Last month's early snow-seven inches-never melted completely as October snows usually do. Five more inches fell in early November. We were able to get the corn harvested. As farmers generally do, we hadn't waited for our own cornstalks to bale for bedding, but had gotten access to bedding on a neighbor's field. Farming here on the northern plains in a time of shifting climate often requires the farmer to put things out of order in an attempt to get something-anything-done.
We didn't get the last cutting on the hay that was planned for rotating to corn. Neither did we get the manure spread there or the tillage done. Those jobs join the unharvested soybeans, which now stand in snow and if not harvested until spring will lose most of the yield.
Time for plan B. We will put the cowherd on the unbaled corn stalks to harvest much of their own feed between now and spring when we will again attempt to bale the stalks for bedding to be used in summer. We may need to stall the organic rotation for a year as it is difficult to till hay ground in spring for corn planting without use of crop chemicals. And we will, as always, hope for the best.
While we watch the corn in the bin as it dries, we are getting the livestock drinkers and the buildings ready for wintertime use. We have shut the pasture water system down nearly a month early. The cattle are healthy and fast growing, while we have a real population explosion among the pigs and the laying hens. For this and for our farm and our health in this time of Covid we are most grateful.
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