Winter Movements

Sharon moved the chickens into the barn, and just like every year she wonders if she could have kept them outside in one of the fields a little longer.  Since it's 24 degrees this morning and the chicken water bowls are frozen, she probably made the right choice.  If there's one thing we've learned it's that if you wait until the cold weather forces you to move, some type of cold-weather emergency forces your hand and the stress on animal and farmer is high.  I've been keeping the cattle in the back 9ac which is all the way at the back of the farm.  The water lines don't reach back that far so we use the green pickup with a water tank in the bed to keep the cattle watered.  There must have been some water in the handle because this morning the handle was frozen open.  It should warm up soon enough this morning but it just means that the cattle chores get pushed back into the days activities.  Today also starts the beginning of the 2010 pheasant season which is really for us the beginning of the winter season.  If things around the farm haven't been completed by now, chances are that they won't get done before we freeze in.  We host quite a few hunters the opening week - getting to see old friends that we haven't seen since last year, and meeting new ones for the first time.  This year it looks like there will be about 20 people from out of state.  Its always a fun week that we look forward to every year.

Harvest Complete

Harvest went very quickly this year.  With the weather as dry as a bone for about a month it was the perfect weather for harvesting.  I don't think there's more than a couple of corn fields still unharvested in the county.  I helped a neighbor with harvest again this year, and it always amazes me how much corn and beans come out of the fields.  The other thing that amazes me is the amount of wildlife that pours out of the corn fields when it's harvested.  Deer, raccoon, opossum, pheasant and rabbits all pour out the end of the rows as the combine pushes through.  What makes it really exciting is the distances that the animals have to go when they run out of the corn to make it to cover.  As farmers have moved away from having cattle and toward specializing in row-crops, farmers have pulled the fences out of their fields which has allowed the farmer to plant right up to their property line.  This has dramatically reduced the amount of brush and grass along the field edges and can mean a half mile or more run, walk or fly to cover.  Not good for the animal breaking for cover with hawks and other predators (including the occasional hunter) waiting for their opportunity at a meal, but for those watching it can be an opportunity to get a great look at some animals that otherwise you may only get a glimpse of at night while driving like raccoon or opossum.  If you have the time and see a combine finishing up a field, grab a pair of binoculars, your kids if you have some, and stick around to watch those last rows of corn come out.  It's usually a fantastic wildlife viewing event worth waiting for.

Sighting

This morning we had a very exciting sighting.  Underneath of the gate leading out into the pasture there was something sitting there.  It was very dappled and camouflaged and very still, but we could tell that it was something interesting.  George had jumped out of the truck and gone into the house but Dan and I looked at it from a distance and wondered.  George was going out with the muzzleloader to deer hunt and we let him know that he should look at the "thing" when he went by.  Once he had gone past the "thing" I went out to look at it.  It was a quail!  As I walked up to the gate it ran off into the grass.  That is awesome!  Iowa DNR had done their annual road side survey in August this year, and for the first time in decades, NW Iowa had no quail sighted during the survey.  Normally quail are never this far north in Iowa because of our cropping, cover types, and weather, but in the next county south of us, they have been known to have quail.  And while we heard a quail in the spring and have every once in a while in previous springs, we never expect to see them in the fall.  I'm wondering if the cover crop with its abundance of seeds, borders and edges, and the way our farm is broken into edges from our many crop types and rotational grazing has made a habitat change that has held the birds here.  What ever the reason we're very excited to see a quail this time of year.

Allelopathy

Yesterday as the soybeans were coming out of our fields we discovered an issue.  The objective of planting soybeans this year was to "renovate" an old alfalfa stand.  The reason for renovating alfalfa is that as the years go by, alfalfa stands become weak and alfalfa plants die in the stand.  This leaves large gaps between plants which reduces the amount of crop produced per acre.  Also, as alfalfa plants get older the plant stems get thicker which creates hay that is stemmier rather than leafier.  With the nutrition being in the leaves, stemmy is not better.  But you may ask, why not just reseed?  The reason is that alfalfa use what is called allelopathy.   Allelopathy is a way for a species to control the distribution or concentration of its own or another species through the release of a chemical.  For whatever reason, alfalfa doesn't want itself or other alfalfa seeds to germinate near itself.  This prevents alfalfa from being reseeded and why alfalfa fields need to be renovated every four or five years as the stand wears out.  We tried to renovate the field by growing soybeans this year, giving the field time to lose its toxicity to alfalfa.  But if you look across our now harvested soybean fields, where there should be just dirt, there is a green hue of alfalfa.  So the questions are:  Do we spray something this fall to kill the alfalfa and hope that the allelopathic chemical is gone in the spring to allow germination, or do we plant something else like oats for hay and put alfalfa back in for the following year?  Maybe there is another that we haven't thought of yet.  Guess I'll also need to get more input on this.

Beans

If you're reading this and don't live near farm country you may not know that harvest is in full swing.  Here harvest is going strong and unlike last year, the weather is perfect.  With cool nights and occasional frost, the days are dry, and that makes for perfect harvest weather.  Most everyone around our parts are wrapping up beans (soy), and are starting to open up the corn fields.  I've started helping a neighbor harvest the different farms in the area that he farms.  My job is hauling, which means I drive the trucks and tractors to pull the grain to the elevator in town.  Not hard work but it can be nerve racking running a tractor through traffic.  Not that we have much traffic.  I remember when I lived in MD and helped harvest tobacco, pulling racks of tobacco with tractors through traffic.  Now that was serious traffic!  Our beans look really good and should be ready to harvest in a couple days.  Bean prices look great this year so I'm excited to get our beans to town and get them sold.