October 19, 2012
With temperatures in the 40s, the skies are gray and a drizzly rain is coming down. It’s one of those days that makes me crave chili soup.
Philip and John cleaned out bin #4 (again) today. We are trying to move these drought-damaged soybeans out of our storage as soon as possible.
Some harvest remains to be done– the double-crop soybeans (DCB). We have 400 acres of those, and it should take us 2 really big days or 3 easy days to get them cut and brought in. But now it looks like they won’t be ready until sometime in November. The cooler days are slowing down the maturing process.
We made our 2013 selections of DeKalb/Asgrow seeds yesterday. I always try to simplify the number of soybean varieties I choose, preferring to narrow the choice to 2 or 3 varieties, but typically, I end up with 5 to 7 varieties, as I choose small quantities of newer varieties to ‘test’ in our real-world situation. Every variety requires a planting prescription to be written,–for each field– and the more varieties, the more cumbersome is the preparation of those critical digital plans. Ross has selected two DeKalb corn hybrids. Our choices will expand next week as we meet with David Flint, our Pioneer seed dealer. But the majority of the seed we use is from DeKalb and Asgrow, brand names of the Monsanto company.
Will be watching the Cardinals’ baseball game tonight. I’m hopeful that they will win the NLCS, and move on to the World Series. It’ll be a chilly night for baseball in St. Louis. But it’ll be comfortable in my La Z Boy! I’m sure there are folks around America who are a little tired of seeing the Cardinals in post-season play, but for us long-time fans, it’s especially sweet! My mom was a big fan of the Cardinals, and Stan the Man Musial was her favorite. As a little kid, I remember riding with her as she drove a truck at summer and fall harvest time. She carried a little transistor radio with her (the little farm trucks had no radio) to listen to Jack Buck and Harry Carey report the games. Oh, the memories!
I got to see granddaughter Ella yesterday, and hold her a little bit during our lunch time. Is it possible that she just gets sweeter?
Good weekend to all of you.
