Farming took over all of Terry’s time, but here is where he is with the building.
Once the planting gets done he can start again. I’m really looking forward to when it is insulated and the wood stove is in place.
Let’s see, we could put a pool table out there, or a ping-pong table, maybe a new grill….
Or maybe room for the tractors and wood working equipment. 🙂
Linda
After a long winter of the cows just hang’n around in the corrals, if it storming. Or maybe wandering out to eat in the fields, we always have lots of ‘free fertilizer’.
Every spring the manure is removed and hauled out to the fields.
This keeps the cost of farming down, fertilizer is right up there in the very expensive category, right along with fuel.
Even though the manure spreader is old, it still does a really good job.
Because cows digest so little of their food, cow manure won’t burn plants the way nitrogen-rich chicken manure will. Nor does it need to be composted before putting it on the field. Cow manure is the undigested residue of herbivorous matter which has passed through the animal’s gut. The resultant manure matter is rich in minerals. Color ranges from greenish to blackish, often darkening in color soon after exposure to air.
Once on the field the farmer works it into the soil through plowing or chiseling. Therefore, rebuilding the soil and feeding the earth worms.
Our first calf of the year came in the last snow storm. He is about four days old here.
See all the manure. Just waiting for the manure spreader.
Linda
The plowed field is just right for rolling. (See the dust)
Linky wanted to ride with Grandpa.
The roller smashes all the plowed dirt chunks down and soften up the soil, readying it for leveling.
This is one of The most important aspects of getting the ground ready. The window to roll is very short; requiring the soil to be dry but not so dry the roller can’t break up the clods.
Clods are the bane of farming. They take more water to soften them up, the seeds have a harder time getting a foothold or to put their little heads through, and when you irrigate the plug up the furrows.
Just as we got done and pulled in for the evening meal a huge black cloud came up and dumped snow.
Everything came to a stop until the wind and sun could dry stuff out.
We started plowing again last night. But another storm is heading our way. We hope to get the manure spread before it hits here. Water/snow makes for a nice fertilizer combination.
I sure hope this is the last storm of the year. The onion farmers are three weeks behind and the sweet corn guys are two weeks behind. Everyone is really stressed, but there is nothing we can do about it. Farming is a gambol based on the weather, always! Then the next gambol is what the prices are for harvest, but that is another subject for a different time of the year.
Linda
Our fuel was delivered for the season. Now THAT is a jolt to your pocketbook, believe me.
And the weather held long enough to get the plow on and head to the corn and hay fields.
As you can tell we are small farmers and our equipment is older. We use a four-bottom plow any larger and we would have to enlarge everything else. Four plow shears go down, then the plow is turned over and the other side of the four shears do the work.
Here Terry is setting the plow into the ground
The primary purpose of plowing is to turn over the upper layer of the soil, bringing fresh nutrients to the surface, while burying weeds and the remains of previous crops, allowing them to break down. It also aerates the soil, and allows it to hold moisture better. If the weather is nice (meaning not storming or dropping down moisture) most farmers, in our area, leave the ground to warm up and freeze (that is what you really want) for a week. The repeated warming and freezing makes for a very soft and friable soil.
It is now down.
And off he goes. We are having lots of wind so this soil will be dry faster than a week. Every day the soil needs to be checked, if it dries out too much the soil will turn to clods. Clods are a pain, a real pain.
We should be able to roll this weekend. (and yes I know how to roll).
All of this seems like lots of work, but to us it’s a real labor of love. When you enjoy what you are doing, work is never part of the equation
Linda
But it comes with problems.
Terry only disks the corn and old alfalfa fields. Disking over once only shreds about 40-70% of the stalks, most of the time it takes two passes to get the stalks small enough.
A common problem, but one a farmer really wants to avoid, is the ground is too wet. Disking wet soil results in non-uniform shredding, creates clods, leaves compacted soil, and wads up in the disks. The only thing to do then is…
Dig the mud out with a bar! Terry has scrapers on some of the disks, but of course the one in the middle (which never wads up) packed in tight.
Cleaned and ready to go.
Here is what a disked field looks like. Tomorrow he will plow. There again he will only plow last year’s corn field and any alfalfa fields he wants to take out of production.
Alfalfa gets old after several years so to keep the vigor of the crop and to keep weeds from taking over a ‘hay’ field has to be disked and plowed up.
All crops are rotated, so this hay field will become a corn field for the 2010 year. And the corn fields will become pinto bean fields. We have a newly seeded alfalfa field coming into production this year and another older field which should last a couple of more years.
Good crop management is about healthy soil, crop rotation, and good irrigation practices.
But you know all that from raising gardens.
Another storm is heading our way…let’s hope it swings around us again!
Linda
Tomorrow it is suppose to leave. Maybe THEN we can get the plowing done!
Our neighbor (just over the way) is loading his cows into the his truck for transport to the spring pastures. He doesn’t herd them, because his spring pastures are about 25 miles away.
These cows have thier own limo service 🙂
Linda
This is the ‘little’ hayfield. On the other side is a sagebrush patch the cows love to sleep in.
And always, always, always you MUST walk in the ditch (a little ways) to build up momentum to get there.
Cows are such goofs, all they have to do is walk straight and they would get to the corner, but they zigg and zagg all through the hay field.
And where the first one goes, then they all follow.
Linda
Keep movin’, movin’, movin’,
Though they’re disapprovin’,
Keep them doggies movin’ Rawhide!
Move ’em on, head ’em up,
Head ’em up, move ’em out,
Move ’em on, head ’em out Rawhide!
Set ’em out, ride ’em in
Ride ’em in, let ’em out,
Cut ’em out, ride ’em in Rawhide.
Another storm was to blow in last night (and it did); the rancher decided he needed to get the cows onto new pasture and bedded down before it hit.
We had rain and 40 mile an hour wind this morning. Still all in all the brunt of the storm missed us.
Tractor work will start tomorrow if the wind can dry everything out enough.
Yeah! Spring is here!
Boy, am I ever ready. But I guess you knew that!
Linda
Since it was raining on Sunday
We decided this was a good time to go visit Terry’s Mom and Sister and Brother-in-law
And maybe visit a John Deere dealer or two and go to a couple of farm sales
We have to travel over the Rocky Mountains to get to the eastern side of Colorado.
As we go the traffic picks up and up and up….UGH!
Signs warn us all along that the traffic into Denver is immense and to expect delays.
Boy, were they ever right! See the cars W.A.Y. back there. We kept along at 8 miles an hour until after the tunnel.
We made it. We got to have a nice evening with family and the next day took in some dealerships
And a retirement farm sale.
We got home late that night. I am really glad to be back home. I am NOT a city girl grandma.
If the weather holds we will begin tractor work Saturday!
Linda
This is exactly the kind of stuff I hate…pulling out a stuck tractor—and it’s treating to rain … again.
So Terry takes one tractor and I drive the other tractor and off we go to get the one Terry stuck
But it is even WORSE than I thought because the tractor is on the edge of a ravine. The ravine isn’t large, but it is steep and covered in slick, matted, winter-killed grass.
No! I do not back up tractors that are in dangerous positions!!!! I should, I know. But I am not that good of a driver and rolling a tire on the edge (the very edge) of a ravine is way above my skills.
This whole thing is just terrifying to me-when I was in high school our neighbor had his tractor tip over backward and kill him, my Dad had a tractor roll on top of him and crush his pelvis, and one of Terry’s very best friends had a tractor roll backward and kill him. I HATE STUFF LIKE THIS!!!!!
Finally OUT! Whew!
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 
