The scurs are fortunate the Weather Eye has been close on the forecasts. Definitely horseshoe and hand grenade material. Will this week be more of the same or will it blow up in our face? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a slight chance of evening showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 70’s with lows in the low 50’s. Thursday, partly sunny with a moderate chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 70’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Mostly cloudy on Friday with a good chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the low 60’s. Saturday, partly sunny with a moderate chance for showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Partly sunny on Sunday with a slight chance of rain. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the low 60’s. Monday, mostly cloudy with continued slight chances of rain. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the low 60’s. Partly cloudy for Tuesday with a decent possibility of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the low 60’s. On June 21st we’ll see 15 hours and 28 minutes of daylight for our longest day of the year. The exact amount of daylight varies from location to location due to differences in the horizon. The normal high for June 21st is 81 and the normal low is 62. The scurs are thinking it’s time to procure fireworks soon. Be a shame for the fireworks police to be lollygagging.
Progress was made in the fields once more, although we keep getting some beautiful September weather mixed in. This makes it hard to catch up on GDU’s, something we were 15% below normal on as of last Wednesday. Much of the corn is V6 with some V7 in and around groves. Soybeans emerged well generally and are V2 to V3 on the earlier planted fields. We are reminded sometimes how far behind things are when looking at the flashback pictures from prior years. Last year we were seeing blooms already on some early planted, early maturing soybeans. This year, not so much. Dicamba applications should be done on Xtend soybeans when this reaches print. It has been a struggle and the June 20th date snuck up on us quickly. Luckily, on the fields where a pre was applied, the soybeans have remained relatively clean. Likewise in the corn. Overall, the pre programs have been overachievers this year.
Was finally able to get loose on Sunday and get the pasture sprayed here at the ranch. Time consuming job when you’re going roughly six-foot swaths with the four-wheeler, but it allows for spot applications. Few things give me more pleasure than watching large patches of Canada thistle all gnarled up the day following a herbicide application. We are lucky to have some of the newer chemistry like aminopyralid to use. Properly applied, it provides effective long-term control. It doesn’t volatilize and applications are in ounces per acre so no large containers required.
One downside however is the fact it goes right on through animal digestive tracts unmetabolized and is excreted through feces and urine. Caution needs to be exercised with this family of chemistry as it also comes along for the ride in crop that’s harvested for feed or bedding. My first-hand experience was with clopyralid being sprayed on the pasture many years ago. It resulted in weeds such as dandelions dying in circular patterns where the sheep urinated in unsprayed parts of the pasture. Likewise when clopyralid that was part of a herbicide premix sprayed on corn with the stalks baled off for bedding. A dead patch of soybeans with telltale symptoms right in the middle of the area where manure was spread left little doubt.
As mentioned last week the pace of jelly consumption continues to slow, at least for the time being. I have yet to see any of the juvenile orioles appear at the feeders. Especially with the young Baltimore orioles, it always sounds like they’re lost at first. They catch on pretty fast however and before you know it, you’re back to the grocery store more frequently. The hummingbirds too have been less frequently noticed at the ranch than some years. They’re perhaps more stealthy this time around as the nectar does disappear as long as the ant moat water is maintained. It’s not easy to keep it full since the catbirds deemed it their private drinking water source.
In an encounter with the Boy Entomologist last week, he reassured me that the black fly-buffalo gnat plague was nearing an end, or at least they were being replaced by a less annoying species that was hatching out. The mosquitoes must not have received the memo as they are more ferocious than ever. At first the mosquitoes were a more docile larger model, big enough to be used for bait as Bemidji Billy pointed out. This most recent hatch however takes no prisoners. Get out of the wind and they attack, NOW! They also seem capable of biting through some clothing so even that doesn’t stop them.
Most recently there has also been an uptick in the numbers of stable flies, those lovely little jerks that enjoy biting through your socks when you’re not looking. Couple that with the appearance of horse flies and deer flies, we are doomed by all orders of pestilence. About the only positives are the large numbers of monarch larvae on milkweed plants and the appearance of the fireflies. Everyone by now knows better than to go outside into the horde of mosquitoes in the evening. It’s nice the fireflies can be viewed from the safety and comfort of one’s home.
See you next week…real good then.