Tuesday, July 9, 2013…late morning

We began to plant double-crop soybeans (DCB) on Sunday afternoon.  The VanVleet farm seemed okay, the straw had been baled days ago, and the soil was sufficiently dry to let us get going.   No, it was not perfect, but okay.  From there, I went back to the Burke farm, and replanted 15+ acres there that was damaged in the most recent flood event.  After that, the Downen farm was next.  By the time that farm was planted, it was quite dark, and I stopped for the night, leaving the machine at the Huey farm.  Monday morning, I returned to plant at the Huey Hill L field, and after a few rounds, a flat tire stopped the progress.  A quick call to Best One Tire in Vincennes, and their service man had me going in a couple hours.

I got finished in early afternoon on the DCB at Huey (at least those acres that have the straw baled), and from there went down to the Flat R field to do some replanting (3rd time!).  I put in 35 acres of replanting there.  Then, I moved to the Cox farm and replanted 18 acres in the low ground there.  The beans had survived every big rain event so far this year, but not the last one.  From there, I moved across Kessinger Ditch to our Pond farm and replanted 17 acres there.

We have to wait for our neighbor to bale more straw at Huey and Crook.  It has been a real challenge for them, too, with the frequent rains.  The wet conditions has diminished the quality of the straw, and they have tried to using a rake, a tedder, and/or a bush-hog to get it dry enough to roll it up.  They are hopeful they can get Huey rolled up today…. and that would be good!

This morning, I checked on the newly-planted DCB at VanVleet, and they are sprouted, and will soon be out of the ground!  On the same trip, I found some soybean replanting that is needed at the Nellie, Grubb, and Freddie farms; however, there is still flood water on those fields that will make me wait days before replanting.  I think the 20th will be the cut-off date.

I’ll plant Roberson in the afternoon today, even though there will be some areas that are muddy, and some areas that will plant okay.  It sure seems ‘late’ to be planting and replanting…but I have received encouragement from Gary Holscher after last night’s school board meeting.  He assures me that he will replant until July 31!

There is a LOT of post-harvest cleaning going on this week.  And we will be taking a bit extra measures to be mowed and cleaned up because of the Friday evening visit of the Indiana Ag Leadership group.