A short post this week, we have been busy visiting with family who came for Heidi and Will's wedding!
Thirty years ago this week I climbed up my first tractor here on the farm. Never expected to be here that long. It has been interesting to say the least.
I spent that first summer mostly driving a D-8 and working ground. The first three weeks it was 100 degrees plus. This boy, who grew up in San Diego was wondering what in the wide world of sports I was doing here.
While that first summer had three weeks of 100 plus weather, this June is beginning with cooler than average weather. Yesterday was perfect for the wedding. Today was ten degrees cooler and rainy. The newsies have called to do interviews asking how this goofy weather affects the crops. Well, the cooler weather slows crop development on all crops. Some like it better than others. My grape growing friends are saying their vines think this is Napa weather. Of course, as soon as this rain passes by they will all be applying to sulfur to control mildew. The cherry guys have to be hating this rain. A little rain on the cherries and they will start splitting.
People ask what we do, as farmers, about the weather. We adjust. Normally we start watering the cotton the first week of June. But, since it is cool and raining we will wait. We have the fields ready to irrigate, the beds are ready, the ditches are put up and the pipe laid. If it warms up the end of the week we will start watering. Hopefully, we know our crops, our fields and the weather enough to make intelligent decisions. That's part of what makes this job so interesting. You can't just farm by the calendar.
I hope y'all have a great week.
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