I think I’ve figured out the retirement thing. There are several ways folks go about it: First are the people who just hate their jobs and can’t wait to retire. These probably include prison guards and cops in big cities where there’s lots of crime. Many of these folks do their “20 and out”, retiring while they’re still in their 40s. They soon discover that half pay isn’t nearly enough to live on, especially when there’s all that extra time to spend it. So they often go back to work at an unskilled or semi-skilled job, and at a much lower pay rate…go figure.  

The second way is to work until you die, skipping the whole retirement thing, something that Joe Paterno at Penn State is well on his way to accomplishing. Joe Pa has a serious problem: He doesn’t play golf. This has an advantage in that you don’t have to worry about your money running out, but assumes that you’re still competent as you increasingly become doddering. So far so good for Paterno, though he’s increasingly turned over decision-making to his assistants.

Most folks retire as they approach Social Security age of 62 to 66, which is what The Bride and I did. (We’ve found the folks at Social Security just great to work with, both on the phone and in person. They should give lessons to the people at DMV.) But as someone said, to be happy you must have at least three things: Someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to. To that I’ll add reasonably good health. I’m in pretty good shape on all counts: I have T.B. and great kids, my consulting activities keep me busy, and I’m still looking foward to my first hole in one. That form of “retirement” doesn’t work for everyone, but it works for me.

Posted by Ev, filed under Uncategorized. Date: December 23, 2009, 9:24 am | No Comments »

11  Dec
Let them eat grass
 

One of the big differences between dairy farm crop operations in the Midwest and in the Northeast is the reliance on grass. In the Midwest it seems like grass is almost looked on as a weed, and alfalfa is usually seeded without a forage grass. In the Northeast, on the other hand, over three-fourths of alfalfa seedings include a forage grass, and lots of farmers are seeding grass alone.

It would seem, therefore, that in the Northeast we’d know a lot about forage grasses. However, much of what we know is dated and in some cases just plain wrong. For instance, Cornell University publishes grass seeding rate recommendations on an annual basis, and for most species they’ve changed little (mostly not at all) in the past 30 years. Is this because there hasn’t been any change in the ideal seeding rate? Hardly; it’s because with few exceptions there simply hasn’t been any seeding rate research in a generation or more. Cornell’s forage agronomist Jerry Cherney did some research on reed canarygrass seeding rates a few years ago, and is currently evaluating tall fescue seeding rates when this grass is seeded with alfalfa. Seeded with 8 pounds/acre of alfalfa, tall fescue seeding rates range from 0.5 to 8 pounds per acre in the trials, suggesting that Jerry, at least, might not have any idea what the “right” seeding rate is. But at least he’s asking the question and looking for answers. 

Why hasn’t there been more research on grass seeding rates, while there’s scads of annual data on corn hybrids and soybean varieties including rate studies? Like the police often ask when a crime has been committed but the perpetrator is unknown: Who benefits? Farmers don’t seem all that interested in grass variety information, mostly preferring to rely on old varieties and old management styles for these species. Why else would timothy continue to be the biggest-selling forage grass in the Northeast (in NY and New England, at least) when there are much better choices? We’re making progess here, but it’s slow. It’s slow in part because seed companies don’t seem to want to spend the money on grass seeding rate research, and with public agricultural research dollars in increasingly short supply, if farmers aren’t clamoring for the information, and seed companies don’t want to fund the research, often it simply doesn’t get done.

Posted by Ev, filed under Uncategorized. Date: December 11, 2009, 4:23 pm | No Comments »