Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Just after lunch, a string of storms came through and left us with .43″ (11 mm) of rain. It is a pretty happy event, and we have some more predicted again in the evening.  We were getting pretty dry, and we have been quite concerned about the soybeans planted on June 6 & 7.  The emergence was spotty, with some of the seed just lying in the dried-out soil.  We are hopeful this rain, if it occurred in those fields like it did here at the main farm, will allow those fields to make an adequate stand of soybeans.  We will inspect the Huey and Freddie farm locations tomorrow morning to determine if/how much replanting will be required.

It has been amazing that we could be this dried-out so quickly.  It seemed like the months of April and May were unusually wet, but in reality our total YTD rainfall is over 5 inches below average.  We guess that it only seemed like a wetter spring, because the rain events were pretty frequent.

Today’s rainfall will help every growing crop it touches.  Corn is approaching that period of time when its growth is quite rapid.  This rain will make that even more spectacular.

It appears that the activity of the ‘lightning bugs’ has reached its peak.  Every evening, just before 10pm, there is a bazillion of the little flashing green lights floating above the yard the nearby soybean fields.  The light show each night is incredible… really something to behold.

So, for this afternoon, we are pretty happy and grateful farmers!