We have the wettest spring on record. Since I’ve been farming the last thirty five years. I’m pretty sure that’s official. Around here it’s being compared to the only spring I was over in the Med, 1980. Chipping paint and swinging booms. And not paying attention to the weather past how to dress that day.
I was able to slip another 100 acres of seed beans into the ground on Sunday. The second Sunday in a row I’ve had to do that. I remember back when the Priest had to give the congregation permission to work on Sundays. Back in the ’60s I remember an older brother talking about that being why we had to do more than just chores on a particular Sunday. Out back fixing fence.
That’s why I say the devil must want this crop. Here in God’s country we’re putting in full days on the Lord’s Day. But think about it, they all belong to Him. If we count the raining days as days off we got the one in seven thing covered. Personally I’m counting the doctor ordered healing days as my sabbatical.
Wednesday May 13th, finished planting the east and north sides of the farm below the terraces for the most part. Was able to plant all of the wet spot down by the highway. Done with corn. Working on drill while it rains.
Take out the word car and insert the word tractor and I think you understand the psyche of the average farmer. It’s not for any but a few good reasons. We spend far more time in our tractor than we do any other place. We plant there. We mow there, rake there, bale there. We spray there. We haul in our grain there. We do our chores there. We sleep there, although we seldom admit it since we are usually still dragging something through the field at the same time. Nowadays the tractors are connected to the internet. But that’s not where I’m writing this from. I’m writing from the comfort of my office. Bedroom. Whatever I call it. I guess it depends on if I’m at my desk or if I’m in bed sleeping.
I farmed for a whole year back in 1984 to earn enough money to buy my first tractor. Even though I was looking for a John Deere 4020 I ended up buying an IH 856. They are both rated at about 100 horse power, the size I needed to join in my older brother’s operation at the time. I used it to pull a 24 foot wide spring tooth harrow to incorporate into the soil the Treflan weed killer we used to spray on cornstalks going to soybeans. Treflan was used pre-plant to kill grasses and small seeded broad leaf weeds. First we would disk down the last year’s cornstalks with my brother’s JD 4620 and a 21 foot cone bladed JD disk. Then we would mount a pair of saddle tanks 200 gallons each onto the side frames of the 4620 between the front wheels and the rear dual wheels. They held the chemical mixture as we sprayed Treflan from the front of the disk while we were disking the old cornstalks the second time.
The next pass across the field was with my IH 856 and a Noble brand spring tooth harrow to do the second incorporation pass. Treflan had to be double incorporated (worked) into the soil about four inches in. The disking pass as we sprayed was the first, my spring tooth harrowing pass was the second. Then and only then would we drill soybean seed with my brother’s JD 4320 and a three point mounted Great Plains Drill. My brother would always drill going along the longest straightest side of the field and working across to the shortest, no matter which way the hills laid. After we had apparently worn the ground out with all these passes we would go over it one more time with an old JD 50 and a twenty four foot spiked tooth harrow following the contours of the hills so any sudden heavy rains wouldn’t follow the drill tracks up and down the hills.
That old spiked tooth harrow would be broken down and loaded into the back of an old pickup truck to move it from farm to farm. Usually that was my job since I was the last Mfer hired. It took three men and four tractors (four men would have been nice since I had to run both the 856 and the 50) just to drill soybean seed back in those days. Eating up time, manpower, tractor power, fuel, iron, and money to simply get the crop in the ground. Today I do it all with one tractor and a no-till drill. One pass. One man. One fuel tank. One bank account. One long lonely day. That’s if I ever get this corn planted. I no-till that in with one tractor also. The same IH 1466 that pulls the no-till drill I use today.
The sun came up shining bright today. The rumor is the tile laying guys are moving into the neighborhood. At one o’clock this afternoon we are going to have a little get together to arrange the tiling we are getting done. Across the creek and up one of the draws on this side of the creek are needing some additional tiling to compensate for all the water that sinks into the soil with this no-till farming we do these days. Pellets in pellets out. We may resume hauling corn out of the bins also today. The trucker had gravel delivered to the spot we were stuck in the other day. He said something about it being cheaper than semi truck axles. I was thinking the same thing.
Well, that about sums it up. Another typical spring day here in the corn patch. May I have another please.
Planters have been rolling in the neighborhood. The usual suspects. I suspect they were getting antsy to start. I rolled mine out of the barn over on the west farm after getting the 1440 with the home made six row corn head backed out of the way (remind me to tell you the 1440 story sometime) (maybe the corn head story too). And the two bush hog wagons. It’s getting it’s first washing of the season. April showers after all. All while waiting for the trucker to show up.
We had a good rain today. As in nice and easy. It was spotty showers and every drop soaked in. So did the semi. I wondered yesterday when he mentioned something like truck driver’s school. He suffers from pavementitus. Or is it a pavementality. Either way he needs to stay on a solid surface. The stay at gone mom gave him a ride in the rain back to the boss’s where he’d parked his ride to work. Stuck in the muck. What the truck.
I’m spotting it in. Just like the showers. The corn price not the semi truck. The local grain merchandisers give a spot price everyday at the close of the board of trade for all the bushels “spotted in” or delivered without a sales contract that day. It’s more or less based on shipping costs and board of trade contracts for the nearest month. Each location determines their own.
We started hauling corn into the RR terminal at Council Bluffs yesterday afternoon. About the time the neighbors started to plant. Or restarted, some had run Saturday and Sunday. Right alongside the Easter Bunnie. Rain Sunday night shut em down. Looked plenty wet where they were planting the way it was. Reports are that the ground has warmed right on up into the sixties. I wonder if it will stay that way. They say it needs to be around that temp to get corn to germinate. The clearing seventy degree day they predicted today never did clear off or get above the fifties. I think fifty is all the warmer the ground gets down deeper around here. Without sun keeping the top warm the 4 inch depth could cool right back down. Night temps chill right back down too.
Not much more to report. The cows are still burning hay though they go looking for greening grass to nip in the bud. I swear if they knock down the pasture fence one more time I may call the cattle truck. Let that pasture grow gol darn it. They don’t know how thin the ice their skating on is. Now that I mentioned it …….
Cocreator's New Blog 