The Grandkids Visit the Farm

Ok, that's too cute.

   Heidi and Will brought the kids out last week while we were picking cotton. Sheryl brought pizzas. GG and Grandpa Walt came down. We know he came for the grand kids, not to check on the harvest.
A good time was had by all.

   Meanwhile, back in the field---We finished first pick and started second picking on Thursday. Monday was horrible, everything was breaking and I was coming down with a nasty head cold. Things stabilized by Tuesday and we got 'er done.

   Behind the picker we are shredding stalks. We will cut roots and disc behind that. We are trying to get the ground turned around and the wheat planted before the winter weather sets in.

   That sure is pretty. Those are cotton modules. Each holds twelve to fourteen bales of cotton. We store the harvested cotton at the end of the field. It will be picked up and ginned in the next few weeks.
   There is a certain satisfaction standing on the edge of a field and looking at your crop. There is a lot of work, a lot of planning, a lot of preparation and a lot of waiting to bring in a crop. We live in a world where instant coffee is too slow. We planted this cotton in April and it we still won't know what our yield will be until it is ginned off.
   You can ask Sheryl, I am not a naturally patient man. But, I have had to learn patience farming. Not only can you not fool Mother Nature, you cannot rush Mother Nature either.

   So, we are going to take a Sabbath rest and go back at it on Monday.

I hope you all have a great week.

P

Cotton Harvest 2013

We are off and running!

   The first field was a little disappointing. It looked better than it picked out. The second field is much better.
   Harvest is a combination of hope and heart attack. You always hope for a good harvest. This is the result of a year's work. There is a lot riding on this. Then there are the heart attacks. G. Gordon Liddy described a helicopter as /ten thousand nuts and bolts trying to fly in different directions at the same time. That would describe a cotton picker. One broken bolt and everything stops. The first night, right at sun down, the hydraulic pump froze right as the basket was being raised to empty the cotton. So, we were dead in the water for that night, and the next day. There were no replacement pumps in the area. I had to drive up to Modesto to pick one up. [ The navigator in the phone got me lost, but that is another story.] We got the pump on and found when the pump froze it sent a piece of shrapnel through the radiator. Arrrrrgh! Hope and heat attack.

But , it sure is pretty to see those cotton modules lined up as the day begins.

Counting Chickens…

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright October 2012

                  Right now we are watching and waiting for the cotton to open up. This time of year, my banker will ask what our yields are going to be. My father –in-law will ask what our yields are going to be. It is easy to start doing back of the envelope calculations trying to figure out how we are going to land this year.

            There is a famous saying about not counting your chickens before they hatch. Things look good so far, but until I get the last bale picked and ginned I won’t know how the year looks.

            Years ago I had a field that was picture perfect. The cotton was open all the way to the top, all the way across the field- it picked 1006 pounds per acre. A few years later I had a ratty looking Pima cotton field. The neighbors teased me, the banker asked what the fiddle happened to the field, my father-in-law shook his head. That field picked over 1800 pounds per acre. You couldn’t tell by looking.

So,  it’s just another reason you have to build up patience on the farm. You just gotta sit and keep from counting those chickens, or gotten bolls before they hatch.

 I hope you all have a great week!

Grinding the Orchard

The grinder arrived yesterday.

Actually it is pretty amazing. Two skip loaders feed the grinder, the trees are loaded and chips fly out. It will take two or three day to finish the whole orchard. It really looks barren out there after all these years of having trees wrapped around the house.

Cotton harvest starts Monday morning. The equipment is ready.Now we will see of the cotton is ready.

Flat

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright December  2012

                  Yeah the Valley is flat. But, at least my view every day is framed by the Coast Range on the West and the Sierras on the East. It’s beautiful.

            I can watch the sun creep over the Sierras and light up the Coast range in the morning as I head out to the ranch. And, I can watch the sun set over the same coast range and light up the Sierras with pink alpenglow.

            Yeah, the Valley is flat, but it’s flat and fabulous! We have wide open spaces that make up some of the best farmland on the planet.

I hope you all have a great week. Meanwhile, I'm gonna pick some cotton.

A Food Policy Catch-22

One week to cotton harvest. Lots of last minute details, but I think we'll make it.

In the meantime, here's a recent radio piece.

A Food Policy Catch-22

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright August 2013                                                                

                  An environmental group has done the math and calculated how much food we throw out and their numbers are astounding. They then translate that into how much water we “waste” and how much fertilizer, etc. we wouldn’t need to use if we just didn’t throw out so much food.

            Here’s the catch though- at the same time the enviros want us to throw out less food, food activists want us to eat more fresh food. Guess what? Fresh food spoils faster than processed food.

            If a farmer picks peaches when they are perfectly ripe they will get bruised between the farm and your store. Americans are notoriously picky shoppers. We don’t like bananas that have even a speck on them.

            I think the answer is fresher fruits and veggies and we accept a certain amount of loss. But, someone is going to have to explain that to our environmental friends.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

I am going to finish getting ready for harvest.