Leaves of Grass

February 7, 2011

Timothy, Phleum pratense

Timothy is one of my favorite grasses.  I mix its small seeds in with alfalfa, when I’m planting the new hay seeding in the spring.  Look at the broad, beautiful leaves.  Look at the seedheads, covered in pollen.

I’ll lay it down, sun-dry, rake, and roll up, into a big, round, bale.  Summer sun, tucked away, waiting to be fed on a cold, winter’s day.

I’ve often thought that I should like the poetry of Walt Whitman more.  He titled his epic book of poems, “Leaves of Grass.” This suggested a kinship with him that turned out to be  nonexistent. I recently learned that he titled his life’s work based on a pun, “Grass” was a term given by publishers to works of minor value and “leaves” is another name for the pages on which they were printed.

I do like his poem, “O Captain! My Captain!”, written about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.  It’s more straightforward.

My favorite poet is Robert Frost. I plan on writing a post, inspired by one of his poems.  The first person to guess which poem, will win a $25 gift certificate to Kiva. One guess per person.  The poem is not “Mending Wall.” I’ll give you a hint, the post is about genetics.  Good luck!


Taking a Break, Making the Best of…

December 18, 2010

Red clover hay field.  This field is an example of making the best of a bad situation.

The cowherd winters on cropland, walking into the woods for shelter, and water out of springs.  We feed the cows by unrolling round bales of hay on the harvested corn fields.  This is a way to spread the fertility from the cows’ manure, and the damage from the cows’ hooves if the ground is not frozen.

The hayfield above was exposed to the cows, and even though we never fed them hay on it, they chose to stand on it often.  When the ground thawed, the cows did considerable damage to the alfalfa plants.

We monitored the field as everything started to green up in the spring.  We could see most of the alfalfa had been killed and it would not be a productive field.  We had three choices: 1. Do nothing and accept the reduced yield.  2. Till it and plant corn.  3. Plant another forage crop.

We didn’t need the corn acres, and it would mess up our rotation if we put it in corn this year.  It wasn’t slated to be a corn field until 2011.

We decided to plant another forage crop.  There are some grasses which people plant in this type of emergency: Italian Ryegrass, Teff grass.  We wanted a legume, though, which would fix nitrogen for next year’s corn crop, which is what the alfalfa would have done.

We chose Red Clover.  There are disadvantages to Red Clover.  It is short-lived, and it doesn’t dry well for hay.  The first reason didn’t matter in this case, and we decided to try to find dry times to make the Red Clover hay to take care of the second disadavantage.

The main advantage to Red Clover is it’s very easy to plant.  We broadcasted the seed with a small spreader from the back of a tractor, and pulled a chain harrow to cover the seed with a little bit of dirt.  We planted four pounds per acre.

It worked great!  Look at how thick the reddish flowers are in the picture.  We made the best of a bad situation.

And so, I can no longer put off addressing the title of this post.

I’m taking a break from blogging.  I’ve posted consistently for nearly two years.  I’ve met people, made friends, learned, shared, in short, it’s been a blast!  Thank you for visiting, commenting, and sharing.  Without you, a blog is a journal.  With you, a blog is a conversation.  Thank you for your conversation!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!


Final Harvest

November 6, 2010

Cows harvesting the standing hay and cornstalks on my contour strips.  Here is a picture taken right before corn harvest.

The cows above are the ones the vet. confirmed pregnant when we pregnancy checked at the end of October.  I wrote about my expectations, and the problems we faced this breeding season.  90% of the cows and heifers ended up being bred with a 60 day breeding season for the cows, and a 45 day breeding season for the heifers.  10% open is normal for us and acceptable.  We have an excellent market for hamburger, so the cows that didn’t breed end up as beef.  We have appointments with our butcher over the next month.

Below is a cow which didn’t breed, and Wilma, of course.  The open cows are grazing one of our best remaining pastures.  I was thinking about the life they lead.  I think it’s pretty good.  They get to be in a herd of peers, eating quality forage, moving weekly, breeding, raising young.  Up until the bolt-gun shatters their brain, it’s not a bad life.

We took the boys to a city-wide Halloween party.  A friend gave me the low-down on the best place to go trick-or-treating: the manor, or old-folks-home.  The residents are seated in a semi-circle, each holding a bucket of candy.  It’s funny, because whatever aversion a child has to old people is overcome by the lure of easy candy.

I don’t know what kind of life each person has had, but the ending can be difficult.  We all want to live a good life and die in our sleep.


Finished Corn Harvest

October 13, 2010

Contour strips before corn harvest. Other pictures of these strips are here, here, and here.

We finished harvesting corn, October 7th.  We think that is an early record.  It was dry, 16% moisture.  That is also a record.

What a difference a year makes.  Last growing season was so cool, the corn never dried below 23% in the field.

Every year is different.  If I live to a typical age, I probably only have about 50 growing seasons.  Each is special.


New Hay Seeding With Oat Companion Crop

August 15, 2010

Oats and new hay seeding, early July.

I planted this field in early April.  I plant 2.5 bushels of oats, 10 lbs. of alfalfa, and assorted grasses.  Check out “2009 New Hay Seeding,” if you would like more detail.

We plant this mixture as soon as the ground is fit in early spring.  Oats are a fast starter and suppress any weeds that germinate.  The alfalfa and grasses are slow to start, but come on strong after the oats are harvested.

Many farmers are going away from planting a companion crop to their new hay seeding.  If the oats are not managed well, they may kill the new seeding.

Here are some tips we have found to prevent this.

1.  Spread no manure on the field during the preceding year.  My opinion is the nitrogen in the manure causes the oats to grow too tall and will lodge, (go down), as it matures.

2.  Plant an oat variety with strong standability.

3.  Plant an early-maturing oat variety.  The earlier the oats can be harvested, the better it is for the new seeding.

4.  If a field has had manure, or you feel the oats may lodge for any other reason, cut the oats as a forage crop in June.  This crop can be dried and baled, or ensiled.  It makes excellent feed for cattle.

We harvested our oats in late July and they will be mixed into the hog rations at an inclusion rate of 20-25%.  Gestation rations can include a higher amount of oats.

The straw will be dried and baled and used as bedding for hogs in the hoop buildings.

Oats can be an excellent companion crop for new hay seeding.  If everything goes well, look at the beautiful alfalfa, clover, and grasses, green and growing after the oats are harvested.


Round and Square-Baling Straw

July 29, 2010

Baling square bales of straw.

After the oats are harvested with our combine, the straw dries in the field for a day or two and is raked into rows and baled.

Most of the straw is round-baled.  This is much easier than small square bales because all of the work is done mechanically.with round bales.  The round bales are used in the hoop buildings to bed the pigs.

We bale a couple of loads, (250 bales), of small square bales.  These bales are used to bed the sow shelters or to bed the trailer when we take animals to the butcher.

Square bales have to be unloaded by hand and stacked in the barn.  I always appreciate the round-baler more after finishing this job.


Why Corn is So Productive

July 25, 2010

Corn (Zea mays)

I found this plant in my sweet corn patch.  It captured my attention, because the ear is at the top of the plant with the tassel.  It must be a genetic throwback to when corn was just another tall grass.  Normally, the ear is located one-third to one-half way up the stalk.

And I realized this is the reason corn can be so productive compared to other grains such as wheat, oats, or barley.  On our farm, corn can produce more than 9,000 lbs. per acre.  Oats only produces about 3,000 lbs. per acre.

Corn carries all of the grain weight lower on the stalk.  All other grasses and grains that I know of carry their grain weight at the top of the stalk.  This causes them to be susceptible to lodging or breaking over.

Here is a picture of some of our lodged oats. More of a challenge to harvest, but we finished harvesting the oats last Wednesday.


Corn Height: 4th of July

July 4, 2010

Our tallest corn.  We planted all of our corn April 19-23rd.  Growing conditions have been ideal, with rain every few days and a hot, very humid June.  I don’t know if we have ever had taller corn on the 4th.


Early Spring: Finished Planting Corn

April 27, 2010

“When the oak leaf is the size of a squirrel’s ear, it’s corn planting time.”  Old farmer saying.

I finished planting corn last week.  April 23rd  is the new record.

It is an early spring.  Look at the asparagus in the old fence row.


Forage Seeding Rates/ Seeds Per Square Foot

January 20, 2010

Do you know how many seeds per square foot you are planting?  I didn’t, until I read an interesting article titled, “The Forage Seeding Gamble” by Fae Holin.

It’s interesting that my planned recipe for this year’s seeding, 10 lbs. alfalfa, 5 lbs. orchardgrass, and 2 lbs. Timothy, results in 50 alfalfa seeds per sq. foot, 55 orchardgrass seeds per sq. foot, and 58 timothy seeds per sq. foot, according to the author’s calculations.  Very similar number of seeds per sq. foot.

I’m surprised I had never figured this out before as the calculations are not that difficult.  First, you need to find the number of seeds per lb.  I found several sources on the web, all with different numbers.  I guess people get bored counting thousands of seed and just start to estimate.  Here is a nice chart with reasonable numbers.

To find the seed per sq. foot with 1 lb. per acre, just divide the number of seeds in a lb. by the number of sq. feet in an acre.  We’ll use alfalfa as an example.  Alfalfa has 227,000 seeds per. lb. on the previous chart.  We know there is 43,560 sq. feet in an acre.  So 227,000 divided by 43,560 equals roughly 5 seeds per sq. foot.  If we plant 10 lbs. per acre then just multiply 10 by the number of seeds per sq. foot with 1 lb. per acre and you have 50 seeds per sq. foot when planting 10 lbs. per acre.

Another calculation which I had never considered is seeds per dollar.  I’m not sure how useful this calculation is, but I find it interesting.

Here are my figures for this year.  K500 alfalfa, 227,000 seeds per lb., $2.58 dollars per lb., equals 87,984 seeds per dollar.  Climax timothy, 1,152,000 seeds per lb., $1.06 dollars per lb., equals 1,086,792 seeds per dollar.  Baraula orchardgrass, 416,000 seeds per lb., $2.44 dollars per lb., equals 170,492 seeds per dollar.  Seed seems less expensive now.

Now that I know how many seeds per sq. foot I’m planting, I wonder how many actually grow.  It would be interesting to get down on my hands and knees and do some counting this summer.  One thing always leads to another in an interested life!


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