Posted by billonthefarm on May 23, 2009 at 21:22:47 from (205.161.2.144):
After we got almost 6 inches of rain the week of the 15th, most of it on the 15th everyone was getting seriously worried about getting the crop in. We reached the decision on wednesday morning the 20th we couldnt sit any longer. We picked the driest spot and resumed planting in earnest. Working late into the night and then getting up before 5 to get chores done and get the planter rolling in decent time makes for long days but we made good progress. We have worked and planted in condtions from good to not so good. I have planted around mudholes and standing water for the first time in a decade. Any place that could be wet was. The ground dried too fast and has a two inch thick crust keeping the ground underneath wet and sticky. We havent been stuck yet but I spent about 20 minutes at 6:30 this morning digging mud out of the planter wheels because I tried to plant somewhere I shouldnt have. Here are a bunch of pics. I planted the sweet corn while cliff started working ground wednesday morning.
Some pictures of the guys working around the neighborhood.
Pictures while out planting.
Here are pics of a place I had to detour around while planting. So far I have planted around three areas like this. Just too much rain!
Since wednesday I have spent most my time in the seat of this tractor but "home" is the white farm house in the background.
The water towers and school buildings of Farmington IL.
Of course wrigley is a big help.
I wish he would drive and I could nap!
These two calves where born this week. In the mornings I do chores as quick as I can and get going. Nick takes care of things at night after he gets home from work and on the weekends and that is a huge help as I am able to stay in the field. Thursday I put cliff in the planter so I could go help nick give shots, tag and band one of the new calves. We werent sure if he was nursing so we had to put mom in the chute which meant hauling him to the chute from the pasture which was no small job. I ended up coverd with snot, blood, poo and pee before we were done. I got back to planting at about 7pm and from then untill I quit at about 11:30pm and I smelled sooooo bad. Nick took these pics while checking the cows one night this week. Good looking little bull calves.
Things were rolling along great today. I figured to be done planting or very close to it by 10pm, but about 2 pm it rained us out. A small area here caught a thunderstorm. Maybe a 5 mile square got measurable rain. Where I was at we got 8 tenths in about 30 minutes. A little less where cliff was working and 3 tenths here at home. When we did chores tonight there was little sign of rain there at all. Very spotty rain storm. I just backed off the edge of the field to fill the planter and head to the next field. Cliff was moments from finishing working the last 80 acres.
We will see what morning brings. 100 acres and we will be done with corn. Most areas missed the rain today and they are still going. I dont think I will be able to finish planting tomorrow with this rain. Even with the rain, I am very happy and feel lucky that we have been able to get 700 of our 800 corn acres planted. A week ago today it looked like we may never get to plant, what a difference a week can make! bill
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Today's Featured Article - Restoring a John Deere 2010 Diesel Tractor - by Jim Nielsen. Following seven years working in California's Silicon Valley, my wife, baby son and I moved back to Australia to retire. We bought a small 'farm' of about 50 acres near Bendigo, in the state of Victoria. I soon found that it would be very useful to have a tractor around the place for things such as grading our long drive and brush-hogging the fields. I was also embarking on planting 1000 eucalyptus trees, and hence I would need a ripper, small disk plow, sprayer etc. to get these things accompli
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