Weed Zappin'

If this hot, dry weather has been good for anything, it's at least given me an opportunity to kill some weeds this week. This sounds easy enough, but it's not as simple as dumping some chemicals into a tank and taking off across a field. Each herbicide has detailed "do's and don'ts" that we must adhere to. Different rates/concentrations will have different effects in different conditions. Protective clothing must be worn when handling these herbicides, and they often have to be mixed in a certain order when used with liquid fertilizer, adjuvants, or other herbicides in the same tank mix. We use GPS assistance to minimize application skips and overlaps in the field, and keep records that include the time, temperature, and wind speed/direction while making applications.

My first herbicide applications this week were in a large 60+ acre heifer pasture. I used a selective herbicide, primarily targeting pigweed, ragweed, and dog fennel. The weeds showed signs of stress within an hour of being sprayed, and 24 hours later it was obvious they were wilting. Using a selective herbicide to kill weeds removes the competition for soil nutrients, thereby improving the quantity and nutritional quality of the pasture grass (bermuda in this case). Once I finished applying this particular herbicide, I thoroughly cleaned the tanks and sprayer lines as per the instructions on the the herbicide's label.

Today I applied a different selective herbicide on our silage corn crop down in the bottomland. This time it was in an effort to kill and control broadleaf signalgrass, cocklebur, and morning glory. Though it's hard to tell from the photo, quite a few broadleaf weeds have already popped up between the rows. The herbicide I applied should kill them and have enough residual effect to prevent more from sprouting. There are pockets of johnsongrass here and there that this herbicide won't effect, but I can control that with glyphosate in a couple of weeks since the corn is a Roundup-Ready variety.

Speaking of glyphosate, that's likely the next herbicide application on the agenda. We'll either use a minimal- or no-tilling planting technique for our sorghum crop, but first we need to kill all the grasses and weeds that have grown up in the fields. We can't begin the planting sorghum, though, until we get some rain to improve the soil moisture. With that in mind, I probably won't be in any big hurry to get the sprayer back into the field until a couple of days prior to a favorable rain forecast.

Bad Week

Well, this is the first time I've posted anything this week, but it's not for a lack of things to talk about...I've just been too worn out. My folks left on a trip to West Virginia on Wednesday, and things really started happening once they got out of sight. Since that morning, I've had to replace the starter on one of our "can't do without" tractors (had to have a new one shipped overnight), I've had calves out, I've had cows getting into the wrong pastures, I've had two calves get sick, the bucket of one of our loaders wasn't locked in and fell into our feed mixer wagon (which wasn't fun getting out), and those are just the minor things I'm willing to talk about! In other words, it's really been a dairy farm over the last few days.

On the plus side, we got a half-inch of rain on Thursday, and more's predicted for the first of next week!

Feels like early fall

After Homberto left us, our weather has turned very pleasant. We're topping out in the afternoons in the mid-to-upper 80's, but there's very little humidity and we're seeing low temperatures down around 60 degrees. The cows are really enjoying it, as they can sunbathe in their pasture much later into the morning.

There was no lack of things to do today. Two of our employees spent most of the day cutting a little over 20 acres of broadleaf signalgrass that we'll roll up for hay later this week. They'll continue cutting in a different field tomorrow and probably into Wednesday. My dad, great-uncle, and I moved some dry cows who are about two weeks from calving out of one pasture and into the maternity pasture. I lost my phone in the process but luckily was able to find it. I'm not sure what all we'll get into tomorrow other than cutting hay, but it never takes long to find something that needs doing on Gilmer Dairy Farm.

Thank You, Mr. Homberto

What's left of hurricane Homberto has been falling on us as a slow, soaking rain since yesterday evening. As of 3:00 am, we had only gotten 0.7 inches, but it's probably at least 1.5" by now, and the rain is expected to fall up through mid-morning.

So, what does this rain mean for us? Well, it will definitely give a kick to our grass, both in pastures and hayfields. It will also help soften up the top layer of soil...something that had to be done before we could even think about preparing our fields to plant wheat and oats.