planting season ,a little early

The field work has been going on for at least 2 weeks now, will continue into mid to late May, it's good to see the fields planted early, darned geese won't have their young out feeding when the corn is still a sprout. I'm going to be all over em this year with a fresh patch of clover adjacent to the 7 acres of what is usually corn. 12 ga and some cheap shells to make noise and scare em off, will have to try old firecrackers first, hate wasting ammo for this, the DEC process to get rid of them looks lengthy, they do a lot of damage. I know the local agent too, she bands and counts the geese in our big pond, might not like to hear about the crop damage, plus everyone likes to view them, don't realize what a pest they can be.

My neighbor the farmer, used a brillion cultipacker with a small and large roller on the soil in that field yesterday, I'm wondering if he's firming up the soil because it's so dry or he's going to plant hay or something, all the rocks seem to be buried too, he's been doing hay on existing fields, but said corn did well last fall. He left the cultipacker down there too, as if he is going to pack it again, might have to see what's up.

I saw the proposed development behind us being approved, were going to lose 215 acres of beautiful cropland, gonna have to take photos of it. It's an awful feeling knowing what is going to happen to the land, new housing and the occupants will be mostly college age and up, middle eastern foreigners attending a nearby, and highly regarded engineering school where we educate them and send them back to use it against us. They already occupy most apartment complexes nearby, this will be an upgrade, it's almost treason what these already wealthy developers do, I'll haunt the place when I'm gone ;) !

Many years later and upland with a small farm, one spring I had a wheat field that was about 2" high. Snows were coming back north from the Gulf Coast. Must have been 100 or so. Circled and circled. Landed. I saw them and went out there to shoo them off. They just laughed at me. Flushed, flew up about 100 ft, went around in a couple of circles and landed. Blew me off.

Now when I was younger and dad and I were goose hunting, this never happened. Is there a message here?

Mark

In NY, there is 2 seasons in the fall, for Canada geese, early and late, they literally cover our 20 something acre pond, the snow geese sometimes come in, sometimes not, but what a clatter every fall until it freezes. I have friends who hunt them by the Canadian border, thousands and thousands of the white ones are up there, no bag limit, but they are hard to get. The Canada geese is regulated, yet there are 2 types, the locals like we have here then the migratory ones that still go way north. They are the biggest pests, reproduce like crazy and can be a real nuisance ot crops and lawns Just something else to complain about I suppose, just sucks watching them tear up your clover right to the nub and top off every corn plant in 7 acres. The little fuzzball hatchlings don't take long to start following, and every year I run em out, sometimes running smack right into a flock, hissing all ticked off, fuzz ball ones scattered everywhere with clover hangin out of their mouths. I plowed up a strip near the pond, maybe I can head em off by planting grass or something, but instinct tells me they'll still hit our fields anyway.

I hate bothering or killing wildlife I'm not hunting to eat, yet you can't kill enough of these, the meat is pretty good sliced up and grilled, not supposed to have any contaminants, not sure if that is true or not seeing where they live and what they eat. Just too many of em that is for sure.

Some corn growers have sprouts that are about 2 or so inches tall. They have a lot of acreage and it all can't be planted at once so I guess they push on mother nature for some of it.

Mark