To Water, or Not to Water, that is the question...

After thirty one years, the last remaining disagreement between Sheryl's Dad and I is when to apply the first irrigation in the cotton. His concern, and he is right this is important, is if we water too early then it will all go to stalk and not to making cotton. That would be bad. I am concerned that if we wait too long and the heat spikes some cotton will get BBQ'd before I can get around with the water.
    What we have worked out is how to time the first irrigation. There is an instrument called a pressure bomb. In stead of measuring the soil moisture the pressure bomb measures the plants actual water stress. So we have agreed on an objective measure to start irrigation.
    This is when things get tricky- I still have to anticipate the weather a couple of weeks ahead of time so we can have the field and the irrigation pipes ready. So we hit June 1st and the fields are ready. The problem? Instead of getting hotter, the forecast is for the temperature to drop twenty degrees in the next few days. If there is anything worse than being late with an irrigation it is watering cotton when it is too cold. Does it make sense why gambling in Reno or Vegas doesn't interest me? I get enough gambling as it is on the farm.
   Here's a picture of Ruben getting the field ready for irrigation.

I'll tell you next week how the weather works out.

Until then here's one of my radio pieces for this week-

My Pickup and I

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright May 2012

                Walking out to my pickup one morning I saw a few dings on the side in the glow of the early morning light and I realized my truck and I have a lot in common. For starters- we both have a lot of miles and a few dents.

            The dings and scratches break my heart because I try to be careful with my truck. It sure looked pretty on the show room floor, but a pickup isn’t made to sit and look pretty. It was made for work. At least it still cleans up well.

            My truck and I are both more functional than fancy. No chrome wheels or fancy paint. It’s four wheel drive so I can get where I need to go. The A/C works so I am a big fan in the summer time. The radio is stock and the sound is good. I wish it had a jack for my iPhone, but that option wasn’t available 300,000 miles ago.

            My tool boxes have what I need to do first aid on the tractors and equipment.

Like I said, My truck and I have a lot in common: a lot of miles and a few dings, nothin’ fancy.

And after all those miles, we still both clean up pretty well.

You can find the audio link at-

http://www.940kyno.com/index.php?c=68

I hope Y'all have a great week.

P