In Full Vue

Landowners & Friends

Providing landowners and friends with a newsletter has been a dream of ours for years now. We are proud to share our first issue with you. First and foremost, the Long Vue crew is extremely grateful you are trusting us to care for your land. We could not do what we do if it were not for each of you. The goal of this newsletter is to keep you informed about the agricultural industry and to show you what we are working on at Long Vue Farms. With ever-changing technology, there is always something new to share with those that do not directly work in the industry every day. We hope you enjoy this opportunity to learn more about our crew, our operation, and our industry.

 

From the Cab

Technology helps us grow better quality crops with minimal resources, all while helping us protect the environment. One such tool is the Trimble® Greenseeker®. Traditionally, applying nitrogen to wheat required two different applications with our sprayer. The nitrogen source we use comes in liquid form and is typically applied to the crop in February and March. Our wheat scout recommends application rates that are based on size of the crop, past experiences, and research data. With this, we tread a fine line between too little nitrogen, sacrificing yield or excess nitrogen, forcing wheat plants to lodge or fall over.

The Greenseeker®, which is retrofitted onto our sprayer, helps us fine tune nitrogen rates. A series of sensors analyze the wheat plants and recommend the amount of nitrogen to apply as we are moving across the field. Our fields typically have great variability, justifying the need to treat different areas uniquely instead of applying one rate of nitrogen across an entire field.

We continue seeing improvements in technology similar to this, that allow us to care for plant needs, based off symptoms that are not visible to the human eye. Crop production is changing rapidly and we strive to stay on the leading edge of these new developments.

 

The Inside Scoop

Corn planting is now in progress at Long Vue Farms. It seems to be raining more often than not around here, but the crew is ecstatic to be halfway finished. While we may be looking for dryer weather now, we know that down the road we will be praying for rain.

Farmers across the nation are facing challenges with their H2A labor. We were proactive once we realized how this pandemic would effect labor. We are fortunate our guys made it out of South Africa before travel bans were put in place.

Spring is prime time for wheat applications. Wheat is sprayed at least seven times per year. The recent late season frost damaged the crop, but until harvest we will not know the extent of the damage.

Soil sampling is a key part of knowing where and how much to fertilize. We do this in the winter months, utilizing GPS to sample management zones that range from 1 to 10 acres in size. This is tedious but important.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Employee Spotlight

Jason and Julie are active members of Tennessee’s Young Farmers and Ranchers, a program established by Tennessee Farm Bureau. They had the opportunity to compete together in the Excellence in Agriculture competition. After winning at the state level, they went on to compete nationally and placed third. They were evaluated on their understanding of agricultural issues, leadership experiences and achievement, and their ability to communicate their agricultural story. Both of them do so much for our operation and for the industry. We are proud of these two and are blessed to have them on our team.

Jason and Julie have been members of Farm Bureau for eight years. Through Young Farmers and Ranchers, they have traveled across the state and networked with people in all sectors of the industry. As you can tell from the picture to the right, it is a family
affair.

 

Growing Gratitude

As Alex mentioned, creating a newsletter has been a goal of ours for years, but I am especially thankful it is happening while many are not able to interact with loved ones, with the hope it is a refreshing break from current events. We appreciate Alex Campbell bringing this to fruition. While I prefer to share stories of hope and joy, we would be doing you and us a disservice if we did not also share the reality of the market risks, weather challenges, and other obstacles we run into regularly. But because I firmly believe that focusing on gratitude grows more gratitude, we will also share pictures of the beautiful vues we enjoy, stories of the victories we claim, and the numerous other blessings we are thankful for at Long Vue Farms.

There’s much to love about farming, from the big equipment and the transformative technology, to the joy of planting a seed, nurturing it, and harvesting the fruits of our labor. But none of this would be possible without those that lease their land to us and those that work alongside us everyday caring for that land. My appreciation for the people that are the foundation of our operation continues to grow with each passing year and each uniquely challenging season. During these uncertain times, I want all of you to know we are financially prepared to weather this storm. We take many precautions to mitigate risk and ensure financial stability for you and for us, so that we stay in business and your checks arrive on time.

Many of you may know that I have been experiencing some health issues over the past year. I’m thankful to report that I am improving and have been able to return to some of my normal

activities. I have missed visiting in person with everyone during this time but, once we feel it is safe, I look forward to getting out and seeing everyone’s faces. I’ll leave you with one of my favorite verses. It’s been my anchor through uncertain times. Please reach out to us if you have questions, need assistance, or want to share your own story of gratitude. We would love to hear from you!
With Gratitude,