[Fips Farm]

My apologies for taking so long to reply, I don’t get the time on the internet I would like. My hobby of paying the bills sure seems to take up more time than I thought it would when I was young 🙂

Donn, the pictures were wonderful. The Shawver truss system was exactly what I was thinking of using, too. If you have time, I have a million questions. How wide and tall is your barn? Is your framing lumber 2″ actual? What size fastenners did you use to assemble the bents? How far apart are the bents spaced?

Jared, I’m just north of Colorado Springs. About 15 minutes drive from the nearest traffic light at 65 mph. It’s a rapidly eroding agricultural area. There are still winter wheat and beef cattle operations, but the small family diaries are gone now.

JL, have you considered Hatcher winter wheat and Painted Mountain corn? Hatcher is a semi-dwarf hard red wheat, but my wife does a great job baking European style breads and making pastas with it. It does not get the same height for me as commercially grown which is fine for me given our high winds and quick drying harvest conditions. Helps prevent lodging, IMHO. I also get significantly lower yields due to broadcasting instead of drilling.

I could not say enough good things about Painted Mountain corn. Very low yield for me, but considering it’s a dry land flour corn, I love it. Makes Jiffy brand corn bread taste like spray foam insulation. Chickens love it, too*. Mills easily for cracked corn, but produces a lot of fines. It is flour corn after all 🙂

* Not much of an endorsement. Chickens pretty much love ANY corn.

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