Another bad summer

Hate to say it. But I think we are going to have another summer like we did last year. Was doing pretty good up until the first of May. Now all we get is high winds and maybe on the rain. I can see hay being hauled to Texas again this year.

I'm not much for the rain myself, even though we do need it, but I can stand the bad/hot summers. I just wish we could have a good bad/cold winter around here again, for a change. Just having the cold to kill off the critters would then make the next summer so much less 'bad' regardless of the weather.

We"ve been watching the weather, too. Sure seems like the water tap has turned off again.

Early hot dry spring here in southern MN. Now we've had 7.7 inches of rain in May, mopre forcast 2 of the next 3 days. Puddles in all the fields, I bet a lot of N is going away again like last year. Ttrouble is we had a real dry spell in May, hot winds.

So, dry. 3plus inches of rain all at once. Dry, hot, windy. Now 3plus inches of rain.

Doesn't make for a uniform, top notch crop.

Throw in the all to frequent - but so far small - hailstones, and it looks to be an exciting summer again....

--->Paul

Yep most of the hay fields I have done already which is also earlier then most years has yielded about half or most years and what I have not got baled yet shows signs of the heads drying out already which is also not good. But yesterday I cau some more hay but in this area the hay seems to be very thick so maybe that area will produce more like it should

It's been really dry here too. We've only had about an inch of rain since February and the temps are already into the mid 90's. My 1st cutting of hay was about 2/3 normal. Last year there was several thousand bales sent to Texas from our county. Looks like we may need to ship some in here this year.

Rich, that dry winter we had sure was odd. Back in the end of march and most of april, we got dry sunny days, the ground hardened up like a dry spell in summer, my just spit firewood dried up quick, the hay grasses were stunted, but the orchard grass
sure did top out in a hurry, I saw tops before May!

I think the early first cut and or 2nd cut type hay are the highest in nutrition, and would prefer to take it then, vs waiting til its tall, stalky, and or the heads start to tan, but right now those other grasses have almost caught up, and the orchard and 2 other grasses are still nice and green, just right, but we only had 2 opportunities to cut and bale given the weather so far, rain has caught up and we are saturated, and its humid out. Right now the yield would be at the highest, and the nutrition the best.

Heres a few shots, and you'll appreciate this, I've done nothing to these fields except cut them with rotary/brush hog, after a few years, I don't think I could have planted and have them as good LOL !!!


I'd love to bale this stuff too, just don't have the equipment, it would make a few hundred bales if I could get it all.

Wayne the bugs are sure to be h$ll this year, the darned mosquitoes were out in March, thick like summer time, now we are saturated, they're enough to keep me from the woods and similar, but I have work to do will have to figure out some repellent that is not DEET or similar, gnats, blackflies, no see ums are just as bad, deer flies I can deal with, those little buggers are such a joy, we did get some zero temps with no snow cover, but we needed a week of -10, 0 F to help.

Rich, are you getting any of this latest rain? When I was in your neck of the woods last week it sure was dry. Jim

Haven't had a drop of rain in 2 or more weeks. Getting way to dry for this time of year. Last I heard we are 5 plus inches behind for the year and if it does not rain soon we may have some real problems soon

I bale mine every year and have done so for about 30 or so years. I use about half of what I bale and sell the rest so as to off set the cost and seems like I come out a bit ahead but then the equipment I have is all pretty much fence line salvage stuff so got it all pretty cheap then fixed it up

Not sure how bad they are around Nancy and James place. But we are having a very bad problem with Flies and fleas.

Fleas aren"t too bad this year.

Generally, flies and mosquitoes depend on moisture. Lots of moisture, lots of flies & mosquitoes.

This year is different. We"ve been fairly dry in Dallas for the last month, but still lots of flies.

My wise old mare puts herself in her stall around dusk to get away from the flies and mosquitoes. Younger horses are learning from her.