It was perfect timing: Randy finished planting wheat at noon on Thursday. After lunch, we made several trips back and forth from the final field, moving the tractor and drill, the seed wheat truck and the fertilizer tank.
Then, it started raining Thursday afternoon. During the weekend, we've collected 3.20 inches in the gauge, and it's still sprinkling this morning. Most importantly, though, it's fallen fairly gently on the planted wheat fields.
And while there is a lot of time between planting and Wheat Harvest 2015 next June, we are thankful for this moisture to give the crop a boost before cold weather hits and it "sleeps" for the winter.
We began
planting September 22 and finished on October 9. (Ironically, I looked up the timetable last year: We began planting September 23 and also finished
October 9. How often does that happen?)
This intersection demonstrates the difference in growth following planting. The wheat on the left side of the road was planted a week sooner than the field on the right, where you had to look closely to see the tender sprigs of wheat from the road. However, a walk out into the field showed that these little "soldiers" had broken through the barrier of the soil and were marching their way toward their ultimate goal, 9 months down the road.
Wheat is the primary crop here on the County Line.
Here
in Central Kansas, we plant winter wheat. It's planted in the fall and
then goes dormant during the cold months of winter before coming out of
its "hibernation" and growing again next spring, then maturing for a June harvest. There will be plenty of turns and twists as this crop moves toward harvest. That's just the way it is.
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| Saturday morning, after 2.30" of rain. We got another 0.90" Sunday evening/night. |
But it's easier to be optimistic when the crop has just gotten a timely drink of water, especially when we've planted our wheat crop into dust the past two years. We are thankful for this good start!
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