Singin' in the Rain (But Not Dancing)

Milo field, June 26, 2018

"I'm singin' in the rain, just singin' in the rain.
"What a glorious feeling! I'm happy again. ...
"Come on with the rain, I've a smile on my face
"I walk down the lane with a happy refrain
"Just singin', singin' in the rain."

We'll skip the Gene Kelly dance. Dancing is not our forte. (I've been trying to forget my pitiful K-State Singers choreography audition for years, but it keeps playing like a nightmare in my dreams. Thankfully, K-State Concert Choir did not require dancing.)

A-n-y-w-a-y ... we may not be dancing in the rain, but we are singing God's praises with this timely rain,  even though I had hoped to write a wheat harvest summary by now.  However, since we still have 100 acres of wheat to cut, we'll move on to a tour of crops that have loved the 3.40 inches of rain we've had in different installments since June 20. We will try the wheat again later this afternoon.

MILO

Ah, the smell of geosmin on a summer day!

(Yeah, I didn't know what to call that unique aroma that wafts from a field after a rain, but a quick question typed into Google says it's ‘geosmin’ - literally “Earth smell.")

There's no better perfume according to a farmer who sees the little green plants visibly perking up after a soaking rain.

The milo was planted May 23, and this past week's rains should make it grow faster than a toddler on a growth spurt.

CORN

This photo was taken May 1, when we were planting the corn crop. (Corn planting was April 29 through May 3.)

On June 26, it's almost chest height on Randy. This year's variety is a little shorter to begin with, but it was also stressed with heat and lack of moisture as it started to grow. You can see the stress on the leaves.

However, the 3.40 inches of rain we've gotten in the past week has come at an opportune time for the crop, since the corn is pollinating.

 It's also forming ears.

The rain was "super beneficial and came at an opportune time. However, we'll need more rain in a few weeks for good yields"... a direct quote from my farmer.

SILAGE

I know this doesn't look much different than the milo field. But it's a silage field. It, too, likes the rainfall. Since our alfalfa has been impacted with drought conditions so far, we hope to have plenty of silage to put in the trench silo this fall to give our cows and calves plenty to eat this coming winter.

SUDAN

The rain has delayed the planting of sudan. Later this summer (if all goes as planned), we'll swath and bale sudan, also for cattle feed.

 Our rain Tuesday morning was somewhat unexpected, and Randy had already put some of the sudan seed in the drill.

I'd never noticed this handy-dandy chart for grain in pounds per acre inside the drill.

It will be ready to go when the fields dry out just a bit - maybe even today!

***

It's not "Singin' in the Rain" that I've been humming since last night. Instead, I've had a revolving medley of "Luck Be A Lady" and "Bushel and a Peck" after going to Music Theatre of Wichita and seeing "Guys and Dolls" last night. A friend sent us complimentary tickets we could use for any show this summer, and rain earlier in the week kept us out of the field on my birthday. Surprise! We had to go to the ticket office to exchange them in person for the real thing, and we were lucky enough that tickets were available. As always, the sets, the choreography and the performers were top-notch. It was the perfect birthday gift. Thanks, Sheila!

On the Sudan

August 16, 2017

The Central Kansas weather this summer hasn't quite been like the desert of the African Sudan.

We did miss the rain that made for this beautiful sky in the middle of August. Those storm clouds were to the east of us and didn't bring any rain to our farm.

We don't have the "Sudan" with a capital "S." But on The County Line, we do have sudan - with a small "s."(Now I sound like our favorite kindergartener.) In our case, it's a crop - not a desert.

After a small rain shower in mid-August, Randy planted some after-harvest sudan. 

Though we're not a desert, drought conditions this year haven't made for a particularly favorable growing environment. As of the September 5 Kansas Drought Monitor, we are in the moderate drought category.

Sudan is a fast-growing hybrid that goes from seed to feed source in approximately 60 days. But it still needs some rain to get it from seed to harvest. We got 1/2 inch of rain on it a week ago, which helped a little. Sudan can be grazed or it can be put up for hay. We'll likely do some of both.

It's higher in TDN - total digestible nutrients - than alfalfa. However, it is lower in protein. So it's a cheaper ration for maintaining weight in cows, but it's not desirable as a growing ration for feeder cattle.

By August 21 - less than a week after planting - the sudan was starting to emerge.

It looks bigger than it was at this close-up angle. But I did tell you that it's a fast grower!

My farmer is out standing in his field. (I can't resist the pun.)

Not quite a month later, the sudan is making some progress.

But the lack of rain is definitely showing.

While our sudan still has some growing to do, the guys did a custom job of swathing, raking and baling some sudan for a neighbor. He planted his sudan in June.

I missed the swathing and raking photos, but I did snap a few photos of baling on a meal delivery to the field.

They got 110 bales off that field. We hope ours will do as well. We shall see!

And So It Begins Again ...

 

As the leaves and grasses begin their fall wardrobe change to yellows and browns, it seems counter intuitive that a blanket of green begins to cover Kansas fields.

While the rest of the world is preparing for winter, a new crop is beginning a nine-month journey from planting to harvest. Tender wheat blades erupt from brown soil, like soldiers in a row.

We started planting the 2017 wheat crop Monday, September 26. Randy completed our 1,283 acres on Wednesday, October 12.

The wheat is coming up, despite dry conditions, but it could use a big drink of water. A nice, gentle, soaking rain over several days would be ideal. (We put our final cutting of hay down on Friday, so we did all we could to entice it to rain. Instead, we got summer-like temperatures!)

During the planting "marathon," we added 600 miles to the white pickup's odometer. By "we," I mean mostly "me" as I hauled fertilizer tanks and meals to the fields and shuffled people and equipment from one field to the next.

So, the journey begins again. There are a whole lot of sunrises and sunsets before wheat harvest will roll around again next June.

 

There will likely be many twists and turns before harvest - whether we're talking weather conditions or market volatility. That's just part of farming.

While the wheat crop is at its beginning, another crop was being harvested. In typical County Line fashion, it wasn't without drama.

The guys swathed the sudan three weeks ago.  It takes awhile for it to dry down enough to bale. But then our baler tractor had to go to the shop for overheating and for hydraulic leaks (AGAIN). They brought it back Thursday evening. And then the baler didn't want to work.

Randy gave up and decided he'd call Case the next morning. And, lo and behold, it worked after that break. Who knows? We're just glad not to have to add another repair bill to the cubbyhole ... at the moment, at least!

In total, we have 200 sudan bales to feed this winter. In addition, we baled another 300 for our neighbor.

We also left some of the sudan standing, and we'll put our "ladies in waiting" mama cows on that to graze. The guys made a swath around the perimeter of the sudan field so they can more easily install electric fence when the time comes. We'll be moving cattle at the beginning of November, and tick another task off the list.

Beginnings and endings ... it's all part of life on the farm. 

My Personal Crop Consultant

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

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.

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!