The onion guys have made a call on the ditch. Meaning they want water.
Because of the weather, the Ditch Company is behind. They just finished cleaning our canal.
This is what it looked like before the backhoe started in.
Normally the water is turned in and flows by our place before March 30th. This gives you an idea how far behind everyone is.
Anyway, the sun is shinning here today, and for me, that is always a good thing.
Linda
We went from snow to a huge wind/dust/flying dirt storm
50 mile per hour winds beat us up all day Monday and into Monday night with a bitter cold front right behind it.
41* today.
Still the onion farmers have their seeds in the ground and a call has been made on the ditch for water so planting has gotten started.
Those that are still behind because of too much mud will have to put onion sets in the ground instead of seeds. Sets are very labor intensive, having to be planted all by hand, but it still gives them a crop.
The early sweet corn guys are just about ready to plant, just waiting for the canals to fill. Most sweet corn farmers water first and then plant. Sweet corn is not frost tolerant. The watering first allows the season to move a little more closer to steady warm weather.
We are at a standstill. Terry likes to have the corn in and its little heads poking up by the second week in May. He also likes to water first and then plant, but if he has to he will plant and then water the corn up. The second way produces lots more weeds, but it will also protect the baby plants.
Think Spring…
Linda
My drive to work in Paonia was in a snow storm. At least it wasn’t a blizzard or a white out.
Icy roads should be a thing of last month or even February or January, not April. There is another front coming in for the middle of the week, but I’m hoping we are warming up enough it will just bring rain.
Snow on freshly plowed fields really isn’t a good thing. Plowed soil is like a thirty sponge and will absorb moisture and HOLD it. But I think it is good anyway, because it forced Terry to take a break. Rest is always good. He’s home all the time so he will be able to get right out there as soon as the soil get right to roll.
It is Easter this weekend and the sun is finally shining. The whole sun thing just plain fills me with joy!
Happy Easter, one and all!
Linda
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
