A Pickin' and A Grinnin'?

We were back to "pickin' " yesterday, but there wasn't much "grinnin' " going on. Corn Harvest 2018 started way back on August 31. We got one landlord's corn harvest completed that day.

And then it rained ... and rained ... and rained.

Not that we're complaining. Really. After a winter with no moisture of any kind -- neither rain nor snow nor sleet -- we aren't turning down moisture.

Randy tried to resume corn harvest after a 2-week hiatus on Monday. The corn is dry. The ground is not. He did get more harvested yesterday, but it also involved being pulled out of the muck several times with a 4-wheel drive tractor.

About the same time as he got stuck the first time, we had a breakdown with the disc. I was already going to Hutchinson to pick up my state fair photos. But, of course, the dealership in Hutchinson didn't have the needed parts.

So I had a lovely detour to Kingman on the way home. It could have been worse. The parts could have been out-of-state and we would be waiting on UPS to get it fixed. And it really was a nice day for a drive.

After filling the truck and combine, Randy switched jobs and baled sudan. The same deluge also soaked our sudan hay. Randy had abandoned one field of swathed sudan because it rotted after getting soaked repeatedly. He plans to let that field of sudan re-grow, and he'll turn cattle out on it this fall.

But he is trying to salvage some of the sudan. It looked like he was baling up the sun last night.

From stuck combine to sunset beauty, it's all part of life on The County Line.

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. 

Dusk on the Sudan

Dusk on the Sudan, African-style: Camels kick up dust as they plod across the desert and cast shadowy silhouettes against the Red Sea Hills.

Dusk on the Sudan: Kansas style:  Dust hangs in the air as the great beast moves across the landscape and the sun sinks into the western sky. There are no camels in sight.

But some other mammals are going to appreciate our sudan crop, come wintertime. 

Sudan is a fast-growing hybrid that goes from seed to feed source in approximately 60 days. Randy planted the sudan in early August on ground from which we'd harvested wheat earlier in the summer. 

August 4, 2015

By August 17, the sudan was up and growing.

I neglected to get many growing photos this year.  (See the photo at the bottom of the post to see how tall it got.) Randy swathed the sudan October 13. Because it's thicker than alfalfa, it takes quite a bit of time to "cure" -- or to be dry enough to bale.

He got the last of the sudan crop baled last Tuesday evening.

Sudan doesn't have grain in the head, one of the differences from the silage we harvested October 3.  So it doesn't have as much protein or carbohydrate as the silage. Randy prefers to use it for mature cows rather than feeder cattle. Cows don't have as high a nutrient requirement as feeder cattle.

So why plant and harvest yet another, different feed for our cattle? (We also raise alfalfa for our cattle.) During a four-month hay feeding season, a 1,200-pound cow will consume approximately 30 pounds of hay each day. This means that each cow will require between three and four round bales weighing at least 1,100 pounds.

Randy baled 110 sudan bales total this year. Sudan isn't quite as sweet-tasting as silage, which has a higher sugar content. And how does Randy know that, you might ask? Yes, he has tasted it. I vaguely remember tasting silage as a kid, too, when my Dad would cut into the stalk and we'd suck on it.

Randy plants a brown midrib variety of sudan, which is more palatable to cattle because it's a little sweeter.

We use net wrap to keep the bale together and make it easier to move to cattle during the winter. It also helps shed moisture to prevent spoilage. He puts 3 1/2 wraps on each sudan bale. He usually puts 2 1/2 wraps on each alfalfa bale. Sometimes the sudan gets held over for another year before it's fed to cattle. It is harder to find a market to sell sudan, as compared to alfalfa. That's why it gets another layer of protection.

There was a brief timeout to change the net wrap roll.

It always helps to read the directions, right? (Or at least look at the pictures!)

 

 

After it was threaded through just so, it was back to baling.

He left two fields of sudan standing - a total of 70 acres - and he'll put mama cows on them in November after we retrieve them from summer pasture and bring them closer to home.

Randy swathed the borders of each field. The guys will put electric fence up around each field. Digging holes for the fence posts has been slow-going since we still haven't gotten any rain.

You can see how tall the sudan grew by comparing it to the hay bale.

During the 2015 production year, we baled just under 1,000 bales of alfalfa and sudan. It will make for good eating for the cows this winter.