Rain Rain Rain

[crappiefarmer]

Ok. most years I like a lot of rain. This year too. But this is fricken ridiculous. took me almost a month to pick wheat when there were only 8 picking days involved. I have not gotten the first soybean planted with the insurance deadline on July 15th. On the flip side, got the largest corn crop by far on the way barring a hurricane. Got some scary yields popping up on my yield calculator but I can't wrap my mind around those numbers and except them. It is above and beyond the normal bumper crop for this area. I guess I will just believe it when I see it. Just wish I could get the beans in.

We have had close to 10 inches in 3 weeks. Today could bump it to 12. the ground has reached complete saturation. it is unbelievable. I got to see how much water an excellent corn crop can pull from the ground this year. I have seen it rain 2 inches and be dry in 2 days in the corn while the old wheat fields stay wet but even the corn is not keeping up now. It is ending its high water usage stage now and we just keep getting rains.

Farmers are having a rough time this year with something that is usually a good thing for our area. There has not been a similar year to this one in about 30 years. Just excessively wet. South of me, the best Potato crop in years is rotting in the field. There are still hundreds of acres of wheat and sage to be picked. Wheat has began to sprout in the heads and is damaging. Both causing huge deductions at elevators. I have never seen anything like this. Usually begging for rain.

[crappie 11]

Was down your way this week. Saw lots of water damage. Corn and tobacco looking good though. Saw some farmers trying to get beans in the ground. Also saw some of your buddies munching on beans. Hopefully mother nature will give you a break.

[Percidae_Papermouth]

Strange winter, strangely mild... Spring never came, then summer slathered us up with rain. Weird year... Hope you get those beans in the ground and the corn off the stalk .

[Boscoe]

I was wondering how you were doing with all this rain. I've had a lot in Norfolk, cutting the grass about every fourth day. Hope we don't have a tropical system any time soon or at all. With the ground saturated like it is would lead to a lot of flooding and downed trees every where.

[TapOut64]

Interesting to hear about the rain from a farmers perspective. I can sure do without all these rain cells.

[SeaRay]

South Carolina is drenched as well. I finally bought a rain gauge and put it out Monday afternoon. As of 7 PM today (Sunday) I have had 7" or rain in one week. I only have a small garden but my squash has rotted in the ground.
Feel for all the farmers dealing with this.

[crappiefarmer]

We have one tractor that will go pretty much no matter how wet it is. We broke it out yesterday to break a field with a 30 foot disk harrow. turning wheat straw under which is something we did not want to do. we either wanted to no till beans in the straw or burn the straw off to air the ground out and no till that way. It has been too wet to burn the dang straw off.

The field bottoms had huge areas of water standing up to 3 inches deep. Water just squishing out from underneath the tractor tires. We cut 35 acres yesterday afternoon to air it out. It was drying out nicely until last night. We got over a half inch of rain last night and now those areas we just cut are soup. Never seen anything like this. all we need is a 10% chance of rain right now and we get a gully washer. Got a friend who has cotton across the Sound from me that has had water standing in his cotton fields since the week he planted them back in early May. I've got another friend who has a very limited form of insurance that has had to replant beans and some of the replanted beans need replanting. He is in a very grim situation with his crops. I may be taking the insurance route now as it is getting just too dang late to get a yield that would beat an insurance payment that I bought coverage at. working it on paper says I'm an idiot if I plant now but My natural instincts tell me I am supposed to be planting. That something is supposed to grow in those fields. I have that argument going on inside my head all day long along with the the big booming voice of clarity that keeps coming in and clearing the argument out...... You Can't do anything about this! Don't worry about it! Mother nature is making this decision for You! You can't get in the field anyway!

I probably could have gone fishing some with all the rainy days but with no bean crop planted and decisions to make, just don't have the urge to go right now. On top of all that I got to buy My Daughter something to drive in just a couple more weeks. When You don't know if Your going to have a lean year or a strong year, You don't know how to budget for something like that. I usually don't have to worry about this kind of crap until winter time.CF

[Boscoe]

Dang Ed, feast or famine. Make me glad all rain does to me is move things to the next day, or the the next day after, of course that always end up being Saturday!

[crappiefarmer]

South Carolina is drenched as well. I finally bought a rain gauge and put it out Monday afternoon. As of 7 PM today (Sunday) I have had 7" or rain in one week. I only have a small garden but my squash has rotted in the ground.
Feel for all the farmers dealing with this.

I have gone from checking inches in my gauge to just counting how many times I dump the thing out when it is running over. At that point it does not matter. It is all running off and filling up the ditches again.CF

[crappiefarmer]

Dang Ed, feast or famine. Make me glad all rain does to me is move things to the next day, or the the next day after, of course that always end up being Saturday!

On the feast side of things, I was talking to our local Elevator manager today about the ramifications of this coming monstrosity of a corn crop.

I had to wait in line for 2 1/2 hours to dump one load of wheat. Everyone was getting close to 100 bushels to the acre which is a bumper crop. I asked him and it was already on his mind what is it going to be like when everyone is bringing in 200 bushel corn? He shook his head and told me that we would all be in for a very long August and September. In other words, I better be prepared to wait in long lasting lines for a period of time twice as long as wheat. Barring a hurricane, it will be a long season. If a storm fires up, It will be Katy bar the Door at the elevator as everyone will be picking as hard as they can. Sounds Like Fun!!!CF