• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

how are things around the country

Wet. A good old fashioned June like we used to have. Lots of heat and sun in the forecast so things should really jump now.
 
After a cool, wet spring, we finally got a week of sunny weather, although it is staying cool for this time of year. Clear skies and low humidity (45%) really cures hay fast.

Might actually get some dry hat baled today and tomorrow if the forecast holds!
 
Tired of all the rain!! Last 10 days we have got 6 inchs,and its suppose to rain again tonight,saturday and then tuesday :mad: .Any low spot in the fields are completly under water.
 
will never turn down rain but right on 10 inches (after last night's 1.5 thunder shower) since May 24 is getting a little beyond our need's :wink:
 
Things here are very dry and very smokey. I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever have another good year again. Going to need to sell more cows and buy more hay.....again. Here's the hay field next to my house.
 
Back to the weather again. We haven't had a decent rain now for about two weeks and have had some hot days. Looks like we will only get about 1/2 as much rain during the month of June as is normal here. It has been good weather for making hay though. It looks like my neighbors are getting quite a few bales in their fields. Makes me wish I was still out there doing that. Then I remember all the headaches, stress, and frustration, and the cost of fuel and oil involved keeping thing going during the haying season.
 
Yesterday's rain shower put 9/10" in our gauge.

30 miles east of us they got hammered again - up to 6" in half a day. :shock:

Lots of acres of corn and beans under water in the flat zones, lots of gullies washed out on the hilly areas. Again...

Good growing weather here with the corn reaching about waist high now. Well past the "knee high by the 4th of July" stage again.

Not such good hay making weather though.
 
One of my dry land wheat fields and milo fields had 2.50" over a two day period a couple weeks ago then nothing since. Been real spotty, go 1/2 mile either way and you got maybe a .50".

Last week I went to to Lamar to get calf creep feed and it is so sad how everything looks down there. They need a two week steady rain and some real snow this winter to pull them out. I complain about are lack of moisture but no more after seeing that. We are sitting pretty good compared to them.
 


My 5 year old Granddaughter went with me checking the winter wheat field after the storms we had the last two nights... Had about a 1/2 inch of rain and some small hail...Not much hail damage apparent, yet anyway... This is the first time we have grown this Willow Creek Forage winter wheat- but boy does it grow...
Now the decision to make is to hay it (the original plan) or wait and harvest (seed wheat been selling for $10 bushel)... A neighbor over east of us has cut his already- and is going to seed the ground back into millet and hopefully get a hay cutting from that...

The last couple of days- I've had a chance to go around the county and area- and I don't think I've seen as many good wheat fields as I'm seeing this year...
Now if that White Reaper will just stay away!
 
We were extremely lucky as we have been getting rain daily for the last 3 months but we had a 4 day dry spell forecast and we got all our first cutting up dry - - - now it is growing again and is ready to bale and rain is forecast every day - - - all equipment is ready for a dry forecast and we will run like crazy again.

Mow with a 15' center swing conditioner, next morning tead, next day rake when the dew is off and bale in the afternoon.

While my son was baling I had three guys and trucks moving hay, by dark the day of baling all was in the bale lots. I like to load bales with the backhoe with a spear as it sits high enough to see well when double stacking on trucks and wagons, then we keep skid steers at the bale lots to unload and hopefully with three trucks running the first truck is back to the field while the other two are in route. Works well as the farthest haul is about 5 miles and several hauls are a mile or less. We only have about 100 acres in 8 fields - - - we are not big like a lot of you but I like to think we are efficient.
 
Not to mention your land quality and excellent moisture.

I'm pretty sure we could not handle very much more than our average annual precip. of around 15 inches, as a few years we got around 20 inches and grass grew too rank, low places which normally produce well, went to more dominant, less desireable species, some even killing the grasses and forbs. Lots of alkali comes out when we have either too much or too little rain, it seems.

Our soils generally are not very deep, either. Something about this once being an inland sea, I guess.

We are pretty well blessed to get a few good years when things grow well.

mrj
 
The oats is heading out, the corn is growing at nearly maximum speed, but was needing a drink pretty bad, the second growth alfalfa was waiting for a rain, and then it came, and today we had 1.7 inches of rain!!! The good Lord blessed us today!
 
As miserable as April and May were here in Central Iowa, things are drying out, perhaps a bit too much as i've been seeing more and more yards go dormant.

Since the 1st of June, Des Moines is over 3 inches below normal on rainfall and month to date already over 1.25 inches below normal. Next several days are forecasted to be dry with seasonal temps.

Crops around here were planted way late to begin with and if the faucets all of a sudden turn off, which it appears they have, not a good situation between now and harvest in October.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top