Wheat Harvest

Sorry about the late post. Last weekend we helped our daughter and her family move in to their new home. I am just catching up.

There are 365 days in a year. We have been waiting for the grain harvesters to show up for about two weeks. Of course they show up on moving day. Whew.
   This sure is a pretty sight.

Hard to believe this is the first step to a loaf of bread.

Looks like a good crop. Prices are softening, but that usually happens during harvest of most crops.
Once the straw is baled we will disc the ground and rip it. Then we will let it sit open until the Fall. We will work it and bed it before cotton harvest and it will be ready for next year.

And how about the weather? It is over 20 degrees cooler than this time last week.
   I was looking over some weather forecasts this week. The average temp in our area for the end of July is 97 on the Weather Channel. That's funny. Twenty five years ago I was working with the UC thirty year average temps and they had the last few days of July were pegged at 100 degrees. I thought we were supposed to be warming up. I know they probably had different methodologies, but my point is that at least over the last thirty years, in our area, temps are not going up.

Elsewhere on the farm-
   The corn is now officially as high as an elephant's eye. It really grew during last week's heat. It is tasseling out. It is getting another shot of water and fertilizer this week.
   Today we finished the second irrigation on the cotton. It is finally blooming. Some bugs started showing up last week. They are getting sprayed this week.
   We finally have hull split in the almonds. That is about two weeks late. Another reflection of the cool Spring weather. Almond harvest is next. We will start prepping the fields next week. Meanwhile there are always weeds to kill.

I hope y'all are having a great week.

P

Happy 4th of July!!!

Anotherr busy week on the farm. We are getting ready to irrigate the cotton again so furrows were built up, weeds pulled and ditches put in place.

Here's the view from the tractor as the cultivator goes through the field.

This cultivator is six rows wide. Those steel spiders cultivate the weeds and break up the soil which we through back up in to the bed. Ruben gets a good sixty acres a day in if there are no problems.

As you can see the cotton is growing fast. We make the crop in the next five or six weeks. Anything that blooms after the middle of August won't have time to mature as an open boll before harvest. So, keeping up on irrigation, fertilizer and bug control is very important for the next month or so.


It is also the 4th of July.

Personally, my favorite clause of the Declaration of Independence is where Jefferson wrote, " He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance." Some things never change do they? To farmers at least, we can't seem to turn around without having some government agency or another showing up with a bill or a fine or a regulation. I make my living producing food and fiber, not filling out forms. The wealth of this nation was created by producing products and services, not filling out forms. Some day we will get that straight.

While I am on my soap box...
   Ben Franklin is quoted as saying, "The American Revolution was not fought for freedom, but for self-government." Think about that one for a minute. Our system was founded on the idea we can govern ourselves. We need to rise to that sort of expectation, because I can tell you, If we don't govern ourselves there are people that would like to rule over us. I, for one, would probably not like that.

And, of course- thank you to the men and women of our armed forces who have sacrificed so much for our independence. Thanks also to their families who have waited and worried while their warriors were gone. We owe you all a debt of gratitude we can never repay. THANK YOU!