Ben Klick, Stark County
We finally got enough dry weather to get the straw wrapped up and we got some manure hauled to make things look and smell better around here. We got an inch of rain over the weekend ? seven-tenths earlier today and three-tenths last night.
The first two weeks of July we had 7.5 inches and since then we have probably had about 2 inches, so it has been plenty wet. This last inch, though, was nice and slow. It all soaked in.
We are getting to the point where our soybeans all need sprayed but it has been so wet we haven?t gotten to do it. If we don?t get in soon we?ll have spots that will be a mess. We have a lot of Japanese beetles. The beans planted May 22 are all flowering and it is a nice stand.
The corn all looks good for what it has been through and I think it will be a better crop than last year. We have had plenty of heat units so far and plenty of moisture. Most of it is in R1, some is in VT still and some is in V10. This week we?ll be in 100% full tassel but some of the later stuff is not there yet.
Some of the dairy guys were hauling manure making first cutting when we were planting corn and beans and they didn?t plant most of their corn until the first week of June. They have some of the nicest corn around. They missed out on all of the cold, wet weather. That corn took off.
We have calves we are starting on feed and we moved them yesterday and our path into the pasture is nothing but a mud hole and where they tramp around the feed bunk and the hay ring is pretty muddy. I?ll take a little wetness in the pasture, though, instead of dry weather and using up all of my hay.
We should be halfway through our second cutting hay by now and we are just getting started. Last week we were baling straw when we should have been making hay. We have a good horse market up here and I don?t know if this will make good horse hay. When it finally dries out we don?t hardly know which direction to go.
For the rest of this week?s reports, click here.
