July Chickens Day 2

Day one went awesome! The process went so smooth that we were amazed ourselves. The only issue we had was that the scalder flame blew out from the wind shortly after I lit the scalder. I knew I had a problem when I smelled the LP as I crossed the lane.  It really didn't set us back, we just heated water on the stove and on another outside burner, then combined it into the sclading pot and we were ready to go.  Hopefully we run as smoothly today.

July Chicken Days

Today and tomorrow we process the July batch of chickens. We setup for processing yesterday and we're trying a couple new additions to our processing.  We're always looking for ways to make the process better.

.5 GPH Emitters

Today we added additional emitters to the orchard waterline for each tree. Each of the emitters puts out .5 gal of water per hour. Based on putting an inch of water on the roots of each tree based on the number of trees per acre etc we determined that a single .5 gal emitter won't come close to putting out enough water if we don't get any rain. So we added the emitters. It was the perfect job for the day. With the outside temperature at about 90F, the water that sprayed out of the irrigation line from punching holes to push the emitters into was a nice way to keep cool. We finished the south side of the orchard. Tomorrow we'll finish up the north side.

Cedar Apple Rust (CAR)

I was out scouting the orchard today and noticed a few things of note.  A lot of the trees have settled into the soil and have pulled their rubber bands free from their trunks.  Another is that the grass seed is sprouting, but it is very, very thin. I'm sure we'll be over seeding this fall. A couple of the apples that we left on a few trees are maturing. The apples are mainly on the Wealthy apple trees.

Cedar Apple Rust (CAR)

And finally I noticed that several varieties of trees have cedar apple rust (CAR) which is a fungal disease produced by juniper trees, also known as red cedars in IA.

Wealthy Apple

We'll definitely have to keep an eye on the CAR to see if it is a yearly problem or just one that is an every once in a while thing.  My neighbor has a very nice grove of cedars a couple miles from the orchard, and since the spores can travel 2 - 5 miles, it may be something that we just have to manage.

Cutting Hay Crop 2013

We cut hay a couple of weeks ago and it was really nice stuff.  We only cut enough to get a rack or two of small squares up before the rain, and then hoped for dry weather to be able to take a big cutting and get the hay crop in for the year. This week NOAA said we would have a long stretch of dry weather so we cut a lot of hay. The orchard/alfalfa/clover mix looks great and based on the height and volume while cutting, it has to be 2-3 tons to the acre. Cutting it was slow going with the cutter-conditioner but I guess that's the price I'll gladly pay for such a bumper crop of hay. Today we'll spread the hay out to get rid of the wet spots, and if we're lucky we'll rake it up tomorrow and bale.

Grass Hay

Tom with Orchard/Alfalfa/Clover Mix

Zestar Issue

I talked with the nursery and they said that they thought the dieback is from how they are stored after were dug. They suggested that I cut the central stem back to where there is no dieback. I cut the trees back yesterday and it was heartbreaking. What were 6' trees are now a 3 foot something tree. In addition I was told to either create a new central leader, or to cut all of the side branches back below the cutback central leader so that the central leader is still dominant. For those trees that were tall enough and had short enough limbs I just trimmed back the side branches, but there were several that had very vigorous upright limbs which allowed me to choose one to be the replacement leader. The nursery said that in a couple of years I'll never know the difference.  I hope so, because when I walked the orchard today, the little trees mixed in with the tall ones really stand out.

Zestar Issue

I was walking through the orchard the other day looking at the trees and clipping off any branches that are broken.  As I walked through the Zestar trees I noticed a tree that was dead from the very top of the leader to about a foot down. The leaves and any flowers and blossoms were dead. As I kept going through the trees I noticed more trees here and there with the same condition. I didn't get a good count but I'd say that I have at least 10 trees have the problem. It almost looks like fire blight without the ooze.   I contacted the ISU extension service and they think it is winter injury or something with the roots from the nursery.  I guess I'll call the nursery on Monday and see what they think.