Looking back at 4/27/11

the last wave passed over us at 4pm

Wednesday, April 27, 2011, is a day that I and most every other Alabamian will always remember. Multiple tornadoes ripped across the state, killing hundreds of people and destroying entire communities.  Thankfully, my farm was spared any damage as most of the severe storms bypassed Lamar County.  Other than a few wind-bent pieces of tin roof on a tractor shed, the inconvenience of a 30 hour power outage at home (we have a generator at our dairy barn) was the only direct effect we experienced.

tornado damage in Phil Campbell

Thousands of others were not as lucky, including many not too terribly far from us. Tuscaloosa (55 miles to our southeast) sustained a direct hit and suffered the loss of many lives, homes, and businesses.  Even closer than that, the small towns of Smithville, MS (25mi NW), Hackleburg (35mi NE), and Phil Campbell (45mi NE) were virtually destroyed.  I helped deliver supplies to Phil Campbell as part of a mission team from my church on Sunday evening, but the photos and news coverage I had seen didn't really prepare me for sheer scope of destruction left in the wake of these storms. There wasn't much left standing where the tornadoes touched down, just a wide swath of downed trees, demolished vehicles, and collapsed houses.

farmer Dan Smalley's chicken houses
were all destroyed or damaged

Alabama's agriculture industry was particularly hard hit. The last reports I have seen report over 3 million chickens were killed as 200 poultry houses were destroyed and over 500 others were significantly damaged.  I also received a text Wednesday afternoon stating that a dairy farm in Morgan County had taken a direct hit. Friends and acquaintances of mine lost barns, sheds, and even homes. Thankfully, I have yet to hear of anyone I know being counted among the dead or seriously injured, and I pray that remains the case.

A week has passed since the deadly storms, and relief work continues in every effected community across the state.  As I remarked after leaving Phil Campbell Sunday evening, it's hard to see destruction like that and not be awed by the power of nature. But more importantly, it's impossible to see the volunteer-ism and support given in the relief effort thus far and not be awed by the love and power of God.  We Alabamians know how to pull together and help each other out, and we will continue to do so all throughout the process of recovery and rebuilding.

We are weakened yet still strong.  We are bruised but more resilient than ever.  We are Alabama.

In closing, I'd like to thank all of you who called, texted, tweeted, etc., to check on my family during and after the storms. I appreciate your thoughts and concerns, and ask for you to continue to keep the people of Alabama in your prayers.  Below I've included a few other ways you can help, as well as links to a few related storm stories and coverage.

• Text "FOOD" to 27722 to donate $10 to the West Alabama Food Bank in Tuscaloosa
• Text "REDCROSS" to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross's relief efforts
• Use this online form to donate $ through UMCOR (as a Methodist, I highly recommend!)
• Keep up with real time supply needs and delivery information by following #wearealabama #ALhaves and #ALneeds hashtags on Twitter
• "Alabama agriculture leaders meet with USDA Secretary about storm losses" - ALFA Farmers News
• "Alabama Tornado Outbreak 2011" - from Stephanie Millier's blog, The Life of a Farmer's Wife
• "Storms Impact on Alabama Agriculture" [video] - WFSA-TV
• Governor Bentley's address to the State (5/3/11) [video] - WFSA-TV
• AlabamaWx.com - comprehensive coverage from ABC-33/40's weather team
• "Miraculous Story of Tornado Survival" [video] - Kenneth Neal, Cullman Co. Farmers Federation president
• Alabama tornadoes: Storm survey teams find a total of 28 tornadoes touched down statewide - AL.com
• Storm survivors turn to faith and feds - MSNBC

Spring harvest is nearly finished

Despite 10 days worth of mechanical and weather delays, our spring harvest is nearly finished. In fact, we just finished chopping forage for our silage pit a few minutes ago, and all that remains is 6-8 acres of oats that we will cut, bale, and wrap later this week.  Our rye and oat yields were about what we had expected, and we were impressed with how well the triticale did.  I'm not sure if we'll have enough silage to feed the cows until our summer crops are harvested and ready to feed, but it should be close.

Weather will play a key role in determining what our next move is. There are quite a few issues that need to be addressed ASAP:

• plant silage corn in the bottomland
• spray weeks in pastures
• cut and bale the volunteer ryegrass in the bermudagrass hay fields
• apply dairy slurry and fertilizer to hay fields & pastures

Regardless of what order we tackle these issues, we expect to be very busy with field work during the month of May. 

As for our milking herd, we are now down to 205 cows in milk with quite a few scheduled to "dry off" over the next few weeks. Their milk production has slipped a little, but they're still hanging in there. We're still grazing them every morning and will continue to do so for at least a couple more weeks.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has asked about my family and farm following the severe storms and tornadoes that devastated parts of the Southeast last week.  We made it through with no damage and only minor inconvenience, but I would ask you to keep the hundreds who weren't as fortunate in your thoughts and prayers. 

Bad Monday, Better Tuesday (so far)

Monday wasn't the best day for our farm, at least as far as the spring forage harvest is concerned.  We were able to chop, haul, and pack 16 loads of oat silage yesterday with no problems save a couple of minor chain issues and a flat tire on the dump truck.  But then, with several acres of oats on the ground ready to be harvested, the chopper's day was ended when a universal-joint cross broke on the drive shaft.

We hitched up the hay baler and bale wrapper a couple of hours later to finish the day's job.  Dad and I were making pretty good progress when one of the baler's roller chains broke after 29 bales.  We didn't have the parts we needed in our shop to fix it, so we parked the equipment for the night with 3-4 acres of oats still on the ground.  

Things started to improve for us this morning, though. The rain we were expecting this morning never fell, so Dad repaired the baler and sent one of our employees back to finish the job.   Meanwhile, a Select Sires rep came to the dairy to evaluate nearly 50 of our young cows for their Select Mating Service.  He told us this was one of the best groups top-to-bottom that we've had and we should expect big things from them over the next few years.

So here we sit at lunchtime on Tuesday feeling pretty good about the day.  The cows are getting their last hour of grazing in and I'm about to head to the field and wrap the 40+ bales that were rolled up this morning.  Milking will start up around 1pm and should be about finished by the time the next predicted rain gets here mid-afternoon. The weather could get pretty rough over the next 36 hours, but hopefully we'll get through it without any damage.  And with over 30 acres still left to harvest, we'll be keeping our fingers crossed that the coming storms don't keep us out of the field for several days like last week's storms did.

Spring Preview

This has been one of the snowiest winters I can ever remember around these parts.  Some years me might get two separate accumulating snowfalls, but I think we've had four this year.  We've even had snowfall as recently as last week.

I don't think we're going to see any snow this week, though.

This is the second straight morning I've been able to go to the farm without wearing anything heavier than a fleece pullover, and I've spent the afternoon wearing short-sleeves all week.  The 7 day forecast is saying that we'll have a full week of this great weather. Even though I doubt we've seen the last of cold, damp winter weather this year, I'm certainly going to enjoy this spring preview and take advantage of the the best I can.

Part of that includes fertilizing our spring forages.  Our local farmer's co-op is supposed to start spreading ammonia nitrate and potash over some of our fields today and tomorrow, and I expect to be applying liquid nitrogen fertilizer on a few others.  And as soon as we can find some replacement lugbolts for one of our honeywagon's tires, we'll be applying our "water 'n poo" fertilizer to several spots as well.

Where ever you are and whatever you're doing, I hope you have an enjoyable day.  I'm certainly planning on it!

Dodged the Tornado...again.

I'm sure most of you are aware of the severe weather that rolled through the Southeast this past Saturday. The storms spawned tornadoes that claimed several fatalities and did millions of dollars worth of damage.

There were several different "waves" that came across the state, the first being the system that contained the killer tornado that struck Yazoo City and Choctaw County, Mississippi. And much like the tornado that hit Weir and Caledonia in January 2008, we were at the farm watching and listening to weather reports warning us that it was coming right for us.

The storm in 2008 did pass directly over us while we were milking. Once it got about two minutes away from us, we shut off all of our milking equipment and hunkered down in our pit-style parlor. The tornado had picked back up into the clouds, thank goodness, but the driving rain and howling wind certainly had our attention. This weekend's storm wasn't nearly as dramatic by the time it reached us. We finished our work at the dairy about fifteen minutes before it was projected to cross between Vernon and Sulligent, and as it got closer it progressively tracked further to the north. There was hardly any rain with it, allowing me to stand on my front porch and clearly see it approaching from the west. I even posted a couple of pictures of the system to Twitter and found out later that a television station in Birmingham showed them during their coverage.

We did get hit by a thunderstorm about an hour after the first system passed by, but the heavy rain and strong winds only lasted a few minutes. After that, we never saw more than an occasional gust of wind and light rain as the rest of the severe weather stayed clear of us.

We've weathered quite a few storms over the last few years, and we're lucky to have escaped them all with no injuries to us or our cattle and very minimal damage to any of our property. Our luck may run out one of these days, but for now I'm happy to say that we dodged the tornado...again.