Spring crop update 2010

Hi all

I continue to get hassled by Sally for not posting more on here and letting people know what is happening in the fields.  Well first off if you don't know we have had a lot of rain lately.  I was joking with a neighbour the other day that I don't have a rain gauge because I don't spray chemicals.  It is quite common that chemical companies will advertise their products on rain guages, hats or other items that farmers sometimes need and give them to farmers for buying their products.   A couple years back our rain gauge broke and has never been replaced.  So we don't have an actual amount of rain that fell, just a lot.

So far we have just shy of 100 acres of Wheat in the ground, it was planted on the 18th of May.  80 acres of barley and 20 acres of barley and field peas.   Also we have 20 acres of oats planted.  This year we are going to try and underseed the oats to clover and rye grass.  Our hope is to spread the clover and rye grass on at the time when we fingerweed the last time.   We have always worried about seeding the cereal crop and forage at the same time because the forage could grow so well that the cereal crop is consumed by it, causing harvesting difficulties.

Just before the rain hit I started sowing one field to clover and rye grass.  We sow fall rye with this in the spring and it acts as a nurse crop the first year and then comes out in head the second year but is cut off for silage. 

We have still about 50 acres of clover and rye grass to put in and 100 acres soybeans.  We are growing 4 different varieties of beans this year.  Our favorites are  OAC Prudence they are a shorter season bean and we have had good yields with them.  We are trying out two new varieties Laurent and Pheniox which are both short season varieties and we are hoping they will preform well and may become our new favorite.  In addition we are also going to be planting Black Soybeans.  These are a specialty bean that taste a lot better than regular soybeans.  We are going to also harvest some of these beans for Edamame this season.  You might remember us raving over Edamame last season in one of the posts.   We are trying to come up with a way we could blanch and freeze them so that we could extend the length of time we can sell them.

We may put in some sunflowers as well but are still working out all of the logistics on the potential market.

I passed by a field this morning and notice that the barley is starting to come out in the third leaf.  The third leaf stage of a cereal plant is the stage when the plant is able to withstand the fingerweeder.   So when the Sun comes out and the crops start to jump in growth we are going to be ready to try and clean as many weeds as possible.  The trick is that it requires nice sunny weather, showers are a benefit for the weeds.

Hope this finds you dry and Happy
Mark