Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Yesterday, as I was planting the soybeans at the Freddie farm, I occasionally checked the weather radar on my phone. It looked pretty favorable…until about 7pm. It was fortunate that I was nearing the completion of the field, our largest one at 321 acres… and farthest from home base. I began the planting there at about 11 am, and there was no stopping for anything all day, except for a few times to dig into the newly-planted rows to observe the depth of the seed. I even had lunch on-the-go. When I finished planting the last pass, the clock ticked at 8:15 pm. The sky was darkening in the west. I folded the planter and made my way towards home up the narrow Knox County roads. Before making it to Hwy 241 southeast of Wheatland, the raindrops began to fall. Soon the wind picked up and the rain was pounding. This rain was so heavy, I hoped it would not last very long. As I turned north onto Robinson Road from US 50, I could see some clearing skies… the setting sun’s eerie-looking orange beams were poking through the clouds. By the time I parked near the farm shop, the rain was only sprinkles. I felt relief in two ways: the rain was not the multi-incher of a couple weeks ago, and the largest and farthest field of soybeans is finished– with only minutes to spare.
Today we will check on the rainfall amount and see how that impacts our planting plans. We are predicted to have a couple good, warm days… and rain again on Friday. I hope I can get to those last two fields at Nellie and Grubb before then. I am also pretty sure there will be some re-planting at Huey and Steimel, as well as the areas where Shepard Construction will be installing surface drains at Burke.
Well, yesterday’s sunny and windy day provided on opportunity to make another step of progress with planting. I am so pleased with new and larger soybean planter. It has proven valuable in the tiny windows of opportunity the weather has allowed for planting this spring. And that big, 350-bushel seed cart was great for yesterday… no refills needed all day!
The guage reads .4″ (11mm) from last night’s rain. And the radar shows rain to the west…
