchBC]

King Cotton. One of the best marches Sousa ever wrote.

Doug

[RangerMan]

Originally Posted by NuthatchBC

King Cotton. One of the best marches Sousa ever wrote.

Doug

I remember. When I was in the 2nd Inf Div in Ft Benning on one of my active duty stints, it was one of the Div bands favorites. Sousa's music still stirs me up.

[Ian and Sue]

Originally Posted by RangerMan

The cotton is in! Is this not gorgeous? Never posted a pic before. Our Segundo took this last week. Hope it works.

Wow! I did not know they put cotton in roll bales. Learn sumpin every day!

[RangerMan]

Originally Posted by Ian and Sue

Wow! I did not know they put cotton in roll bales. Learn sumpin every day!

Everyone here calls them 'Rounds'. The Pickers roll the raw cotton up as it comes in, wraps it in plastic when at the proper size, and ejects the Round out the rear.

[RangerMan]

Originally Posted by RangerMan

Everyone here calls them 'Rounds'. The Pickers roll the raw cotton up as it comes in, wraps it in plastic when at the proper size, and drops the Round from the rear.

Here it are. My second pic. I'm a pro now! These are not our machines. We contract the harvest now. Equipment toooooo expensive. This one runs upwards of $800K

[MyronL]

Looks like just enough cotton needed to shine up a Bowlus.

[RangerMan]

Originally Posted by MyronL

Looks like just enough cotton needed to shine up a Bowlus.

'Bout 5000 lb there. I can't carry but one these days

[Centex]

RangerMan: Are the gin byproducts (linters and cottonseed as oil, meal, hulls) still a meaningful part of the value of the crop? (just curious, I've no idea if a grower like you even sees a 'breakout' of that when you sell your crop raw from the field?)

My paternal grandfather was the Superintendent of the Munger Cotton Seed Oil Mill in Teague (TX) for decades ending shortly after WWII. I came along later of course, but my Dad made sure my brother and I understood there's more coming out of those cotton fields than just cloth.

You probably know but few folks realize that for many of those decades back when my grandfather was a 'Texas oil man' ( ) cotton seed oil was a bigger part of the Texas 'GNP' than even the booming production of crude (petroleum) oil!