A "Gem" of a Crop

We have been growing pearls on 21 acres this summer.
Oh wait! We've been growing pearl millet. I guess I won't call the jeweler after all.

But we will be calling the cows to dine on this supplemental feed this coming winter. Pearl millet is a fast-growing feed. It does well on sandier soils.

Last week, Randy swathed the pearl millet and left it to dry down. Because it makes thicker windrows, it takes longer for it to be ready to bale.

Even though I thought the cat-tail looking heads were pretty, Randy says there isn't a lot of nutrient value there. It will mostly be used for roughage for our mama cows.

Pearl millet is low in prussic acid, which can cause poisoning in feed.

One other advantage of the pearl millet is that it will grow back. So we'll be able to feed the baled millet. And we'll also be able to put up electric fence around the field and use it to graze cattle this fall.

 We also left some standing. It, too, will be grazed this fall.

So, it really is a "gem" of a crop.

***

Note: I may be fired as reporter for this particular crop endeavor. Randy baled it on Friday, but I didn't think about going to take a photo. Then Cierra picked it up that afternoon. I missed that photo op, too.

It's now at the end of the field, ready to be fed to the cattle this winter.

So all's well that "ends" well. (Farm pun alert!)

Music & More

 

On a typical Tuesday summer evening, there may be music on the County Line. But the music will likely be on the tractor radio as Randy makes another round in the field.

There may be flowers. But they will be the wildflowers along the ditches or in the pastures as I take another meal to the field.

But this Tuesday, we had "high class" music and flowers. Randy had a Kansas Wheat meeting in Wichita on Tuesday and Wednesday. After his first day of meetings, we went to Botanica's Tuesday on the Terrace.

We weren't the only ones there for music and flowers. Besides all the people sitting around and listening to the band, Tim Jonas & the Whiskey Militia, we saw a photographer taking senior portraits of a girl.

We took "senior" portraits, too. (It depends on the definition of senior citizens. The guy I was with will qualify sooner than I will.)

We sat and listened to the band for an hour. But then I wanted to wander the gardens during the second hour of the event.

With the shady venue, I may have waited too long to get optimal photos. But, then again, there were some golden moments during the golden hour after all.

The colors of this delicate flower could mimic the sunset, though the shade trees kept most of the evening sky hidden from view in the gardens.

But the golden rays from the setting sun did tinge several scenes with diffused light.

This pioneer woman seemed to be gathering flowers in her basket before dark.

Even as the sun went down, it was hot and humid. FYI: The flowers wilted less than we did.

The Evidence of Things Not Seen

Sometimes, I motor across the gravel road bridge on the Zenith Road without a thought. I'm hurrying to pick up Randy or deliver a meal to the field. My mind - and the car - are on auto pilot.

But there are other days when the beauty of the moment literally stops me in my tracks. Recently, a scene caught my eye as I drove over the bridge, and I literally backed up for another look. The blue sky dotted with fluffy cottonball puffs of white was reflected in the blue water of Peace Creek.

I got out of the air-conditioned comfort of the car and stood - first looking east and into the pasture we rent and the water that gives sustenance to a small group of cows and calves this summer.

Then, I turned and crossed the road for the view to the west, just beyond where the creek tunnels under the road from a neighbor's pasture onto our side.  On a day when the Kansas wind had taken a summer vacation, the top of the water's surface was disturbed only minimally with the gentle movement of a lazy creek.

But, all of a sudden, I heard a "plop" on the other side and hurried over to see what creature had added its own form of percussion to the lilting song of birds in the trees. 

And I saw that the mirror surface of the water now had ripples radiating outward.

And I thought about life: Sometimes, the way is smooth and unblemished. Other times, the ripples break up the "perfect" picture and make some waves.

On Sunday, Pastor Nate preached on Hebrews 11: 1-16. That passage begins with a much-loved verse:

11Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

  

As Pastor Nate reminded us, we humans would like to receive everything we hope for or pray for. But life isn't that simple. There are tragedies - pain, suffering and loss. There are health scares and job losses and family breakdowns. There are low commodity prices and breakdowns and uncooperative weather. The list goes on and on.

So how do we keep going in the face of those struggles? It all comes back to faith. We may not see it at the time. It may not be the timing we'd prefer. The Hebrews passage  reminds us that these Bible heroes weren't immune either. Abraham, Sarah, Issac, Jacob and Noah all had to have faith in a future they couldn't see right in front of them.

So there can be beauty in the ripples, too. There is life in those ripples - much like there is life in Peace Creek from the frog or the fish who disturbed the peaceful scene. I ask for eyes to see the beauty in both the smooth sailing and the occasional bumpy ride ... and for the faith to make it through.

In that, there's hope for a new day.

I am listening carefully to all the Lord is saying. Psalm 85:8 (TLB)

A Time to Think

Every moment you get is a gift.
Spend it on things that matter.
Don’t spend it by dwelling on unhappy things.
 –Celestine Chua, life coach and blogger

A Time to Act

Expect great things to happen.

A Time to Pray

Lord, in all the times and places of my life, Your love never leaves me.

From my email devotional today from Guideposts (in the blue)

Asking the Probing Questions

Randy is not trying out a new pogo stick (though, I admit, the photo looks like he could be).

So this resident reporter asked a "probing" question: Just what are you doing?

It was a probing question all right: Randy was using a soil probe to take soil samples in several of our fields.

Before he got started, he filled out the information on the front of a soil sample bag he'd gotten from the Kanza Co-op, Zenith branch.

Other years, he has borrowed a soil probe from them for this task. However, he wanted his very own soil probe. So he actually went on the internet and ordered one. (That is probably a bigger deal to me and his children than to the general public. A few years ago, none of us would have believed he would purchase anything online, send or receive a text message or take a photo with his phone. We are all sorry we doubted you, Randy! He's actually gotten pretty proficient at it.)

In this particular field, he didn't have any trouble pushing the probe into the ground to retrieve the sample. We've had good moisture this summer. But he does like his new probe better than the co-op probe because it has a "foot pusher." We all find our happy place with different things.

He sampled soil from several different locations in the field, dumping each time into the blue bucket. After getting enough soil to reach the "fill line," he dumped it in the labeled bag.

These four bags were all from different fields.

We took them to Zenith, where they will send them off for evaluation. Randy wants the soil evaluated for "small grains," in our case, for wheat.

He marked that his target yield is 40 to 60 bushels per acre. The results will help him know how much fertilizer is needed to optimize the potential for our 2017 wheat crop. It also will evaluate whether we need to spread agricultural lime.

This year, we may not apply all the nitrogen fertilizer recommended right now. Low commodity prices are causing us to reconsider input costs and the timing of those costs. We will use a starter fertilizer during planting, which is a combination of nitrogen and phosphate. We will likely put more fertilizer on when we topdress the wheat next spring.

No Sunflowers Were Harmed in the Making of This Blog

Sunflowers, August 2014

Sunflowers, July 2016

We don't raise sunflowers. And if I knew who owns the sunflowers in the field just west of Memorial Park Cemetery on Rayl's Hill west of Hutchinson, I would have asked for permission. Really I would have.

July 18, 2016

But to the landowner and/or farmer: I promise no sunflowers were harmed in the making of these photos or this blog. I carefully weaved my way through the rows and disturbed nary a one. My going-to-town shoes likely had more damage than the plants.

 

While visiting the sunflower field, I also drove past a sign at the cemetery which said that trespassers weren't allowed. Technically, I was probably trespassing, since I parked at the cemetery to walk past the gravestones of the dead and into a field filled with life-pulsing yellow. But I promise I was respectful to the cemetery and its grounds, too.

I drove by the field once before I stopped. I am - by nature and design - a first-born rule follower.

However, in the end, I stopped a couple of different times. So, yes, call me a trespasser and rebel - at least when it comes to sunflower photos.

The first time I stopped, the sunflowers were newly bloomed, and the petals fresh and unscathed. But the sky was less interesting. Still, I liked finding this fiercely "independent" sunflower - facing a direction different from the majority.

July 18, 2016

I stopped again the next week when white clouds dotted a blue sky, and the yellow sunflower faces rivaled the brightness of the sun. 

July 25, 2016

Some people - and some sunflowers - just stand head and shoulders above the crowd.

I had another opportunity to stop, just as the sun was setting last Friday. Since it rained, Randy and I went to Hutchinson for a movie and dinner. As we left the restaurant, I knew the sunset was going to be spectacular.

 

By the time we drove out of town and got to Rayl's Hill, the timing was a little past the prime. And the sunflowers are definitely starting to fade, too. Later, I wished I'd moved farther down the cemetery road so I could have avoided the power lines in the photos. (Hindsight is 20-20. I was just trying to capture the light at that point.)

But, just like a bee drinking in the nectar, I was glad to drink in the beauty of a beautiful Kansas sunset, where the sunflowers seemed to capture a hint of the fading sun, too.

A Time to Think

Every happening, great and small, is a parable
whereby God speaks to us,
and the art of life is to get the message.
 –Malcolm Muggeridge, journalist
(from an email devotional from Guideposts)

A Kernel of the Process: Cleaning Seed Wheat

 

"On the road again
Can't wait to get on the road again ..."

With all due respect to Willie Nelson, I have lost track of the trips we made to Miller Seed Farms in the last couple of weeks. (One of my trips was when Randy left his phone in a truck, but who's counting?)

You can't beat the scenery along the way. Rains have made the pastures a vibrant green. Blue skies dotted with fluffy white clouds made it absolutely "necessary" to make a brief stop for a photo op.

And, yes, I still arrived on time.

I'm not the only one around here who likes to plan ahead. Randy is already looking toward planting our 2017 wheat crop. Before planting this fall, we take the wheat we stored in on-farm bins during harvest time to get cleaned and treated before wheat planting.

Randy uses an auger to move the wheat from the bin into the truck. The tractor's PTO runs the auger.  After the truck is full, he tarps it and takes it to Miller Seed Farms. As seems to be a recurring theme this summer, we had a breakdown during the process. But, thankfully, the shaft on the auger held together until most of the seed wheat had been taken out of the bin. (This morning, before the temperature soars to the 100-degree mark, the guys are going to work on taking apart the auger. Hopefully, it will be an easy fix.)

We had a different kind of wheat stored in another bin (but I wasn't there to take photos at that time).

Once at the seed farms, the first stop is the scales. Just like at the local co-op, we need to know - and the seed farm needs to know - how much grain was trucked in.

We brought wheat in both the tandem truck and the semi.

Farmers may store their own wheat and plant it for their next crop, but only for their own use.

This year, Randy saved two varieties at harvest time, KanMark (a K-State release) and WB 4458 (a WestBred variety) to plant for seed wheat for our 2017 crop.

 

We have our wheat treated with an insecticide - Cruiser - and a fungicide - Vibrance Extreme. This is an extra expense, but we believe it will get the 2017 wheat crop off to a good start. Detractors worry about the amount of chemicals that go into the mix. However, only 0.48 ounce per bushel of Cruiser is used, while 1.68 ounce per bushel of the Vibrance product is used. Think about a little bottle of eye drops (usually about 0.5 ounces). Adding slightly more than 2 ounces to a whole bushel of grain is really not much!

Once the wheat is cleaned and treated, it's loaded back into our trucks for the trip back to the on-farm storage bin.

This fall, we'll also pick up some certified seed from Miller Seed Farms. This year, Randy reserved more KanMark and WB 4458 to plant for the 2018 seed wheat. At wheat planting time, we'll pick it up in sacks. The journey toward another wheat harvest has already begun! (I started the blog post with a Willie Nelson tune. Cue The Lion King's "Circle of Life" to end it!)