Spring finally Sprung! (and Week 18: Andy)

I am happy to report that we finally have spring.  We thought we might have slept through it!  We had about 5 good days in the field and boy were we busy!  Mark got all of our peas planted.  This is our first year of raising field peas.  We have about 200 acres of them. 

Yellow Field Pea Seed

After we finished the peas, we started planting canola.  Mark & Brett have taken turns running the air seeder.  There is plenty else to do.  Brett has a sprayer that needs to be fixed and gotten ready so he has spent quite a bit of time doing that.  I shared a little about seeding last year.

Once we started planting canola, I got more involved in the spring planting season.  It is my job to pull Anhydrous Ammonia (NH3) tanks to town to get them filled and return them to the field.  NH3 is used to add nitrogen to the soil. 

Andy waiting for the NH3 tank to be filled.

Christopher just finished breeding about 50 heifers using Artificial Insemination (AI).  He goes through about a three step process to get them all to cycle (come in heat) at the same time.  I helped him get the cattle in to work them but he had to do the inseminating.  I understand he wants to breed some of the cows too.  I don't think I've ever written about this so I should follow him around with a camera next time.  He will not like that! We artificially breed the heifers (female cows who have never had a calf) to better control the birth weight of their calves.  We AI our registered (purebred) Polled Hereford cows to help improve the genetics in our herd.

Our seeding came to a halt on Saturday due to fog and mist.  By Sunday morning we had a full fledged rain.  Since about 10:30 Sunday morning until this afternoon (Monday) we have had nearly three inches of rain.  It has been a beautiful rain for our pasture grasses.  We must now be patient for the soil to dry so we can finish seeding.