Wet

Always feast or famine around here, the rains keep coming.  We had 1.6" last night, and it continues to rain.  No corn planting this week!

Rain!

We had a dreary weekend and managed to pick up about 0.75" of rain.  Now, Quentin would love to get the planter going, but there are many chances of rain this week so it might get too wet.  Gotta love farming!

Picking up rocks

Over on Chambers' ground, their are a few fields with large rocks in them.  (Perhaps old houses or barns?)  When the kids decided they wanted to earn some money, Quentin suggested they pick up rocks.  They worked hard and found some big ones!  Not to waste the rock, we were instructed to put them over on Austin Frank's where there is a spot washing in to the ditch.  Maybe it will at least slow the erosion.

Buffer strips

Quentin had a couple buffer strips planted this year.  The field edges, particularly by the creek's tree line are unproductive for field crops.  Instead, the idea is to plant 20-40' of grass buffer by the field edge.  That way, we are not wasting fertilizer and seed on acres that consistently do not produce good corn or beans.  We are trying strips in two fields, one on Kenneth's and one on a field of Paul's.

South of the creek on Kenneth's

Waiting for rain

All our chances of rain seem to dissipate before they reach us this spring.  We had our first report of a neighbor planting corn, but Quentin has decided to wait for on a good rain.  Every time Quentin is talking on the phone, I hear "No, we are going to wait for some rain." or "Not yet.  I would like to get some rain first."  Everyone is getting anxious to put some seed in the ground, I guess.  There is some moisture in the field, but it is pretty spotty.  We would hate to end up with an uneven stand of corn and have to replant.  There are more chances of rain in the forecast, particularly towards the weekend.  For now, we wait.

Spring on the way

Spring is definitely right around the corner now.  I know this because I spotted the planter backing out of the shed yesterday.  Temperatures have warmed back up, and Quentin decided it was time to get the planter in to shape.  We (yes, we...note to self: do not linger too long taking pictures.  You will be deemed bored and recruited to help work).  We switched over the planter for corn, and Quentin tested it out a bit.  It needs just a little more work and should be ready to run soon.  Quentin is looking at the long range forecasts.  He may put some seed in the ground next week or the week after if temperatures stay warm.

Soybean strip-till

Quentin spent yesterday and this morning strip-tilling a neighbor's field.  It is a learning experience, I think.  He is only putting on dry fertilizer, but has not tried stripping it in rows on soybean ground.  We will be anxious to see how the roots respond to this method.  We do not want to fertilizer burn the main taproot.  Also, the field has previously been pasture ground, and in some areas, he is stripping straight in to the grass.  Some of the strips look good, and in other areas, the grass prevented the soil from tilling in a nice strip.  This will also be good intel.  Quentin will be planting a former hay meadow and our CRP ground this spring, and we wondered how much "prep" work it would take before we could plant.

Straight into the grass

This afternoon, Quentin plans to spread more fertilizer over the top of bean ground.  It is not windy today, but we expect it to pick back up again tomorrow with the warm front coming through.  We did not get any rain/sleet over the weekend as we had been expecting so the dry weather continues.

Waiting for warmer weather

After a couple warm days, the cooler weather is moving back in.  There is still a chance of rain/sleet tomorrow.  We need moisture, but are hoping for only rain and not ice!  In between windy spells, Paul has been spraying corn ground in preparation for planting.  It is hard to believe that planting could be upon us in 2-3 weeks.

 

The combine came back from it's annual checkup at the dealership.  It is hopefully in good working order and ready for another bountiful harvest!



Returning combine

Quentin is out in western Kansas for a couple days.  He has an old college buddy whose family's ranch was devastated by the wildfires.  Since we are having a relatively slow time around the farm and expect a rainy day tomorrow, Quentin decided to go help the clean up efforts there.



A beautiful day

The wind has finally blown itself out!  It is a nice, calm day today.  We had a brief round of thunderstorms roll through this morning.  There were reports of hail in town, but I did not see any here at the farm.  Again, not much moisture in those clouds.  We still have a chance of precipitation this weekend, but it may come in the form of sleet!  It will be a large temperature drop from the 70-degree days we had yesterday and today.  I guess it's not quite time to plant corn after all.

Quentin has been busy clearing brush over on our land.  We bought a small piece of ground before we even moved to Kansas, but the majority of it has been in CRP.  This year will be the first year we can actually farm it.  Very exciting!  We would like to purchase more of our own ground soon, but it does not come up for sale too often around here.  The brush is mostly on the part of our ground which is pasture.  We have been renting that part out to a neighbor and have been a little neglectful of it.  It is due for some TLC this spring.  The men will go to soybeans for two years on the part which was in CRP.  A neighbor is baling the grass off of it now, which will make it easier to plant in to.  We do not want to plow it if we can help it.  We would prefer to take advantage of all the organic matter which has built up there.

More wind!

The winds have not let up around here!  We had some severe storms move through last night with small hail and high winds.  Paul had some barn doors damaged, but we thankfully missed the worst of the storms.  Unfortunately, there was not much moisture in the front.  We had less than 0.2" of rain.  Our next chance for measurable rain will be Friday night in to Saturday.

March winds

March tends to be windy around here, and this year is no exception.  The winds have kept the men from spreading fertilizer on bean ground or spraying the corn ground, but they are still finding plenty to do.  Mostly, they have been doing equipment maintenance. 

We received around a quarter of an inch of rain on Tuesday night, but it only wet down the dust.  We could still use a good shower before planting time. 

Paul says the calves are coming fast and furious now.  We are glad to have nice weather for calving.  Perhaps we will make it through this year without bringing any newborns in to the back porch!