Sometimes being a farmer and being an optimist at the same time is a very steep hill to climb. Certainly in Kansas our weather can be problematic at times,but usually it doesn't go on forever. However, whether you chalk it up to climate change or just the luck of the draw, the months since November 2007 have been challenging for me weather wise.
We managed to go since Monday morning without rain. I pushed it and got into the field drilling some well drained soil Tuesday late evening. We had a good run for the most part, and as I posted earlier started cutting our truly inferior wheat yesterday. Today we ran into some ground that needed a couple more days to dry before it could be drilled. There was only a very slight chance of rain for this evening, I was trying to remember that about 6pm when the weather alarm sounded over the radio on the combine. There was a line of storms about 50 miles to our north, you could see the thunderheads clearly, and they were moving east, when a piece split off and came straight south. I pushed my old red combine as I watched vivid lightening light up the sky and from time to time pressed my face against the side window to look up above me to make sure I wasn't about to get poured on. It got darker and darker, my grain loss monitor steadily climbed, but I knew our already poor test weight wheat was about to get alot poorer. Finally, as the lightening got near enough for the thunder to be heard in the cab, I gave up, dumped and raced the truck to the shed, had Mrs KF haul me back to the combine and beat the rain in. Just checked the gauge, .6 of an inch. Perfect if the work were all done.
It is easy to complain about our situation. Crops choked with weeds, drowned out spots, still some unplanted fields, hay far past its prime or put up brown or near black. But then, it is good to think it could be worse. A fellow about 5 miles north east lost 200 acres of corn a week ago to hail. Farmers out in western and northern Kansas have lost whole crops of wheat to hail. Iowans and others all along the Mississippi are flooded out. I have a neighbor to the south who lost 180 acres of wheat last year, and now it looks like the same 180 acres may not get planted to soybeans this year. Our church is having a fundraiser Saturday morning for an aunt of one of the parish members who lost her entire home in the Chapman tornado.
My wheat is lousy, some of my soybeans are still in the sack. 160 4x6 bales of alfalfa got wet in the windrow. But, the grass is growing, the calves are getting big. The wheat might be scabby and poor and getting a big dock, but it is a record price. 20 bushel beans this year may pay out like 50 bushel did 3 years ago. My new niece was born this morning, had all her fingers and toes, and my mother didn't wreck getting to Nebraska to see her. So, things could be much worse. Still, it would sure be nice if the weather could cooperate the rest of the summer.