Wednesday, October 18, 2017

The fields that we planted to wheat are all up and growing now.  Sure looks nice as it turns a soft green.  We started planting wheat on September 25, and finished on October 2.  Even though we no longer have temperatures in the 80s, we are still experiencing high 70s, and no frost yet!

The growing wheat at the Ross farm.

The little wheat sprouts look somewhat fragile up close, but they’re pretty hardy.

Our cover crop strategy is to plant strips of a grassy crop (oats, this year) in the valleys of our hilly fields.  We believe this to have helped greatly to reduce water erosion in these fields.  We selected oats this year as an experiment because the oats will be terminated by the winter’s freeze, but have enough growth (hopefully) to do the protection.

You can see the strips of oats growing in these valleys, protecting them for the winter.

The clean-up of equipment continues, as well as beaucoup office work to plan for the year-end.

The JD S680 takes its turn on the wash pad.  It’s easier to wash because they first cleaned it with compressed air.

The cover crop drill is finished and ready to be washed and stored.

The little JD 1560 drill and MX 290 tractor wait for their turn on the wash pad.

Have a great rest of your week.