Bags of Rye & Soybeans

"Sing a song of sixpence

A bag full of rye......."

*********

Oops.......the rhyme doesn't go that way, does it. Well, here's a photo of our "bag full of rye", containing rye silage chopped from a 15-acre field. We don't own the machine which pushes the rye into the bag; a guy in our neighborhood has several which he rents out. Anyway, maybe you would like to have a blob like this sitting in your yard, as an abstract art conversation piece?!

Ok, the rye was chopped off the field on Wednesday; that evening the field was tilled up to prepare for the planting of soybeans, which Husband did yesterday , shown in photo below:
You can see the residual rye stems and roots, which will serve as "green manure" to fertilize the soybean crop as it grows.

*****************************************
*****************************************

I was given a very difficult task.........driving the pickup to the field and parking it along the edge so the soybean seed bags were in a convenient place for Husband to get at them when it was time to refill the planter boxes. (He needed the water jug, too, for his own hydration.)

As I sat on the endgate of the pickup, waiting to take the water jug to Husband when he reached this end of the field, I read the labels on the soybean seed bags. Look at this.......these seeds were tested in December 2007 and 90 percent of the seed germinated. Does that sound like a very good deal? Ten percent of the seed is no good, apparently!!
In the final photo, here's an overly colorized version of the planter's row marker arm. It cuts a visible line across the field. The person doing the planting steers the tractor to follow this line across the field in order to keep the rows straight.

(After I handed Husband the water jug, I almost walked right under this marker arm as it was being dropped to the ground to begin another row. That could have provided me with a dandy headache or worse......and it would have been my own fault for not paying attention.)

************************************

************************************

************************************

If there are any farmers reading this, they will easily realize that we are very small potatoes when it comes to the size and scope of our farming operation. We have 200 acres, which is not much in today's farming world; we don't rent any additional land, and our machinery is small and old. We milk 75-80 cows in a stanchion barn........that's a VERY SMALL dairy in this day and age, and stanchion barns are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

We raise alot of forage crops-------that's stuff for the cows to eat------ hay, rye, oats. Much of our corn crop is chopped and put into silos, also, for the cows to eat. We don't sell any shelled corn, and we probably won't sell these soybeans, either. They will get roasted for the cows to eat. We sell milk and beef. That's where our living comes from. Like I said......we're very small potatoes. So, if you wish to see modern, big, up-to-date farm machinery and dairy equipment, you've come to the WRONG PLACE!! (But, I'm very glad you're here, anyway!)