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Friday, May 14, 2010

Rain at Crop Time

Went to a meeting last night and heard that it is time to start cutting hay if you want optimum nutrition. That is no doubt true in terms of numbers on a feed analysis sheet, but there sure was some head shaking among the farmers sitting around the tables. Guys who do a lot of baling pointed out that you would have quite a time drying it.

We may not rival Tennessee for wetness, but we have had a real mess of rain in the past few weeks. Thanks to the couple of weeks of warm weather early, we have a lot more grass than we did at this time the past two years, but taking a tractor into a tender hay field would probably leave ruts that would last for years. We sure need a little dry off.

I planted peas yesterday and some more beets. The garden has been coming on very slowly. The radishes just got their second set of leaves and they have been up for at least a couple of weeks. A lot of corn around the area has been frost damaged pretty badly, but the crop specialist says it usually comes back even if it is frozen right off to the ground.

Cows are going out on a new pasture this morning. They haven't been in it for a couple of years...thanks to absurd amounts of rain...and I am hoping they remember where the fences are. Cows will run through even a very strong fence sometimes if they aren't familiar with it but will stay inside nothing more than a few loops of wire if they know where it is and they aren't hungry.

Well, time to get to work...stay dry....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are way ahead of us as usual...I'm getting my garden worked today and hope to get the seed in by Monday. The hay is just starting to grow here but I imagine they'll start irrigating it pretty soon now. At least the sun has some heat this morning for a change.

Sandcastle Momma said...

Interesting fact about cows and fences. As much beef as I eat it's shocking how little I know about them LOL
I wish you weren't so far away - I'd love to take a field trip to your place.

threecollie said...

Linda, in some ways we are even ahead of us. I can't believe that they are saying it is time to cut hay. We just got the cows out!

SCMomma, we always dread turning heifers out in a new field before they learn the boundaries. We flag the fences with surveyor's tape so they can see them, but they still sometimes run right through them....and I too wish you lived closer.