The scurs and the Weather Eye clicked again last week. Will that clicking continue or eventually mean the wheels falling off the cart? Starting Wednesday, mostly clear with highs in the low 70’s with lows in the mid-50. Thursday, mostly sunny with highs in the low 80’s with lows in the low 50’s. Mostly sunny on Friday with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms by evening. Highs in the low 70’s with lows in the low 50’s. Saturday, mostly sunny with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 70’s with lows in the low 50’s. Mostly sunny on Sunday with highs in the low 70’s and lows in the mid-50’s. Labor Day, mostly sunny with highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Mostly sunny for Tuesday with a slight chance for a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 70’s and lows in the low 60’s. The normal high for September 2nd is 79 and the normal low is 58. Oddly enough that same day the scurs have tickets to see that little ol’ band from Texas, a how, how, how…
Crops progressed in my absence while on the road for the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour. Checking some corn Monday, the earlier plantings are denting, although most would not qualify as full dent. Still, generally speaking, once corn dents it’s about a month before it reaches physiological maturity. Soybeans are in much the same bracket. The early planted beans are a full R6 and nearly all the soybeans save for the afterthoughts are R5. Aphid numbers climbed in some of the later planted fields and in some of the early planted fields have all but disappeared. The presence of large numbers of beneficial insects such as ladybugs and their larvae is very evident. Also noted in many fields are aphid mummies, the result of their being parasitized by tiny beneficial wasps. Beneficial to crop producers, not to the aphids. The wasps deposit an egg inside a live aphid and the resulting larvae eat the aphid alive from the inside. Then they use the aphid’s puffed up body to pupate, emerging through a small hole as an adult wasp. Neato, huh?
As mentioned, another Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour is now in the books for me. They have all been unique and interesting. This year, in light of all the prevent plant acres, it was more interesting than ever. As social media continues to play an ever larger role in our perception of the world, one quickly realizes that many are quick to convince folks that because their area has a poor crop, therefore everyone has a poor crop. There is a grain of truth to that in that this year in particular there was pain to be shared. Most areas struggled to get planting done and this probably won’t be a record crop for most. However, this crop is a long way from being the complete and utter disaster some would have you believe.
Going on the eastern leg of the Crop Tour means a change to Eastern Time on Sunday morning and then a change back Tuesday as we head west to Bloomington, Ill. For me it means days that start at 4-5 a.m. and end about midnight. Four days of that takes its toll and the final night usually goes past 3 a.m. when we come up with the national production estimate. This year security concerns due to a death threat made on the western leg of the tour to a USDA employee and another made the next night to my friend Chip Flory made it a little unnerving. Security was present at Iowa City Wednesday night and at the finale in Rochester Thursday night security was tight. Luckily these people tipped their hands before anything happened. People also spoke up and allowed the system to work. The threats were taken seriously and the individuals making them were dealt with accordingly.
It’s great to leave all that behind, sleep in my own bed and attempt to get back in the groove again. It takes a while though to get my biorhythms in sync. Toss in a trip to the State Fair Saturday to show sheep then catching up on storm damage and mowing an overgrown lawn Sunday. Suddenly you don’t feel like relaxing because there’s too much to do. By Monday afternoon I finally hit the wall. After nodding off in front of the confuser my body was finally telling me that hey, that’s enough, it’s time to sleep and get back on a normal schedule. I’m game.
Mowing the lawn is somewhat therapeutic after being on the road, especially with the headphones on while listening to a Twins game. While it blocks out the noise, one still has to be cognizant of his surroundings and small creatures that suddenly appear in the mower’s path. One large toad hopped out in front of the deck so I stopped and placed it in the safety of a flower bed. I also narrowly averted hitting a garter snake that slithered away just in the nick of time. I like having these amphibians and reptiles around the yard as they definitely are the “good guys.” Hitting them also means their decomposing carcasses are a favorite target for Ruby to roll in. Few things stink worse than eau de garter snake ground into a dog’s fur and collar. More than one dog bath has resulted over the years.
Even more therapeutic than lawn mowing is to watch the hummingbirds forage through the four o’clocks we planted for them this spring. I wondered why the hummers weren’t hitting the nectar feeder much and had my answer soon afterwards. Also rewarding is to look at the progress of the morning glories ascending the light pole in the middle of the yard. Earlier in the season I wouldn’t have bet they’d look as pretty as they do. Pale and spindly, they had a rough start with the cool May and June. Flea beetles also hampered their early growth, riddling their leaves with holes. Eventually the morning glories got their mojo back and now they look like a huge dark green anaconda encircling the pole, suffocating its prey. Harkens me back to watching Marlin Perkins safely upstream in a blind while Jim Fowler went the best two out of three falls with a giant reptile. Ah the good old days…
See you next week…real good then.