The 21st: A Look Each Month at the 2022 Wheat Crop

 

Good ideas are worth emulating. (That's a better word than stealing, don't you think?)

During the last growing season, Stafford County Flour Mills posted a monthly update on the wheat crop to its Facebook page. The mill - which is located in Hudson, Kansas, in our home county - produces Hudson Cream Flour. (It's the best flour there is, if you need a testimonial. They also have a Hudson Cream Flour Baking page on Facebook. Check it out!)

As I said, good ideas are worth appropriating. Since our 2022 wheat crop will be our final one as active farmers, I decided to do something similar with wheat blog posts this year.

 We began planting wheat on September 21, 2021, so I decided to use the 21st of every month for my "wheat report" photos from now until harvest. (Now I just need to remember on the right day!)

A month later, we were STILL planting wheat after several rain delays. 

October 21, 2021

But most of our earlier planted wheat had come up and was thriving.

I went to another field that we'd planted following corn harvest. On October 21, there were some volunteer corn plants coming up among the wheat. 

A freeze will "zap" the corn, and it will no longer be viable. But the wheat is designed to survive the winter. 

 

Our friend, Rex, ended up helping us finish wheat planting. Our hired man quit during the planting season. Rex retired earlier this year, so Randy put his childhood friend to work driving the disc tractor ahead of the drill.

Rex grew up on a farm, but took a different career path. But he was back in the tractor seat for us last week. We paid him in home-cooked lunches (besides the check).

Rex was Randy's best man 40 years ago. It's good to have friends like that.

I decided to try and take a sunset photo on the 21st of each month, too. (Two things to remember ... probably not the smartest move.)

After Randy finished planting the first time around on October 22, he decided to replant a portion of a field. On October 23, we finally finished ... we think.

You can see that there's still water in the field from the latest rainfall. (We got another inch of rain yesterday, October 27.)

Randy said the time it took to get the wheat crop planted "drove him to drink." (It's water, people!)

Stay tuned for more updates on the 2022 wheat crop, with photos taken on the 21st of each month. 

True confessions: These final three photos were actually on October 23, 2021, when we finished planting.