The scurs managed to scare up some light showers last week, darn light showers that is. What’s on tap this go round? Starting Wednesday, mostly clear with highs near 85 and lows around 60. Thursday and Friday partly cloudy skies, highs in the low 80’s and lows near 60 with a slight chance of rain Friday. Slightly warmer on Saturday with highs of 80 – 85 and lows again near 60. Sunday, partly cloudy, with a slight chance of a shower. Highs near 75 and lows of 55. Mostly sunny for Monday and Tuesday with highs of 75 and lows of 55. The normal high for August 28th is 79 and the normal low is 55. The scurs will be making a beeline to their favorite foot long hot dog stand on the northeast corner of the Coliseum at the MN State Fair.
Crops continue to march towards harvest with much of the corn denting or starting to this past week. Moderate temperatures have helped this crop hang on but time is starting to run out. Each passing day without rain takes the potential yield down a fraction. The soybeans are in a similar predicament, having largely finished flowering. There are clusters of pods on top hanging in the balance. Given some timely rain soon, they may keep a large percentage of those pods. Without it, the opposite is likely to be true. There were still some fields where soybean aphid numbers were continuing to build after early spraying in July. It may be beneficial to check these fields just to see what the infestation levels are. Third cutting hay appears to be a short commodity as little rain falling within the last month will limit tonnage substantially.
The garden at the ranch is kicking out zucchini at such a rapid pace, I’m wondering if we should sneak them into the neighbors Harvestore. Cucumbers are showing up at a rapid pace too. Between them and the zucchini that get too large, the sheep are waiting at the fence when it looks like there may be some goodies that land on their side. The second planting of sweet corn appears almost ready to begin harvesting. If temperatures remain moderate and it stays good as long as the first planting did, we should have corn well into September. The string beans kicked out several gallons of beans this past week and there are more developing. The tomatoes are loaded as are the muskmelons, leading one to believe if Jack Frost stays away for much of September. There should be an ample supply of both. Apples are beginning to blush and the chokeberries are black, meaning we’d better hurry or the birds will have consumed them all.
Would appear the hummingbird migration is underway. There are lots of them darting around the yard, sampling flowers such as the salvia, petunias and 4 o’clocks now in full bloom. They’re also pulling harder on the nectar feeders. The orioles have started to say their goodbyes I’m afraid. The male orchard oriole was a no-show this past week for the first time in months. Likewise with some of the more brightly colored male Baltimore orioles. There is still a gang of young of both species but the amount of jelly they’re consuming makes me wonder how much longer it’ll be before they’re gone. Makes one sad that they can’t stay longer.
Through the marvels of technology, this slightly abridged column is being written while I’m on the road as part of the Midwest Pro Farmer Crop Tour. The trip out to Columbus, OH was largely uneventful and there was little in the way of rainfall for much of the distance. It had just rained in Columbus prior to our arriving there however. The corn crop looked about as advertised from the road: Variable and suffering from diseases such as Goss’s wilt in addition to obviously being nitrogen deficient across much of IL and IN. The soybeans at least from the road appear to have fared better from a plant health standpoint. Although, some may be behind maturity-wise, if a sample plant is pulled to make an indication. We’ll know the scoop better by the evening of August 25th after sampling fields across the Midwest.
Packing for the Pro Farmer Crop Tour, it became apparent that I lack clothes folding talent. Women apparently are naturally born with this gene. When I pack the clothes usually look like they rode around wadded up under the seat in my pickup for a week. When Mrs. Cheviot packs them for me, the clothes always look like they did hanging in the hanger. Word to the wise: Always have your wife pack your suitcase. That way you can get on to bigger and better things like taking a nap to rest up for your trip, wherever it may be.
See you next week…real good then.