Don't Count Your Chickens (Or Your Kernels)

" Don't count your chickens before they hatch."

It's advice that's become so ingrained that we all know the saying.

I'm thinking I need to add an addendum for my chronically-optimistic farmer: 

Don't count your kernels before they're combined.

A 2.10" rain last weekend practically had Randy dancing between the rows of corn. (Well, he might have if he were a dancer. Instead, he wanted me to come and take a photo.) However, since our dryland corn has never been a bin buster in the 6 years we've had it in the crop rotation, I'm tamping down any feelings of elation I might have until I can see the elevator receipts. And we've got a while until that happens.

However, there's no question that more than 2 inches of rain were a blessing on our farm. We got another 0.25" Tuesday morning.

 

Still, it came too late for some locations. Compare this cob to the fully-loaded one in the other photo.

The recent rains should help with filling milo heads.

 

And it definitely helped give our pastures another needed boost. Since the second cutting of hay is off the fields, we're hoping for some good growth for the alfalfa crop, too. 

Randy was excited enough about fall crops that he entered field corn, milo and forage sorghum in the Stafford County Fair. They all got blue ribbons. (Nobody else entered those categories, but who's counting?!)