It’s a sunny Friday morning, but rain is predicted for the afternoon.  The fields remain soft and wet, and there are small areas in creek bottomland fields that have water standing on them.  Yes, there may be some replanting of soybeans to do, but it’s nowhere near the amount of replanting of 2013…at least not yet!

The wheat is fully headed out, and is close to the time when a fungicide must be applied to stop ‘head scab’.   They tell us that the window of opportunity for optimum application effectiveness is about 36 hours long.  With the field conditions as they are, it may require us to hire a crop duster to fly on this crop protectant.  We will likely have to make that decision today.

We still wait for Shepard Construction to complete the work on the Lett and Watjen farm locations.  The weather has not been favorable for their work, either.  It is important to complete the soil conservation structures ahead of the planting of the corn.  Yes, this should have been completed months ago, but we had to wait for the NRCS and their approvals and design team to work out their details.   Next week’s forecast looks a lot better with many dry days and 80+ temperatures.

Yes, it feels a little like our progress is being held back by the weather, but then again, we are ahead of the progress we were able to make just a year ago.  One thing we’ve learned over our decades of farming experience:  each year is different, with new challenges and opportunities!

Have a good weekend.