Happy Labor Day! Not that a holiday means a break from working here on the ranch, or time-and-a-half pay.
Anyways, last week was pretty busy. We spent a lot of time getting a quarter section about 5 miles away on the highway prepped for a new water system and a planting of perennial cool season grasses. We marked out about 11 hydrants and then a local water systems company installed it in a couple days. Now there are beautiful shiny water tanks dotting the field. My boss has spent a lot of time in a tractor undercutting and now discing trying to get the field ready for the seed. Hopefully the weather cooperates.
Oh, I wanted to show you something:
In this picture you see two fields that had wheat harvested from them: The foreground up to that brown hill, and then the brown hill itself.
Please answer the following questions:
Which field was raised organically?
Which field yielded 88 bu/a, twice the state average of 44 bu/a?
Which field will feed 250 head of cattle for almost a month?
If you said the field in the foreground for all of the above then you are correct. The conventionally raised wheat on the hill yielded 50 bu/a, but now sits dead with nothing growing in it, wasting solar energy.
I spent a day last week planting the portion of that wheat field that has already been grazed using an ATV with a spreader on the back broadcasting turnip seeds. The plan is to use the turnips as winter forage for the cattle.
I think that’s it. Following are a picture of the house I’m occupying and a picture of a heron that lives around the local ponds. It’s in the very middle of the picture. I was hoping to get closer but no such luck this time.
Lenise Waples said,
September 8, 2009 @ 6:45 pm
I am enjoying your blog. It’s nice to see where you’re staying. The house looks very nice and the countryside…not bad.( Not as nice as where I grew up.) I hope you’re having a good week and I’m happy you’re able to keep up with your blog on a more regular basis. Love, Mom
Tom said,
September 9, 2009 @ 5:02 am
Yeah, it looks beautiful out there. One problem…i don’t see any Tbell or Walmart near by. How do you survive? lol
kelly said,
September 10, 2009 @ 11:33 pm
i enjoyed your quiz. i also think that if you really want an old truck you should look into getting the one in your picture.
Gpa said,
September 12, 2009 @ 12:25 am
nice house! Didn’t however see any air conditioners in any of the windows. But then I think that would somehow remove some carbon credits somewhere. I sure enjoyed your efforts to sneak up on that heron .After enlarging the shot a couple times I found it just where you said it was .Good shot! Do you get enuf rain for some regrowth on the harvested fields yet this fall ? We usually get some growth of the grain that goes over the screens in the harvest. Do you use a chisel plow to work the stubble B4 broadcasting the turnip seed? I presume the graze is the tops of the turnips Right?Sure is interesting ,this organic farming!