| May 02 - Rain & planted corn |
It is 69º F ( 20.5º C) currently at 2pm
on a very pretty but cloudy day. We finished planting corn just 24 hours ago with rain
drops falling as we foldes the planter up to leave the last field. The rain fell all
afternoon and evening in a gentle mist totalling just under .6 inch (
1.52 cm) of rain. This was almost as perfect as we could have hoped for in
order to activate the herbicides and give the corn a nice damp seed bed to take off
growing in. We tried two herbiced programs this year one utilizing a Bayer product called
Axiom as a pre-plant soil applied and also another program using a lower rate of Harness
herbicide pre-plant incorporated with a planned follow up application of Basis Gold to
finish up in a few weeks. We opted out of using Roundup ready corn this year due to the
unknow ability to sell the corn at harvest. Our 199 Terra Roundup Ready was some of the
best corn we have ever grown but as they say.. great yields are worthless if you can not
sell it. This year we switched to Pioneer Hi-bred planting equal amounts of 3394, 34B23,
22J24, and 33Y18 varieties giving us range in the 108-112CRM in maturity range for this
part of Northwest Ohio. click the photos to see larger images |
| May 04 - New Tree |
It is quite a bit warmer today about 77º F ( 25º C)
currently at 1pm. I took  advantage of a break
in drilling soybeans to plant a new Ascension-Bradford Pear tree alongside my flowering
crabapple trees just outside the barn office today. Although we have an abundance of nice
native fir and spruce around the main buildings, I enjoy the flowering deciduous trees
when they are in their full color both in Spring and Fall. We are hoping to get into the fields again by tomorrow if not yet this evening and work to finish the soybeans by next week if possible. The first field of corn is just barely breaking through the ground right now and the stand looks quite good so far. I have been scouting the Alfalfa fields a little more than normal the past few days to keep an eye out for weevil that have been reported in other fields in the county. So far I have not seen any major damage or numbers in mine.. click the photos to see larger images |
| May 09 - Finished Beans |
| A very breezy past few days and I am sure happy for that. It has been in
the mid to upper 80ºs F ( 29-32º C) since the
weekend and the Allis Chalmers 7045 tractor which I have been using has a non-functional
air conditioner making it very warm to say the least. We finished the soybeans last night
about 10pm here and now will concentrate on washing and putting away the planting
equipment and working the cattle and rotating pastures as we prepare for hay season. I
plan to spread some left over 6-15-40 fertilizer on the top show lot later this afternoon
to give it a boost as we clean out our fertilizer wagon. Our last field of corn is now rowable and dad scouted the first soybean fields today noticing that they too were popping through the ground and very visible. We have approx 245 acres ( 99 hectare) of corn and 360 acres ( 146 hectare) of soybeans planted this year. I have the yearling bulls playing on the exercise lot today and will post some new photographs of them on both their sale pages as well as the farm photo page. Take a peek there as I will be not only be adding more photos but perhaps links to a few more photo pages as well in the coming week. |
| May 12 - Bull Photos |
It is warm and very very muggy today with temperature right about
90º F ( 33º C) and feeling like it could rain at any
minute. Yesterday was a busy day as we opened the swimming pool for the Summer by removing
the Winter cover, added about 2,000 gallons of water and
made sure all the pumping systems were in order, weaned the entire group of Fall calves,
seperated the herd into two pasture groups and then photographed the yearling herd bulls
for use on their respective web pages here. It was a very nice breezy day for it and was definitely more
comfortable than today has turned out. I have posted all the photos of the bulls on the
web site now. Click the Sidey Angus Sale Bull Photo
catalog to take a peek at the boys.Today Glenn & I walked the three North pastures to check the growth and make sure the electric tape fence and step-in poly posts were all in order before turning the bulk of the herd out to the first rotation area. I have never intentionally used a clean up bull since I began A.I. in the herd back in the late 1970's but today we turned out our VDAR Nordic Rito 510J herd sire to work the herd in the Northwest pasture. He is a full blood brother to both the famous VDAR Beauty 228 and VDAR Northern Exposure as well as our VDAR Nordic Star 512J and really is as nice a bull as I could buy semen on so I feel very confidant about using him in the herd. click his photo to see a larger image |
| May 15 - Baling Hay |
It has been a definite change in temperature the past few days with lows
down in the lower 40º F range
( 5º C) I scouted my Alfalfa field last week and noticed
weevil taking its toll but also noticed that the growth was quite strong for this early in
the season and decided to mow the 20 acre field North West of the main pasture down for
harvest rather than spray for insect control. Dad began turning the hay this morning with
the hay rake and we intend to begin rolling round bales this afternoon. While it has been
cool temperature wise, it also has been very breezy with little humidity and that seems to
have cured the hay out quite well. click the photo to see a
larger image |
| May 19 - Storms & new photos |
Wind & lightning were the two words for last night here! We had a
tremendous electrical  storm pass through at
11:30pm last night that blew out my IsoTel surge protector, TrippLite UPS, computer modem,
several phone lines and the fence chargers at the barn. The wind ripped the main farm
billboard sign in the top lot from between the large support posts like it was cardboard.
Temperatures fell almost 30 degrees and have stayed just below 50º F (
10º C) for most of the day today. All told we ended up with 1.8
inches ( 4.57 cm) of rain with the rain coming in bursts
throughout the night. click the photo to see a larger imageI updated the farm & cattle photo pages today. I decided to go ahead and place a total new page and will keep adding more pages as I build up a photo inventory of the farm. Take a look now at Farm & Cattle Photo Page I will keep them updated as well as add a main link to the home page too. |
| May 24 - rotated pastures- new fence |
We moved the main herd to the Central paddock in the North pasture today
to try and keep up with the
alfalfa and clover that is coming into bloom there. I believe I had about 4-5 more days in
the West side paddock but that just means it will be in shape for their return much
quicker with this move. The grass and legumes have been phenomenal this year with
the nice rains we have had. I took a photo of our Wye bred 2 year old over at our North
farm today and he is looking awesome out with Glenn's herd.
click the photo to see a larger imageGlenn, Dad & I finished repairing the board fences along the barns and show lots today. The old boards had really began to deteriorate from age and weather and we ended up replacing over twenty 2" x 6" x10' boards ( 2.54cm x 15.24cm x 3 meters) . The treated boards are still really wet and will have to hang for a good while before we can begin to prime and paint them but they are definitely better looking. |
| May 29 - Rain and growing corn |
We have had two very nice rains of .45 inches ( 1.14 cm)
of rain each since Friday.  We had started to apply 28% nitrogen to the corn on Wednesday and it has
gone in really well.. We now have over 160 acres done and the stand looks fantastic.
Temperatures have fell and it is staying right at 50º F ( 10º C)
for most of the day today. With the recent moisture I think a little warm spell will shoot
the corn into the clouds. click the photo to see a larger image |
