We are always getting notifications by email, newsletter or farm magazine about the latest crop tours. I'm sure they are wonderful tours. But they can't compare to having my own personal crop consultant take me on a tour of the 2016 fall crops.
HAY, HAY!
Our first stop was a field to see the prairie hay that Randy had baled for a neighbor. (That's in the shot above, framed by my ride for the morning.)
Elsewhere, part of our third cutting of alfalfa was baled up and ready to be moved to the edge of the field. (Cierra got that done on Saturday.) With rain in the forecast on Friday, Randy didn't put down any more hay after he got this baled. However, more of the third cutting was swathed yesterday. So, yes, it will probably rain! If not, the guys will probably rake and bale tonight.
While those hay bales are on long-established fields, Randy also took me to the newest alfalfa field. We got a good stand of alfalfa, though there is also some crabgrass coming up in the field. Turnips are also coming up in the field, but that was by design. Randy planted turnip seeds along with the alfalfa to help with cover and prevent wind erosion as the new field is established.
SUDAN
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| Photo taken August 1, 2016 |
We planted sudan in late July and early August.
After a week or so, it was up and growing.
Sudan grows fairly quickly. I took the planting photos on August 1. By August 19, it was ankle height.
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| Taken August 19, 2016 |
We usually swath and bale a portion of the sudan. We also leave some of it and fence it off. It will be a fall buffet for some of our cattle.
MILO
It's been a few years since we have grown milo on the County Line. I am glad to see it back. With our abundant rains, it's done well this year.
It's already turning color on its march toward harvest. Kansas has become the Number 1 producer of sorghum, another name for milo. Our acreage devoted to milo won't add a lot to those numbers, but we will add a little to the totals.
SILAGE
The crop towering over my model is silage. This fall, we'll have a crew come in and chop it for silage. It will go into a trench silo, and we'll pull from that "stash" to feed cattle this winter.
This year's rains have helped the silage grow to 12 feet tall. Yes, we got a tape measure and checked!
The well-established brace roots help keep the tall plant upright.
The planter goofed up right here, leaving a swath that didn't get planted. But it made for some interesting light and shadows between rows.
CORN
This corn is way past corn-on-the-cob stage! Corn was the headliner in a blog earlier in the week.
Click here to read about that crop's progress.
Thanks for coming along on the tour. You didn't even have to leave home!
