An Explosion (of Sorts)

You might be a farmer's wife if you look at fireworks and think one of them looks like corn tasseling.

See the resemblance? OK, maybe it's just me.

But there is an "explosion" of activity happening in the corn fields these days. And we could use some rain.

If you're a faithful reader of Kim's County Line, you know that I may have been a bit persnickety about rain falling on our swathed alfalfa earlier in June. The same could be said about the little showers that interrupted Wheat Harvest 2017. But we finished that task a week ago, Wednesday, June 28.

June 2, 2017

June 2, 2017

Now we could use some rain for our dryland crops. And therein lies the dichotomy that is a farmer's brain.

From May 1, 2017, blog post

We started planting corn in mid-April. By April 28, it was starting to emerge. On June 2 (as you can see in the two photos at the top), it was at the top of Randy's boots and growing.

June 21, 2017

By June 21, it was up to Randy's waist.

June 27, 2017

Then, on June 27 - less than a week later - I almost had to play the Where's Randy variation of Where's Waldo.

July 4, 2017

We took a 4th of July trip to the same corn field. The corn is tasseling, and it could use some moisture. All our corn is dryland corn. In other words, we don't have irrigation. Mother Nature is our irrigator.

Let's hope she's in a cooperative mood!

***

MILO UPDATE

On the way to plant milo: Photo taken May 26, 2017

A timely rain could also provide a boost for the milo crop. 

Randy planted 110 acres of milo on May 26. I took photos of these tiny plants on June 2.

On June 27, the milo field was looking good, but some moisture would certainly help it.

Milo on June 27, 2017

It has grown a lot in just a week. We took photos in the milo field on our way back from checking the Ninnescah Pasture yesterday morning.

Milo on July 4, 2017

 

OK. So maybe I'll have to admit there's some truth to that saying that farmers are never happy about the weather. But there are always silver linings. (The sky below was during wheat harvest. We didn't get rain that night, but someone to the east of us did.)

There was a silver lining -- and a whole lot of other colors, too -- in the fireworks display last night. Sterling is a small town with a big show. Thanks to all the sponsors!

I'm never happy with the fireworks photos I shoot. But I always give it a try. We saw drones flying around the sky last night, taking photos. I'd love to see their birds' eye view.

Backdoor Guests

"Backdoor guests are best."

I've seen the country-style wooden plaques in gift shops that say that. However, I grew up in a rural Kansas farm home. My mom wanted guests to come to the front door. And I'd have to say I agree with her.

At the front door, guests aren't forced to weave their way through the cheat-filled socks and dusty shoes we've shed at the backdoor. They don't see the recycling bins filled with empty cans or the pile of newspapers. They aren't walking past the broom and dustpan that are stashed beside the extra freezer.

If they come to the front door, they can be welcomed into the living room, where there's at least a better chance that things will be picked up and in some semblance of order.

We've had a couple of backdoor guests the past few weeks. As I wrote earlier, Randy and I both tried knocking down a barn swallow nest from our small back porch. 

 

May 2017 - You can see some of the nest-building materials on the bird's beak!

In the end, I guess the birds were more persistent than we were. (Next year, I will definitely try some of the suggestions offered by my Facebook friends, like hanging plastic bags to discourage a new bird suburb development, a move that Shirley called "redneck but effective.")

The pair of barn swallows tolerated us, and we tolerated them. They were often sitting on their nest, but they'd fly away as we approached. As they got used to us, though, they were less likely to hurriedly leave their eggs behind. They usually did swoop quickly out of the way when the back door opened.

The robin's nest - May 8, 2017

The swallow's nest was built so close to the porch ceiling that we couldn't see into the nest, unlike the robin's nest that was constructed on our 4-wheeler racks earlier this spring and which I moved for plenty of "photo ops."

 

Construction of the mud-based nest didn't allow for moving the nest, so we watched and waited. Randy was tall enough he could stick his hand into the nest, and he knew there were eggs there. Then last week, we had a population boom in the neighborhood. 

If we're honest, we've kind of enjoyed our backdoor guests. Well ... except for the bird poo on the steps. Yes, next year, we'll try to do a better job of discouraging the building of a new "house" in the neighborhood. And these guests won't be welcome at the front door either. They give a whole new meaning to the phrase "noisy neighbors."

We thought there were three babies. On Saturday, I discovered there were four, but this was the best I could do with a photo.

By the Numbers: Wheat Harvest 2017

Wheat Harvest 2017 is now in the rearview mirror.

Photo taken June 22, 2017

We finished up the afternoon of June 28 after starting on June 12. This year's start to harvest was pretty consistent with the past eight years. (I have good records since 2010 because I've been blogging that long). Our start dates are:

2010:  June 18
2011:  June 10
2012:  May 26 (an anomaly and the earliest harvest, by far, we've ever had)
2013:  June 21
2014:  June 17
2015:  June 20
2016:  June 15
2017:  June 12

It took us 2 weeks and 3 days to bring in the 1,341.7 acres planted to wheat. Some years, we have a custom cutter harvest a portion of our wheat acres. However, we bought a new-to-us combine at a farm auction in the spring of 2016, and we're still paying off the loan for that. Plus, the wheat prices don't leave a lot of margin for profits. So we decided to cut it all ourselves.

Photo taken June 22, 2017

Our overall average was 50.84 bushels per acre. We had a low average of 30 and a high of 80 bushels per acre. After a dry winter and early spring, Randy was thrilled with the totals. Some late spring rains came at just the right time for the filling of the wheat heads, and we are thankful! 

Wheat Harvest 2017 actually started with Wheat Harvest 2016. (Notice how I capitalize Wheat Harvest. It's a "Big Deal" to our farm. By far, wheat is our biggest crop.)

Photo from June 16, 2016, blog post

Each year, we plant some certified seed, which we use for seed wheat for the following year. Randy binned KanMark (a K-State release) and WB 4458 (a WestBred variety) to plant for seed wheat for our 2017 crop. During the 2016 harvest, we binned the seed wheat in on-farm storage.

Then, last July, we took the wheat to be cleaned to Miller Seed Farms. (See blog post: A Kernel of the Process: Cleaning Seed Wheat.)

 

In late September and early October 2016, we began planting wheat for our 2017 crop. 

Planting into the sunset, October 2016

See blog post What Goes Around Comes Around Again: Wheat Planting,"  

21 - 17 - 0.  I refreshed my memory on the Farm Wife Secret Code as I hauled fertilizer tanks from the Zenith branch of the Kanza Co-op to the field and back again.

  

By mid-October 2016, the wheat was emerging and was off to a good start. See blog post: And So It Begins Again.

 

In February 2017, the Kanza Co-op applied nitrogen fertilizer and Finesse herbicide.

 

In early April, we were thankful for Sunshine and Muddy Tennis Shoes - some rain after a very dry winter.

By April 21, we were Heading Toward Harvest. The wheat was heading, and according to an old wives' tale, we were 6 weeks away from harvest. It turned out to be about right.

 

By early June, we were at that "awkward stage" - the wheat ... not the "model."

This year's overall average of 50.84 bushels per acre made it our second best crop ever. Our 2013 crop averaged 52 bushels per acre and proved the theory that wheat has nine lives.

Yield averages in the past few years have been:

2010: 37.2 bu/acre
2011: 36.7 bu/acre
2012: 45.5 bu/acre
2013: 52 bu/acre
2014: 24.5 bu/acre
2015: 50 bu/acre
2016: 48.5 bu/acre
2017: 50.84 bu/acre

And that, as they say in show business, is a wrap.

THE END ... until a new beginning for Wheat 2018.

Harvesting the Sky

To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie –
True Poems flee –
~Emily Dickinson, c.1879

 

"A harvest sky yields bounty to the eyes and weary soul."

Kim Fritzemeier, Kansas farm wife

That wasn't on the Quote Garden list of "sky" quotes. Maybe Kim Fritzemeier, farm wife, could be added to the likes of Emily Dickson and Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

OK ... maybe not. But some days, the harvest sky has made the seemingly endless trips to and from the field and the emergency parts runs a little more palatable.

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

 ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 
Good old Ralph probably didn't know much about wheat harvest, but as we do our part to bring that "daily bread" into reality, I thought his quote was appropos. Sunsets are much more interesting with clouds. There's a lesson there somewhere, I'm sure.

Last Friday, I'd made two trips to Hutchinson to pick up parts at Case. That brought my 24-hour total to three trips.

That evening, instead of riding with Randy in the combine as is my usual modus operandi, I opted to stay behind to take photos of the shifting skies as day turned into evening.

It was a glorious show.

And, unlike the parts runs, it was totally free of charge.

It was almost as if Randy were harvesting the sun itself as the sun dipped toward the horizon ...

... and he emptied the combine after yet another trip down the field.

Wheat dust always makes me a little itchy. But I'd have to say it was worth a little discomfort to witness a particularly beautiful sunset.

I've had a few other favorite sky shots from this harvest. One dramatic sky heralded the arrival of Jill and the girls on the evening of June 15.

They arrived about the same time as the storm did.

Dark clouds become heaven's flowers when kissed by light.

 ~Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

We got a rain shower during the night, but I hope it wasn't enough to prevent one more day of harvest. If we're able to cut, we should get done today. Here's hoping!