Prust Farm update

Art called this evening asking how things were going this year?  My best answer is slow. Fields are not drying like usual.  Normally you know from experience which fields will dry first and which will be wetter.  The driest fields on the farm right now are the 2 we normally plant last! 

I've been working on a secure site for the farm, but it just does not work to suit me. So I'll post a few photos and some details here for now

The CRP along the highway was signed in the new program last year. 

Part of the requirements are we soil test, burn or mow, then spray and kill all existing vegetation, fertilize if needed, and reseed.  I took soil tests earlier this Spring.  Sure was glad I had the Mule because there was water standing on about half of it on the side of a hill!

 

In order to increase the "points" I agreed to plant 2 acres in "pollinators".  That's a $2 word for wildflowers.  I guess I should have looked a little longer at what they cost. I have a box setting under the desk about 14x14x16 with 6.5 pounds of wildflower seeds in it ... $1100 worth of wildflower seeds. I guess it will be pretty.  Here is a copy of the tag on the sack showing what is in it:

The pollinators are to be planted in a 109 foot wide strip next to the highway.

They need planted by June 15.  The rest of the reseeding needs done before May 15 or late summer. It will be late summer now.  I mowed the part along the highway this week.  I got the mowing tractor stuck on the top of the hill.  Not the bottom, the top. At least it was away from the highway so it wasn't so visible.  Aman fertilized it Thursday afternoon, and I proceeded to spray the 109 foot wide strip with glyphosate. If you look closely at the photo above you will see tire tracks halfway up the hill where I spun out pulling the sprayer.

We have some corn planted.  Lenore would not have liked it.  We no-tilled the field east of the house, and minimum tilled the field north of the house.  That means we worked it once last fall and no-tilled it this Spring.   No, she would not have liked how this looks

 

But it protects the soil better and (we hope) helps conserve moisture better.  The corn is up and looking pretty good.

North of the house was planted a week later, so it isn't quite a far along.  I was able to work the north field on the Bradbury Place today

It is a little wetter than I like to work ground, but drier than a lot of fields I see being planted around here.  A neighbor and I discussed that yesterday.   He said of it keep raining these mudded in fields will be OK, but if it quits they will be in trouble.  I'm trying to be patient and timely. With the Tilloll you can go from green to ready too plant quickly

If it doesn't rain Saturday night we should be dry enough to plant it Sunday afternoon or Monday morning.  I tried the east 80 and the south field on Bradbury, but they just aren't dry enough.  The knob on the west 80 is fairly dry, but the rest of the field around it is very wet.  I also go the field across from the Silver Moon worked Saturday

Again, a surprise.  Last year we couldn't even drive across the northwest side until August.  I worked up all but one small piece.  I even worked up the field behind Atwood's.  The ditch work we had done a couple years ago helped immensely. 

So the quick summary is we have about 100 acres of corn planted, about 140 to go, and no beans planted.  If the rains miss us this week we should get most of that planted by the end of the week.