rain

 

Seven tenths inch in the gauge as I write this on Thursday, May 27.  The rain started in the night and is predicted to continue for the day today and into the night.  It will start those seeds lying in dry soil, soak up some of the surface dryness and help the soil into a better condition for the next hot dry wind we seem to be getting so much of this year.

The last of the spring's calves are being born, most recently in the rain this morning, so a little bedding will need to be spread for their comfort.  A little extra work, but they are hardy healthy little buggers and will be just fine.  When I checked this morning, several were playing, running full tilt from one end of the pasture to the other, tails in the air like flags.  They have very good tree protection and will be fine.  We are grateful for the rain.

drifts

 Again yesterday we were faced with the bad effects of tillage here on the prairie.  The winds blew strongly out of the southeast and then southwest as they have nearly every day for the last month.  The air was gloomy and gritty with blowing dirt.  Few fields have enough growing plants to stop this-only hay fields and pastures.  Driving home in the evening from the CRP acreage I am developing as pasture I could see soil blowing off the fields belonging to the same farmer who provided the soil drifts along our fence and far into our hay field in February.  Check the post from Feb 26.

Andy told me that he had waded through soil as deep as his bootlaces there.  So have I.  And it is not just one of us farmers.  It is all of us.  With our hay fields and pastures we have about half our acres protected from this, but the half we put to annual crops is exposed.  We in agriculture have not devised a solution to this tillage problem other than a massive annual chemical dump to facilitate no-till(and all too often, tillage farming as well).  This is a dire situation ranking right up there with growing inequality.  Blowing soil is climate deterioration made real.  It is not just about polar bears.

The Universities have been little help here.  And the Silicon Valley hotshots think the solution to everything is to create fake meat from-you guessed it-these same annual crops.

We pray for rain to save the production year.  Then, of course, the wind erosion will pause for a bit and water erosion can take center stage.  We need real change!

Flags

Dandelions serve as yellow warning flags in the spring pasture.  Where they are especially plentiful and thick the sward has been recently abused.  Dandelions are opportunists, shedding many seeds and colonizing every bare spot.  These may be around watering places where animals spend enough time to wear the sod thin or out.  But if they are spread somewhat across a paddock overgrazing is indicated.  This can happen when animals are left too long before being moved, thus constantly grazing too short, or it can be, as is nearly always the case with me, that I have come back too soon.  Adequate rest is a most important principle and often the cause of a poor stand.  Tilling and reseeding will not help.  The only cure is the changing of the farmer's mind, leading to more careful following of a grazing plan.