Busy Spring Work on the Farm

We have been busy irrigating wheat, cultivating cotton, fertlizing corn, killing weeds and irrigating almonds. Whew. Oh yeah, we also started irrigating the corn too.

On top of that the weather is all over the place. It got to the mid-90's during the week. Now it is back down to the mid-70's and it has gotten windy. Welcome to May. The first year we were here Sheryl's aunt said the wind would blow until high school graduation and that is just about right. Then the wind dies down and the summer heat begins. But, for now it is cool and breezy.

Now, to most of you that may not look a lot different than last week's picture of the cotton seedlings. But, look closely. Do you notice the leaves in the center? Those are the first true leaves of the cotton plant. The first leaves you saw in last week's photo are seed leaves, or cotyledons. After the plants are out of the ground the next thing we look for are the first true leaves, that is a sign the plants are healthy and growing.

A number of you have asked about commodity prices. You have heard that prices for our crops are up and that is true. But, here's how I look at it- I hope the higher prices will help us pay our fuel and fertilizer bills. You may have noticed fuel prices are up over a dollar a gallon since last year. Remember I buy a lot more fuel than most of you do. On top of that fertilizer is up over $150 per ton. We buy fertilizer by the truckload. So higher prices for our crops is a good thing. But, please remember our costs are up also. I am not complaining. It is always a lot easier to look at higher production costs when we have high commodity prices.

I hope y'all have a great week.

P