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Post by cptusa on Aug 22, 2020 8:14:03 GMT -6
We're fortunate with our crop insurance system. My multi peril 8policy with revenue assurance I had penciled to break even in worst case scenario. I attached a wind/hail rider which will pay on greensnapped corn and extra harvest expense payment. It just plain sucks because its always more fun to have the big crop but this will probably pay as good or better.
Did a yield check days before the storm at 280 BPA, it still there but unharvestable.
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Post by northernfarmer on Aug 22, 2020 10:23:21 GMT -6
cptusa, you mentioned the power was out and for some time, what happened then to any ability to save food in freezers and to even deal with the fact nothing works in the house to cook, can't get water and sewer would back up in the septic tank, fans not running in the hog or chicken barns and on and on. Did you have a large backup generator to fall back on ?
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Post by cptusa on Aug 22, 2020 11:58:16 GMT -6
My power was restored yesterday, 11 days later. The damage is so wide spread high line damage took a beating. Alliant energy, the provider for most of Iowa, had 750 extra crews in the state and nearly 2000 extra line men from all over the country and Canada.
My hog sites have large, automatic stand by units, I was without power for 10 seconds. My major problem was outlying pastures with electric fences.
I'm not sure how much food waste occurred with those who don't have that capability but I'm certain it was substantial. Lots of little gas power generators were humming away keeping fridges and freezers cool.
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Post by northernfarmer on Aug 22, 2020 14:56:33 GMT -6
As horrible an ordeal it is and will be for you with the whole mess, if you would not have had the generators it would have been far worse to cope with. In towns I would think that would be quite something as I assume no water, gas stations with no ability to pump fuel, everything in grocery store freezers and coolers now junk. Its good there were linemen from Canada and elsewhere who could come down as I assume the boarder issue was waved for the obvious reasons.
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Post by cptusa on Aug 22, 2020 19:37:18 GMT -6
You're 100% correct those generators saved me.
We've been through a extended outage 3 times since 2007, I've had standby power for all 3. It's really a multi step slide to the long ago when it happens. First power is out, generally takes internet with it. In 24 hours in the past our essential services communications towers would go down if we couldn't get generators going, they all have stand by power now. 36 hours in cell towers start dropping off until they can get generators in. 48 hours land lines are done.
Fortunately now most towns and rural residents are connected to the rural water system which has multiple redundant back ups.
Yeah restaurants and stores lose perishables as do residents with generator capabilities.
Local fuel supplier did bring in a generator on day 2 for their 24 hour pumps but shelled it and didn't get one going until day 4. People were driving 30-40 miles for fuel and long lines. This will be corrected in the near future as we're working a deal to connect to our stand by generator at the FD.
It's extremely taxing on resources and people but we keep getting better each time.
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Post by torriem on Aug 22, 2020 21:11:31 GMT -6
I've always been grateful that Alberta has a well-developed natural gas infrastructure. I've seen the power go out many times, sometimes for several days, but I've never ever had the gas go out in 40 years. Probably because the natural gas compressors run on natural gas. As part of our new shop project, the plan is to install a natural gas-powered standby generator for the shop and house without automatic cutover. As my parents get older, we plan to to install one at their house also.
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Post by northernfarmer on Aug 23, 2020 8:28:19 GMT -6
That's the catch with having a backup system, someone has to pay for all that infrastructure and not only that but maintain it as it does no good if its been sitting for years and not run or in the case of winter time the engines are cold and would not start. No doubt you have your head wrapped around the concepts of backups because of the critical nature of your hog barns and the fact you work in emergency services. Myself, no animals etc and not around the communications systems to see there lackings. A few weeks ago had a lightning storm that hit a power pole down stream some miles from my yard and yet due to how it shorted out my power was out and so I was messing with a crappy coleman generator I have in case I had to try running a freezer or sewer pump, fresh water pump etc and when I tried turning on the gas valve under the tank the gas came pouring out because the grommet they shove the valve through the bottom of the plastic tank was crap and touching the assembly caused it to fall into pieces. Find out I can't even get parts up here in Canada through any repair suppliers, well so much for my back up generator !. Goes to show that units like that, be it a Coleman and am guessing a Champion is probably a similar issue with parts, far cheaper to buy initially vs lets say a Honda but can't get parts it seems. Of course ideally one should have a "real" generator like you have cpt vs this units that can't run more then one item at a time in a house and in fact may even damage electric motors due to struggling to get a motor spinning up to speed.
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Post by cptusa on Aug 23, 2020 11:16:52 GMT -6
I'm a pretty big proponent of automatic stand by power, but it has to be maintained and functioning properly.
The two units I have are LP, one in a all weather enclosure and the big one at home is in its own shed. Both equipped with block heaters and battery maintainers and are set to exercise under load weekly.
I think a whole house unit here would run $3-5000, a typical small farm unit probably $8-10000. I think it cost me $15000 in 2006 for my big boy, that's a 100 kw unit.
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Post by torriem on Aug 23, 2020 17:22:37 GMT -6
We've had a diesel standby generator for many years that just runs. Oil is still pretty clean (haven't changed it in a few years) and it starts right up in the dead of winter with only glow plugs. We keep the battery on a float charger. However now that my parents are older, we want something for them that's automatic. Today's natural gas generators are not expensive, fully automatic once you have the panel installed, and exercise themselves regularly. Very little maintenance. And little infrastructure investment required here (already have a gas line).
We've also looked at natural gas combined heat and power units over the years. Sometimes it would be nice to be off the grid entirely. They say you can run the combined heat and power units continuously for years at a time, only changing oil occasionally. Very interesting but it's still cheaper to do it the conventional way.
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Post by Oatking on Aug 24, 2020 10:00:41 GMT -6
Cpt. USA, has some corn been able to stand back up. I can only imagine the headache if only parts of field recover. Would crop insurance make you snake around the quarter to pick up what you can. So much for Autosteer than. How did the soybeans fair.
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Post by cptusa on Aug 24, 2020 11:26:04 GMT -6
No. It will not stand back up. Lot of fields getting zeroed out I hear. Attachments:
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Post by northernfarmer on Aug 25, 2020 17:08:08 GMT -6
CPT, lets say for a house unit you mentioned, what actual kw would that be as I find the dollar figure low you threw out compared to going out lets say and buy a gas pot Honda that has not much more capacity then the pile of junk Coleman I was using or more like attempting to use once in a while as my Honda example is getting to that $5000.00 and it doesn't have much ability either. To allow for a block heater it would have to be a liquid cooled unit and also have the ability of starting up multiple electric motors if one had the expectation of it doing a fair job of running a houses power needs. All I have the ability to do now with a smaller Honda 2000 watt is run the furnace motor as that becomes the number one item that needs to work in the winter. I know this sounds pathetic but I back feed the house by running the cord through a basement window and into the electric dryer outlet and its 120 volt output wired to the 240 volt panel on the side that the furnace runs on and I flip the main breaker to the house off to prevent back feeding into the power grid. Its not legal doing it this way as I don't have a switching system but I understand what I am doing and how to accomplish it to avoid any hazards to someone working on the powerlines. For my needs it certainly doesn't have to be new but a decent operational unit that has enough output to run the house anyway.
And the photo of your corn, that doesn't appear to be rising from the dead but drying up/dying a slow death with some plants by the looks of it. Has a crop inspection tour been done very recently, I saw a video of a farmer on the prior tour just before the storm hit and things sounded good then in where they went in Nebraska and Iowa with both corn and beans but that was then and not like the crop is in the bin !.
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Post by cptusa on Aug 25, 2020 18:37:20 GMT -6
So that's a pretty vague guesstimate number on a 20 kw (I think), lp fuel, liquid cooled, automatic transfer unit my cousin put in in 2017 ish when he built a house. Remember I'm in USD too. Here is corn we're trying to chop. It's going to be a tough pull this year. Crop adjuster and I meet tomorrow also the company I get Ag Leader stuff through is going to get me aerial footage free of charge, may have more pics coming. Attachments:
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Post by Oatking on Aug 25, 2020 20:56:01 GMT -6
Is it looking like feed shortages across the upper mid west. How did this storm affect the drought prone areas in Iowa. Was it mostly a wind event or was there high amounts of rain accompanied with it. Is cereal straw like wheat oats or barley in high demand now . The last two years we have been getting all our straw baled and even canola straw has been baled in the red river valley.
What type of make shift grain storage are guys doing now for there harvest if there storage system is damaged. I can only imagine with the scourge going on now how hard it would be to get contractors to build grain storage for such a large swath of damage.
Is there a lot of machinery written off as well. Really feel for the guys hit by that storm so close to harvest.
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Post by cptusa on Aug 25, 2020 21:16:38 GMT -6
I can't honestly say how this feed thing is going to work out. New guys are calling me to chop for them and I can't chew through what I've got booked at this rate. Big dairy west of here has 3500 acres of corn they need to chop, had 5 choppers trying to run and could not get done what one did last year, they're up to seven trying to cut now. No idea how storage will shake out. More crop getting disced daily, drought taking its toll. I will guarantee guys will not fight these conditions for $3 corn, crop insurance price is $3.88, it's a no brainer. A lot of Iowa is in major trouble crop wise with derecho and drought. No one understands or has grasped the scope of the damage yet especially from the derecho. Remember I'm in the lower wind bands and this is what we're dealing with.
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