Another day, another rain

As stated in my last post, not much seeding is getting done thanks to the rain.  Since the last rain (last post), Brett covered the tillable acres on one quarter.  It was planted to Hard Red Spring Wheat (HRSW or just "wheat").  Now, early Sunday morning we got another 1.1 inches of rain.  Mark wonders if the rain gauge drain hole is just above the 1.1 inch mark since that is the amount of the last two rains!

The rain has allowed us the time needed to tend to the cattle.  The A.I.ing (Artificially Inseminating) is done for this season.  Christopher must have artificially bred nearly 100 head.  This process takes working with each female three times.  We do a lot of our breeding this way to help improve the genetics of our herd.  It is much cheaper than buying expensive bulls to do the same job, but is labor intensive compared to letting the bull just do his own business.  We hope to see many healthy AI calves next spring.

Spring seeding

We are at the half way mark with seeding/planting here.  Brett does the seeding.  He has all of our canola and barley done.  He started the wheat today.  He has also fertilized the corn ground.  We still have all of our wheat (& possibly flax) to seed.  Also, we have corn to plant.

Here the guys are filling the air seeder cart with barley seed (one is watching the grain cart and one is on the ground to shut things down when it is full).  The semi has the barley seed which is augered up into the cart (yellow thing).  This cart has two compartments - one for seed and one for dry fertilizer.  The white tank here has Anhydrous Ammonia (NH3).  NH3 is nitrogen (fertilizer) for the soil .  I take these tanks into town to have them filled many times a season!  The John Deere (green) tractor runs the jump auger.  We use the jump auger to move the grain from the semi trailer to the auger that fills the grain cart. 

Brett is turning on the NH3 (Anhydrous Ammonia) tank as he prepares to start seeding.

Here he goes!  The implement in front of the grain cart is the part that actually puts the seed and fertilizer into the ground.  There are many hoses and tubes used to move the seed & fert to their proper locations in the soil.  We have had our soil tested so we know how much dry fertilizer and NH3 to add to it so it should be able to produce the best crop yield possible.

The above photos were taken a few days ago.  I just have not had time to post until this evening.  Here is why I now have time:

This evening around 6 pm the rain started.  Around 6:30 it started to hail.  Here is a sampling of what we got.  There is a teaspoon there to help see the size of the hail.  This could wreck havoc with the crops that  have started to grow.  We don't think it will hurt any of our crops, but our neighbors have some really nice winter wheat that could be damaged.   We also received a little over 1 inch of rain in about 1 hour.  So, we will not be in the field for a few days.  However, our neighbors who live about 2 miles south of us only got .25 inch of rain.  So, we hope we can seed our land near their place quicker than the stuff here at home.

Linking to Farm Photo Friday

it's been awhile

It has been quite a while since I have posted.  Part of my trouble is that I think I should always have a photo to share, since that was my original reason to start a blog!  I have been bad about taking photos lately - lack of subject ideas, rainy weather, and so on. 

SO, you get an update on the ranch.  We still have a few cows left to calve.  No seeding has been done yet as the men are still working on that machine AND it is still too wet in the fields.  They tested the seeder today so can fine tune it now!  Today we started the process to A.I. (artificial insemination) some of our cattle. 

The forecast sounds rainy for the next few days so perhaps there will be some time for my guys to rest.

Along with 11 other ladies, I was in a "reader's theatre" production this past Sunday.  We performed, "The Other Twelve Disciples".  It was interesting to hear about some of the events in Jesus' life through the eyes of women.  Quite a nice little show, if I say so myself!

Well, til next time, enjoy your spring.