Crop Progress

It has been a busy season and I am just now getting up the crop progress pictures. We planted May 19th and had a good start even though the winter and early spring months were very dry and wind, wind, wind. The soil was drier than ideal conditions causing me to have to plant a little deeper to get to the moisture.

We had rain before crop emergence which washed in on some of the seed making them too deep to come up and giving a skippy stand in some areas of the field. If only I had know it would rain, I would have planted it shallow in the dry dirt and waited for the rain to set it. Always the hardest decision when planting.

Unusual hot windy weather in early June (104 with 40 mph wind) caused lots of trouble for the little plants which are sensitive to blowing sand and static electricity. Our crops faired well as the high levels of organic matter keep the blowing down. Many neighbors lost their crops.

More weeds this year than usual, maybe from all the wind so we have cultivated 5 times and hoed 2 with one more to go.

We have been blessed in our small area (named The Greenbelt by the Plains Indians who farmed here before us) with 8 inches of rain since May. The crop is loading heavily(putting on the squares that turn to bolls) and we have very favorable heat. It is now time to start the irrigation to supplement the rain.

I have attached some pictures showing the progress through 7 weeks. We are at 9 weeks as this is posted and hopefully I will not wait so long before another update.

Gary Oldham

Time to start the irrigation.