Monday, March 17, 2025

Yes, we know it’s St. Patrick’s Day, but we do no special celebrating of that day here. And, yes, we know that 6 generations ago, the first Carnahan in SWIN came here from Ireland.  And since 1825, there have been farmers here bearing the family name.  Well, not exactly… When William arrived here in 1825, his name was “Carnaghan”, but it was “american-ized” by dropping the “g” from the spelling.

This day started out at 25ºF (-4C), but it is a lovely March afternoon, with clear blue skies and 53ºF (12C).  It has been a busy day.  We met with Greg Anthis, our local Nutrien adviser and a Dynagro wheat specialist, James Gullum, to examine the progress of our wheat crop.  We appreciated that he would come from central Illinois to our farm to give us the benefit of his expertise.  We walked through 4 fields in various locations, and evaluated the quality of the growth.  He was enthusiastic about one particular field here at the home farm.  So, we are cautiouisly hopeful about how productive the wheat crop could be.   But we also recall how dad would say, “Don’t start writing checks on it just yet.”

Greg, Brandon, and James evaluated the wheat crop today.

By digging, it up, the health of the root system can be determined

James counts the ’tillers’ and checks for any indication of disease.

Looks pretty good

There was a coating of frost on the wheat early this morning, and it took only until about 9am to burn off

This was how the wheat looked a few days ago when the temperature was at 80ºF!

Brandon D has been working today cleaning out grain bins.  It’s not the most glamourous task here, but one that must be done.  It’s down to the final bin, and they could knock that out tomorrow, and get the last of the corn up in the overhead load-out bins.

It’s important to wear a mask when working to sweep out a grain bin. The little auger does the most of the work, but still a scoop shovel and a broom are required.

I think most of the preparations of the machines are now complete to be ready for #plant25.  The last machine to come out of storage will be the soybean drill and cart.  Once we hook those together, the setup will be parked outside until summer when the planting and/or replanting are done.

Tomorrow is predicted to be over 70ºF again, but rain coming on Wednesday.  We’ll see, won’t we.

Have a great week.