Tag Archives: spring work

Spring Work Has Begun

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The first thing (after moving the cows off ) is to start disking

The corn stalks and leaves must be shredded

Terry disks both ways

After that comes plowing

Terry only plows the corn fields.  The bean field is ripped and the alfalfa is marked out

The soil is just perfect right now.  It has just the right amount of moisture so we actually have loam.  Our soil (in this area) has some clay mixed into it, so getting the ground worked up when it is in the loam stage is really nice. 

It doesn’t always happen that way.

Misty is helping farm this year.  Although, I didn’t get her in the tractor she has been there. She spells Terry giving him a break.  She wants to take over the farm when we decide the work load is just too much. 

But back to the loam — Once the soil is plowed it is good to have freezing temperatures at night to help finish drying out the dirt.  Then (which is happening as I write this) Terry (and/or Misty) will go back in with the roller flatting out the plowed clods.

What we do NOT want to happen right now is for it to either rain or snow.  Plowed ground is like a sponge.  If it collects too much water then the farmer has to wait for it to dry out and because of the clay we then get clods.  Not good.  Those nasty lumps of soil stay that way for the rest of the season.

So far the weather is holding, the equipment is staying together, and having more people doing the physical work makes the work load a lot lighter.

Linda

Yeah! Spring Work Has Begun!

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14

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

Some Days Just Do NOT Seem to End

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10

Getting-Ready-to-Plant

(This is a grain drill)

Yesterday the new alfalfa field was planted,

Hay-Seed

(Alfalfa seed)

Grain

(With oats as a mother crop)

Dirt-Ditch

marked out and water started on it.

Smiling-Talli

Talli came for supper

Bending-Pipe

Then until 10 pm we worked on making more siphon tubes

Making-Pipe

This weekend looks even busier with the planting of the garden.  Spring is my favorite seson, but I do get tired at the end of the days, what with the farm, animals,  and my ‘paying’ job.

Still it is better than the dark, long, cold days of winter!