Unrealistic Expectations....

The past few weeks have been VERY full...until a rainstorm last weekend that dropped 3 inches of rain in our neighborhood.  That brought things to a screeching halt.   We still have 285 acres of our own corn silage to put up and some of our uncles as well.  That will be followed by manure applications for next years crops, a cutting of 80 acres of oatlage and harvesting 170 acres of high moisture corn.  So with all that's left to do before frost and freezing temperatures, it's no wonder that the past few days we've been trying endlessly to make some progress with our corn harvest.  It has meant several trucks getting stuck, needing to have a tractor and person in the field to pull them out and of course a lot of mud...that's where this is going...

You see we live in a land of plenty, but there still seems to be many people out there who want to enjoy highly nutritious dairy and beef products, but without ever encountering mud, odor, traffic...you get my drift.  As far as I know the only way possible to get those products without those added inconveniences is to ship the cows out of the US - and I'm not sure that I want my food to be imported. 

My frustration today stems from a visit by the town road supervisor.  So we admittedly were tracking mud onto the road, but we also had a tractor with a scraper and a sweeper mounted on it to use intermittently to clear off the roads.  Apparently we were doing a good enough job since he directed us to put a person on that tractor to continuously clean off those roads and if that didn't get it clean enough, they would order the fire department out to wash down the road.  So, that was my job for the afternoon...I drove back and forth on the 1/8 mile stretch of road, scraping and sweeping, sweeping and scraping.  We eventually did finish that field.  I even continued sweeping when it started drizzling but opted to duck in the truck for about 5 minutes when it hailed.  For about 30 minutes after all our equipment pulled out, I continued in the rain and wind to make sure our town road supervisor would be satisfied (he did drive by just as the hail started so he better not ever say we didn't try).  When I finally, drove the tractor the 4 miles back to the farm (in the rain and by this time I was shivering uncontrollably) the road was clear of all debris.

It would have been so much easier to have taken a day off today and waited for things to dry out, however time is not on our side.  And while I'm sorry to have such a negative attitude in today's post, I did feel it was important to remind folks that we do the best we can, but sometime we get pressured into working in less than ideal conditions and the result may be mud on the roads.  But in the end we should all be grateful that we live in the land of plenty and are blessed with so very much.  I probably wouldn't have reacted this way if we didn't already try so hard to keep neighbors happy.  You see, we sent out 90 car washed to those who live near the fields we operate just a few weeks ago, asking them for their patience.  We also bought that tractor I used today with the blade and sweeper specifically for this purpose and take great care to put out orange warning cones in situations like this.  In the end though, one persons complaint and lack of understanding made a tough day even worse!!

Sorry no pictures, but I was too wet to dig my camera phone out of my pocket.  More to come soon...I promise!!!

This summer's wheat harvest

For the past several years, we have worked wheat into our crop rotation.  The wheat that is harvested is sold to our local coop and the straw that remains is baled off the field to fill our bedding need for the baby calves.  This year we hauled over 600 bales off 108 acres - which is a pretty solid harvest.  The following videos show us hauling those bales off the field and back to the farm.

Kelly and Bernie both have some mad skidsteer driving skills!!