You know, part of me remembers the age old debate about what's worse, "drought or flood"?
I'll freely admit that I have never EVER had a flood out. If we flood out there had better be an ark somewhere, because it's all over! That said, I sure respect that bloody difficulties, mental stress, machine stress, banker stress that comes along with it. Im not going to sit here and say that drought is worse than flood, because I've never truly seen the opposite, but damn... If you honestly think drought is better than flood, it's becoming more and more apparent to me that you just haven't been in a serious enough one.
Im smashing knives to pieces, blowing guards off, and running untold numbers of rocks through our machines this year. Brand new internals on one of them last fall after harvest... I dont even want to look. I get to go spray nearly every acre with a $12+ concoction that I can hopefully dream up to kill the shit that is trying to starve me out of what little moisture remains for next year.
I had made my peace with 10 bushel cereal crops, but I see that's going to be the high water mark. First field went 11, I was pumped. Next went 7, looks like the remainder is going to be under 5.
You'd think you could pull off all your crop as a #1 in a drought? yea, not going to happen. Those first two fields of cereals are likely a poor 2 on account of weight. The remainder? Garbage... High green count that is only going to continue to get higher unless I go out and attempt to dessicate it? Throw more money at a 4 or 5 bushel crop? I think I'll take my #4, or #5 and try to keep it from spoiling... The sample is full of ergot, green kernels, straw, and cracks because I can't keep the rotor loaded up, russian thistle, kochia, late green wild oats. What a friggin mess. Should have been cow chow, but you can't cut it to bale it because there's literally nothing there to bale! You're just clipping the heads at the same time as you're scooping rocks!
Sorry about the rant. I hate this crop! I just want it to be winter already so we can put this friggin year behind us. But then the bills will start to pile up, and there's not a surplus of other jobs to be had... Certainly not any that stand a chance at paying some of the farm bills, let alone the input bills for next year!
I'll freely admit that I have never EVER had a flood out. If we flood out there had better be an ark somewhere, because it's all over! That said, I sure respect that bloody difficulties, mental stress, machine stress, banker stress that comes along with it. Im not going to sit here and say that drought is worse than flood, because I've never truly seen the opposite, but damn... If you honestly think drought is better than flood, it's becoming more and more apparent to me that you just haven't been in a serious enough one.
Im smashing knives to pieces, blowing guards off, and running untold numbers of rocks through our machines this year. Brand new internals on one of them last fall after harvest... I dont even want to look. I get to go spray nearly every acre with a $12+ concoction that I can hopefully dream up to kill the shit that is trying to starve me out of what little moisture remains for next year.
I had made my peace with 10 bushel cereal crops, but I see that's going to be the high water mark. First field went 11, I was pumped. Next went 7, looks like the remainder is going to be under 5.
You'd think you could pull off all your crop as a #1 in a drought? yea, not going to happen. Those first two fields of cereals are likely a poor 2 on account of weight. The remainder? Garbage... High green count that is only going to continue to get higher unless I go out and attempt to dessicate it? Throw more money at a 4 or 5 bushel crop? I think I'll take my #4, or #5 and try to keep it from spoiling... The sample is full of ergot, green kernels, straw, and cracks because I can't keep the rotor loaded up, russian thistle, kochia, late green wild oats. What a friggin mess. Should have been cow chow, but you can't cut it to bale it because there's literally nothing there to bale! You're just clipping the heads at the same time as you're scooping rocks!
Sorry about the rant. I hate this crop! I just want it to be winter already so we can put this friggin year behind us. But then the bills will start to pile up, and there's not a surplus of other jobs to be had... Certainly not any that stand a chance at paying some of the farm bills, let alone the input bills for next year!
Comment