Saturday, May 13, 2023

For you who were fans of the old radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, you recall how Garrison Keillor started each of his monologues about his hometown.  “It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon”.  Well, it’s been a sort of quiet week at Carnahan & Sons, too.

With planting wrapping up on May 4th, we have spent  hours this week inspecting fields to monitor the emergence and progress of the newly-planted crops.   As of today, just about every field has emerged, the corn is out and growing, and the soybeans are just about all up, too.  A nice little rain over the weekend would be helpful, but the chances are about 50-50 until Monday.

The most important task of the week was that John sprayed the final herbicide and insecticide treatment on the wheat crop.   For the last field, we got a call from our Nutrien plant, and they asked if they could spray it for us.  They had acquired a demonstrator sprayer from the new local Fendt equipment dealer, and they needed a place to try it out.  Sure, we said.  It took them a while to learn how to use it, but they got that last field finished.  Now, we will have 4-5 weeks to wait until the wheat is ready to harvest!  As an aside to that, we will be having some work done on the JD S780 combine on Monday.  A tech from Alliance Tractor will be here to replace bevel gears and bearings on the shoe augers under the concave.

This is the Fendt sprayer that Nutrien was demonstrating.

Brandon got the Steiger Rowtrac 420 washed up.

The STX 420 looks like new. This is used here to pull the corn planter and the grain cart.

The property taxes were due on Wednesday.  I no longer go to the courthouse and stand in line at the County Treasurer’s office.  I simply mail them in with a SASE.  I must make certain they are postmarked on the 10th, so that no 10% late fee accrues.  The second installment will be due November 10.  May and November 1oth… important dates for property taxes in Indiana.

I took a few days and used the bush-hog on the roadsides.  I use the JD 6145R tractor and a JD R15 ‘rotary cutter’ (that’s what JD calls a bush hog).   With its IVT transmission, this little tractor is a pleasure to operate.   I mowed along each of the county and state highway roadsides.   I will not mow waterways or riparian strips along ditches until after July 1.  Those that are enrolled in CRP are restricted to mowing after that date.  Also, I will not mow along US 50 until mid-July, hoping that the mowing there will hold until early September and a final mowing then.  I like doing that task, and I really like the ‘after’ look.

Mowing along the road at the Dunn farm. I can’t reach all the way up the steep bank, but it still looks much better when it’s mowed.

Here at the Leser farm, I’m trying to establish a waterway along the road. Looks like it got a pretty good start over the winter. I planted rye with the drill last fall, and sprinkled fescue among it. The fescue will take over this summer.

John estimates that he will begin the first over-the-top spraying pass on soybeans next week.  It has been over a month since the burndown was applied, and some rhizome johnsongrass is beginning to show.  That will keep him quite busy for several days.

Our wheat consultant, Landon Taylor, will come again next week to evaluate each wheat field.  He will help us determine which locations will be more likely to produce the best yield of quality soft red winter wheat.  Although the wheat crop had a more difficult start last fall, it seems to have improved through the spring, and we are hopeful for a good yield.  Maybe not as high as last summer, but we are praying for a good result.

Remember Mothers’ Day tomorrow.  Although my mom, Ruth Carnahan, passed to her eternal, heavenly home 20 years ago, her memory shines with us each day.  She was a treasure.

I keep mom’s picture on my desk and I see it just about every day. Memories of her are nothing but sweet.

Have a happy weekend!