This spring has been an exercise in both patience and hope. Our farm is one of the fortunate ones wherein, we have gotten in about 95% of our spring crops planted. As of a few days ago, many farms to the North of us had not been able to get their crops in the ground due to the fields being too wet. At the bottom of this blog is a picture of standing water in one of our fields to show what I mean. This has not been a typical year for us with so much rain and it came every few days with very little drying time in between.
A video of spraying the wheat
Also another view of spraying from the back of the tractor cab. As of today (Monday 5/23/11) Farmer Joe will be back in the seat of the tractor cab spraying pre-emerigent on the newly seeded garbanzo beans as once they are out of the ground, we can't spray anything more on them, so we know the weeds are coming and will try to get them under control.
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| A view from the window of tractor cab |
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| Standing water in the field |
The field above with the standing water was slated for the last 160 acres of garbanzo beans to be seeded, but the field was too wet to do so. So we will not plant anything on it this spring and when that happens, the farming term is called "fallowing", which is simply no crop in the ground for this growing season, the only thing we will do to it is spray it for weeds to keep it weed free and then and most likely seed it back into winter wheat this fall. The crop rotation on our farm is 1/3 winter wheat, 1/3 spring wheat and 1/3 garbanzo beans.
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| Wet spots in the field leave tracks |
With all the rain we have had, the fields will have wet spots in them and above is a rut from the tractor as shown above.
We are thankful for what we did get in the ground and this is all part of the farming game, we play the best hand we can with the cards we are given at the time.
As always, email me if you have any questions at idahofarmwife@gmail.com. As a side note, it was interesting to get an email and request for pictures from a farmer/agronomist in Australia, as he wanted to use some of my pictures for a presentation he was giving. Amazing to think of the world wide reach we now have access to via the Internet. =)
Speaking of weeds, the home place has sprouted lots, so I am off to spend quality time with my backpack sprayer too! As always, hope you enjoy the blog and come back often. Remember to check out the rest of the pages on the blog for family life on the farm and the recipe section. Best Regards, Gayle
