When I ordered my seed from Illinois this past winter I did get rounds because we have a JD 7000 plateless. They do sell flats, same price, they just asked if I’ld take rounds because so many want flats for the plate planters.As far as saving and grading you can see it doesn’t make a difference for us, but I’ll be looking into information on affordable graders in the future. When you think about it though why not, if you have a plate planter,hand shell the majority of the middle of the cob, leaving the rounds on the ends. Not to tough when a guy thinks about it.I plan on hand shelling enough for us anyhow, probobly a nice family activity aroud the fire in winter.

Tom

Do you have to have a plateless planter to plant the OP seed you save?

Evermoor,Good neighbors surely are special.Thank the Lord for them always. I don’t keep track but is Illinois still dry? I hope it straightens out and they get rains, we could sure use some here. We had one day in the 70s, Monday, and we’re right back into the 90s three weeks straight with no rain in weeks.

Balestacker, you and Evermoor sure added to what I see. I just hope there is a reversal in the way most farmers act towards their neighbors. As far as land prices here right where I live 35 miles NW of St Cloud it’s roughly betweem 5 and 7 thousand an acre. If you go 20 miles to the NW it’s getting away from city influence it’s less than half or even lower.It’s hard to even find farmland or farms for sale at this time here. Everybody that’s selling is only selling small lots. Our county isn’t zoned yet like all the surrounding counties that have a forty acre minimum. Anything goes here. And the realators were having a frenzy. Most farmers aren’t selling though. One thing I’ve noticed this first half of summer is strange, I haven’t found one new house going up around here this year yet, while in the past few years they were going up everywhere.And lumber prices are dropping, hmmm. And I keep hearing on the news,”is this the end of the boom, is the bubble going to burst in Minnesota?” As far as I’m concerned if the bubble would burst and I’d be devalued bigtime I’d just keep on going happier than ever!!

This latest post really struck a chord with me. As a boy growing up on Grandpa’s farm, I still remember the procession of tractors and trucks that would come up the drive every fall to help with harvest or moving cattle or haying.. Twenty years later though, my uncles, who farmed a mile apart, wouldn’t share a combine. They each had to have their own bright and shiny, $80,000 units. No wonder they went broke and had to sell!

I’m glad to here you have neighbors with a different mind-set. Out of curiosity, what are land prices like in your area?