Wheat Watch VI

The wheat is now gold and is almost ready to harvest.

Here is the head of some wheat that I pulled from a dry land field:

One way to test to see if the wheat is ready to harvest is to put a wheat kernel in your mouth and bite down. If the kernel is hard and crunchy than the wheat is ready and it's time to make some money.

We should start to harvest our wheat this Wednesday, weather permitting, and things are going to get a little crazy.  I'm probably not going to have time to write, but I'll try to take pictures of the wheat harvest and get them posted.

-Farmer Ryan

Toolbox

I have a little Dodge Dakota at home that I've driven for the last 10 years.  When I first thought about coming out here I figured I would use my pickup around the farm.  After being here for over 2 months I've realized that I have, what the farm folks would call, a city pickup.  The difference between a "city pickup" and a farm pickup is kind of like the difference between a house cat and a farm cat.  I can tell you a house cat wouldn't last long out here.  Lucky for me my father-in-law has a pickup for me to use and all I need to do is add a toolbox.  So restoring an old toolbox was my first project.  As you can see it started off in pretty bad shape:

 

I think it took me about a day but I stripped the entire toolbox:

 After I stripped the toolbox I put some primer on:

After I primed it, painted it and then I sanded it down:

Here is the toolbox all finished and mounted on my pickup:

I didn't just work on the outside of the toolbox.  I created a a couple of trays to hold my tools:

Here is a picture of the tray inside the toolbox:

My father-in-law has an organizational system that he keeps all his standard sockets and wrenches on the drivers side and all the metric on the passenger side.  So I've stole borrowed some of his ideas for my toolbox.

-Paint stripper/primerer (yes I just made that up)/sander/painter/welder Ryan

P. S. -  Since I put the toolbox on my pick up a week ago I have already dented and scratched it twice... So much for all that work...

Corn Cam

We finished planting all the irrigated corn about two weeks ago and I've been back to look at the progress of our corn.  The below picture was taken on May 14th:

The corn in the above picture has reached the V1 stage of corn development.  The V1 stage is when the first leaf sprouts out of the top of the corn shoot.  As the new leaves sprout out of the top of the plant the older leaves create "collars".  You can see what a collar looks like in the below diagram:

I just took some more pictures in approximately the same spot that I took the picture from the 14th.  These corn plants have sprouted a few more leaves and are in the V3-V4 stages.  Basically, the "V" stage just means how many leaves are on the corn plant.

Up Close:

If you would like to see all the stages of corn growth you can visit this page. I'm planning on getting as many pictures of the stages of corn growth as we go through the growing season.

-Farmer Ryan

Wheat Watch V

We officially have wheat kernels in our wheat!  I have circled in the below picture where you can actually see the kernels of wheat that have grown inside the head of the wheat plant.

The problem we are facing now is that we are seriously low on moisture.  Since the wheat is in the process of creating kernels it needs moisture to fill out the head as much as possible.   In Brent's words "If we don't get rain soon, it's going to start affecting the factory".  You can see in the below picture that the bottom of the wheat plants are starting to burn up and in general this wheat just doesn't look very happy.

 

You can see the difference that moisture makes in the below picture.  All the dry land wheat outside of the irrigation pivot is burning up.  All the wheat under irrigation is thriving.

-Farmer Ryan

P.S.  If you have some extra rain laying around somewhere send it our way. 

Disneyland - For Farmers

Being the new guy on the farm my pickup is void of a valuable resource - tools.  Brent decided it was time to remedy this so on our way back from Kansas City we made a detour at what I now call Disneyland for farmers:

On the farm we have several folks working for us.  They all have a farm pickup and each of those pickups is stocked with a set of tools. We also have a couple shops that we use for working on and maintaining our farm equipment.  Because of this there is always a tool that needs to be replaced or a new tool to try.  This time around (mainly because of me) we had a 8x11 page list of tools to buy. 

I don't think I've ever seen a shopping cart look so weighed down:

 

Aaaannd this is what happens when you let a farmer loose in Harbor Freight:

 

If you are looking for some tools to use around the house and aren't going to be a mechanic, I'd recommend stopping at a Harbor Freight or a Northern Tool.  True, the tools they have aren't snap-on or anything but when you just use it to fix odds and ends around the house who needs that? 

-Farmer Ryan 

Condition. Rinse. Repeat.

We have been planting corn for the last two weeks.  My latest job has been to drive the four wheel drive tractor and pull a field conditioner.  A field conditioner is a farm implement that has V shaped blades and tines (spike looking things) that rake the back of the implement.

This implement, with its v shaped blades, cuts the roots of any weeds or volunteer corn that have started to grow in the field.  Volunteer corn is corn that was left in the field from the previous season.  I wasn't sure at first why this was a bad thing, but to get corn to yield as much as possible you have to have the right amount of space between each plant.  Volunteer corn will sap the sunlight, moisture and nutrients from the corn that we are trying to grow this season. 

Below is some volunteer corn that started to grow in one of the fields I was conditioning.  This is corn that is growing out of a corn cob that fell last season.   You can see the cob on the right of all the corn plant shoots.

After we get a field conditioned if it rains before we can get the corn planted, we have to go back and condition the field again, because other weeds and volunteer corn will start to grow again.   Condition. Rinse. Repeat.

 -Farmer Ryan

Wheat Watch IV

The wheat has started to head - this is the stage in wheat development where you can actually see the future kernels of wheat.  This stage has come about three weeks ahead of schedule this year because of the unusually warm weather.

 You can see the heads of wheat growing out of the top of the plant:

It's growing....

I found the below fun fact in the high plains journal:

After I saw this I realized that my perception of food has changed.  Before I started working on the farm, food was just food.  Now I'm starting to see all the work, time and effort it takes just to grow two of the thousands of verities of crops grown year round.  The other day I caught myself looking at a bowl of grapes and thinking I wonder what farmers have to do to grow, harvest, and deliver these. 

-Farmer Ryan