how are things around the country
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Clarencen
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cowman52
Well-known member
Six plus through this afternoon, more coming.
Clarencen
Well-known member
These are a couple of pictures out o my book. They didn't copy to well.
Here is what I have written about them:
Lead plant
Leadplant is nearly as abundant as the scurf peas. leadplant is probably the most important of all the native legumes. It is deep rooted, woody shrub that grows up to 3 feet tall.
The leaves of this plant has a grey lead-like appearance. It is found on sandy soils throughout the native prairie.It is more abundant on hill tops and on rocky hillsides. Like many legumes it does well in areas with calcareous soil. It has compound leaves that occur opposite along the stems.Each leaf has a number of leaflets that are arranged in pairs, with one terminal leaf. The leaves are oval and are covered with grey hairs, this giving it it's common name.
Tiny purple flowers appear in clusters or on spikes at the top of the stems. Each flower has a single petal or standard and has no wing or keel, that is typical of the pea flower. The yellow stamens protrude from the flower and are quite noticeable when viewed closely. as the plant matures, fuzzy seed pods appear each containing one seed.
Leadplant reproduces firm seed and from underground root stock. As this plant gets older it develops course woody stems, these will remain year after year, with new growth starting from old wood in the spring. The blossoms appear from late June until mid august. The seed shatters quite easily when ripe. Germination of lead plant is quite low, however it's germination may improve with time as it has a hard coat that may break down and be more permeable to water.
Leadplant is a good forage plant, but it's course stems protect it somewhat from heavy grazing. It' forage is high in protein and cattle make good gains in pastures that contain a fair amount of it. Some people believe that it is poisonous to horses but there is no evidence to support that. Horses will often leave the leaves of leadplant in their feed boxes or mangers. This may be the basis of that belief. Leadplant is a decreaser under heavy grazing. It is an indicator of range condition and degree of use.
The American Indians dried the leaves of leadplant and used them for tea and for smoking. It also was used to some extent as medicine. The stems were sometimes used to weave crude baskets.
At one time superstition held that leadplant was an indication of the preasents of lead ore, but it's common name refers to it's lead-like color.
Leadplant is often cultivated as an ornamental. seed has been hand striped, and even combined. One year the Miller seed Co, harvested seed from leadplant Northeast of Valentine with a combine. The seed was used for a highway beautification program.
Other common names for leadplant are ladplant amorpha prairie shoestring, wild tea, and Indian tea. it' botanical name is Amorphia canescens, Amorphus means without shape or deformed, referinf to it's single petal flower. Canescens means grey in color.
Here is what I have written about them:
Lead plant
Leadplant is nearly as abundant as the scurf peas. leadplant is probably the most important of all the native legumes. It is deep rooted, woody shrub that grows up to 3 feet tall.
The leaves of this plant has a grey lead-like appearance. It is found on sandy soils throughout the native prairie.It is more abundant on hill tops and on rocky hillsides. Like many legumes it does well in areas with calcareous soil. It has compound leaves that occur opposite along the stems.Each leaf has a number of leaflets that are arranged in pairs, with one terminal leaf. The leaves are oval and are covered with grey hairs, this giving it it's common name.
Tiny purple flowers appear in clusters or on spikes at the top of the stems. Each flower has a single petal or standard and has no wing or keel, that is typical of the pea flower. The yellow stamens protrude from the flower and are quite noticeable when viewed closely. as the plant matures, fuzzy seed pods appear each containing one seed.
Leadplant reproduces firm seed and from underground root stock. As this plant gets older it develops course woody stems, these will remain year after year, with new growth starting from old wood in the spring. The blossoms appear from late June until mid august. The seed shatters quite easily when ripe. Germination of lead plant is quite low, however it's germination may improve with time as it has a hard coat that may break down and be more permeable to water.
Leadplant is a good forage plant, but it's course stems protect it somewhat from heavy grazing. It' forage is high in protein and cattle make good gains in pastures that contain a fair amount of it. Some people believe that it is poisonous to horses but there is no evidence to support that. Horses will often leave the leaves of leadplant in their feed boxes or mangers. This may be the basis of that belief. Leadplant is a decreaser under heavy grazing. It is an indicator of range condition and degree of use.
The American Indians dried the leaves of leadplant and used them for tea and for smoking. It also was used to some extent as medicine. The stems were sometimes used to weave crude baskets.
At one time superstition held that leadplant was an indication of the preasents of lead ore, but it's common name refers to it's lead-like color.
Leadplant is often cultivated as an ornamental. seed has been hand striped, and even combined. One year the Miller seed Co, harvested seed from leadplant Northeast of Valentine with a combine. The seed was used for a highway beautification program.
Other common names for leadplant are ladplant amorpha prairie shoestring, wild tea, and Indian tea. it' botanical name is Amorphia canescens, Amorphus means without shape or deformed, referinf to it's single petal flower. Canescens means grey in color.
littlejoe
Well-known member
I see your prairie clover picture was in about same stage as ours is today----a little mixed in with knapweed I was spraying. Several different names for it---but all pictures look the same----seems like it's way more noticeable some yrs than others..
A
Anonymous
Guest
This morning we moved the cows over onto a new pasture on the creek...We grazed this in the spring- but haven't had anything on it since June 1... Cows/Calves thought they died and went to heaven to see all the fresh grass and fresh water- altho their pickings have been good all year... Not too many years they get to enjoy such... We've been blessed with several good years...
Years like this make it tough to find the hard keepers and/or bad cows- as everything looks pretty good... I remember too many years that everything was pure brown by this time of year- and the waterholes were mud puddles- seeping a little water from the spring...
Years like this make it tough to find the hard keepers and/or bad cows- as everything looks pretty good... I remember too many years that everything was pure brown by this time of year- and the waterholes were mud puddles- seeping a little water from the spring...
Soapweed
Well-known member
The pastures were starting to look very dry, but a nice rain came through in the wee hours of Sunday morning. 2.9 inches fell on the west end, and 2.2 inches fell here at our buildings. We are mighty grateful for the moisture. 
Faster horses
Well-known member
Good for you, Soapweed. We'd sure take that about now. It's been over 2 weeks since we have had any moisture. The hay is holding up well because for the most part, it hasn't been too hot. Sunday we sure had a hot wind and it dried out the ground without a cover on it. But other than a hot day here and there, we have been extremely lucky as far as hot temps. This whole next week it looks like we will only be in the low 80's and in the 50's at night.
Kind of looking a bit like a thunderstorm could happen this evening, but our dog is our best barometer and he doesn't think we are going to get anything tonight.
:shock: 
:wink: :lol: :lol: :lol:
He can tell early in the morning if an evening thunderstorm will happen.
Kind of looking a bit like a thunderstorm could happen this evening, but our dog is our best barometer and he doesn't think we are going to get anything tonight.
:shock: :wink: :lol: :lol: :lol: He can tell early in the morning if an evening thunderstorm will happen.
Soapweed
Well-known member
Faster horses said:Good for you, Soapweed. We'd sure take that about now. It's been over 2 weeks since we have had any moisture. The hay is holding up well because for the most part, it hasn't been too hot. Sunday we sure had a hot wind and it dried out the ground without a cover on it. But other than a hot day here and there, we have been extremely lucky as far as hot temps. This whole next week it looks like we will only be in the low 80's and in the 50's at night.
Kind of looking a bit like a thunderstorm could happen this evening, but our dog is our best barometer and he doesn't think we are going to get anything tonight.
He can tell early in the morning if an evening thunderstorm will happen.
So, how does your dog convey his weather forecast to you?
FH, sorry I didn't see your post re. the Echinacea flowers, so good thing someone else came up with picture and info.
I'm not up on putting pictures on the internet.....yet......and I sure do have lots to learn with little time to give to the project right now.
Getting some meds for a sick calf to the guys at a distant pasture yesterday, I saw lots of that leadplant, especially along the road ditches. I appreciated your pictures and description, Clarence. I have a SD native plant book with good, and similar description, too. What grows on our ranch is mostly on hilltops in what I know only as 'gumbo' type soils, with some little rocks. What I saw yesterday is in an area of almost Badlands type soils, white to gray, with some white, chalky looking rocks. It is between Belevidere and Kadoka, and to the north or I-90, maybe about a mile.
We got some rains in small areas early Friday morning, about 1.80 at the house and also east of hiway # 63. Not sure how much in other areas. Midland has had some decent rains recently, but one good one stopped at the top of the hill on hiway #63, as tho there has been a curtain to shut it off, it was so dramatic in where it stopped.
It just doesn't get much prettier than it is this year, such a blessing after the terrible dry 2012 was here. It even helps take our minds off the political mess our nation is suffering........for a while!
mrj
I'm not up on putting pictures on the internet.....yet......and I sure do have lots to learn with little time to give to the project right now.
Getting some meds for a sick calf to the guys at a distant pasture yesterday, I saw lots of that leadplant, especially along the road ditches. I appreciated your pictures and description, Clarence. I have a SD native plant book with good, and similar description, too. What grows on our ranch is mostly on hilltops in what I know only as 'gumbo' type soils, with some little rocks. What I saw yesterday is in an area of almost Badlands type soils, white to gray, with some white, chalky looking rocks. It is between Belevidere and Kadoka, and to the north or I-90, maybe about a mile.
We got some rains in small areas early Friday morning, about 1.80 at the house and also east of hiway # 63. Not sure how much in other areas. Midland has had some decent rains recently, but one good one stopped at the top of the hill on hiway #63, as tho there has been a curtain to shut it off, it was so dramatic in where it stopped.
It just doesn't get much prettier than it is this year, such a blessing after the terrible dry 2012 was here. It even helps take our minds off the political mess our nation is suffering........for a while!
mrj
Faster horses
Well-known member
Soapweed said:Faster horses said:Good for you, Soapweed. We'd sure take that about now. It's been over 2 weeks since we have had any moisture. The hay is holding up well because for the most part, it hasn't been too hot. Sunday we sure had a hot wind and it dried out the ground without a cover on it. But other than a hot day here and there, we have been extremely lucky as far as hot temps. This whole next week it looks like we will only be in the low 80's and in the 50's at night.
Kind of looking a bit like a thunderstorm could happen this evening, but our dog is our best barometer and he doesn't think we are going to get anything tonight.
He can tell early in the morning if an evening thunderstorm will happen.
So, how does your dog convey his weather forecast to you?
That dog gets really anxious. And the closer the thunderstorm approaches the more scared he gets. He pants, he shakes, he goes from building to building during the day trying to find somewhere to get into--so we usually let him in the basement in a dark room with no windows. He waits the storm out there. He is deathly afraid of thunderstoms. He'd be a good advocate for Obama. He hates guns too.
:wink: However he missed last night's thunderstorms early in the day. Near dark we knew a thunderstorm was coming as he started trying to get in the door and was panting. We put him in the basement.Sure enough, we got a really appreciated .25" of rain last night with some bad lightening. There was only a small cloud about 6 pm when I went to pick up fruit from a fruit truck that comes here from Washington. I was surprised when that little cloud got organized and we got some rain out of it after dark.
Clarencen
Well-known member
Dogs do have some way of sensing when rain is coming. We have had dogs here that would usually stay near the house, but if it appeared that it might rain, they would come out to the field where we were working. They were afraid of thunder and felt safer when near us. I have even seen them look at the sky. I don't know what they see but somehow they do see cloudy skies as a sign of rain, I don't think that is how they sense a coming storm though, it seems they can feel a coming storm even before clouds form.
burnt
Well-known member
We seem to be stuck in a stretch of very cool weather for the past week or two, slowing down the corn and beans. Which both look very good right now but need heat.
This morning it is 10C or 50F just now before sunrise. that's almost jacket weather!
This morning it is 10C or 50F just now before sunrise. that's almost jacket weather!
mwj
Well-known member
burnt said:
It is 48 here in the middle of Illinois with a high of 72 for today :shock: We need a rain in the worst way since all of ours has went south where the poor folks are flooded.
A
Anonymous
Guest
4Diamond said:
:lol: :lol: And we are forecast to have 90-100 degree temps for the next several days!!
Which is kind of needed to ripen some of the late seeded wheat and put some protein into it...
We already had our morning thunder storm roll thru about 6AM- mostly just thunder and lightning and only dropped a few drops of rain...
Big Muddy rancher
Well-known member
4Diamond said:
We gad the same low up here in the great white north. :lol: :lol:
A
Anonymous
Guest
Big Muddy rancher said:
52 here at 6 AM this morning- with pea soup fog and 1/4 mile visibility...Predicted high for today is 90- with 100 predicted for tomorrow... I see they are predicting record highs around the state for tomorrow..