A few farmers have their corn silage chopped, but not many. We've had so much rain that the corn is still pretty lush. Hay crops have been great, from what I can see. Getting the hay in the last couple weeks has been hit and miss because of the rain. We've had rain the last 3 days and it's raining again now. There was almost 3/4 of an inch in the gauge from yesterday, and 1 1/2 inches before that. This will bring any thoughts of field work to a screeching halt.

My lawn has never looked so good this late in the season and the potted plants are loving this. It's been pretty hot and humid the last month..........I don't like it much but anything growing outside sure does.

The Spousal Unit had to go and attack the weeds along the electric fence again. Usually the spraying he does early on takes care of it for the season, but not this year. I think he went with the weed eater.

How is farming for everyone else??

We were back here.........

The thread "Farming in April, 2018" in Farming forum

Thanks for the new thread, Anna. I will contribute when I get a moment.

Well, I hope someone does besides you and me.

In the last hour and a half we got an inch and a half of rain. More than a frog strangler............an "ark floater".............

I always read these Farming threads. I find it all very interesting.

Can't really add anything as my suburban house and garden are hardy a farm. Old now and tired but for most of my life I would have loved to have acreage and do some "hobby farming".

Chickens and enough vegetables to supply the neighborhood area good start.

I have NEVER had any desire to acquire poultry. I'm just not a poultry person. Cows were more my style. Hated pigs too, but I was forced into them. Ick.

Wanted chickens my entire life. Lived where I can't have them my entire life.

Sure don't want any cows or pigs!! Maybe sheep or goats. But for sure no cows or pigs.

When I see pigs as pets on these TV vet shows I am always amazed anyone actually wants a pig for anything but eating them.

Found you! The summer has nearly gotten away from us. This morning I picked green beans again. I already have enough in the freezer to last all winter and until next bean picking season, but I can't let them go to waste. Our grape harvest yielded a nice bucket full of small, reddish blue grapes that are very sweet and seedless. I will be making juice of them this afternoon. A few tomatoes have finally ripened. My garlic and onions have been dug and pulled, hung to dry in bundles, had tops cut off, were cleaned, boxed for selling and some of it sold already. I'm still waiting for the corn to mature. One pear tree (of 2) is loaded with fruit this year, and so is my (I think it is Stanley) plum which has fruit that looks like the old Italian prune. I have a hot fence around them to keep the deer out. The apple has not produced anything.... again.

We had a very wet spring so the fence lines got out of control. One spraying is never enough in out long growing season, but this year I think I have already chemically weeded the fences four times, and some areas are overdue for another treatment. I was also not able to treat the weeds in the pastures as I usually do in early spring because it would either be raining or too windy. So I have spent a lot of time on the tractor shredding pastures in an attempt to control the weeds and rampant, overgrown grass. Maybe I need more cows...?

Farmers here have all finished harvesting corn and sorghum and most of the cotton too. It is currently raining so the late cotton may be a loss. The fields will be too wet to work in for a week or more. At least the rain has cooled things off a bit - only in the 80s today.

Deer found ways though/over/under the hot fence and ate most of the fruit. We need to build a higher and more critter proof fence with higher posts, cattle panels on the bottom and hot wires above that. We use a solar charger. I picked the last of the green beans yesterday. Some corn is finally ready. Ranchers here on our hills are shuffling cattle around to take advantage of the remaining grass. We have a neighbor's cows with very young calves. He lost the use of a pasture he was counting on for 70 cow/calf pairs. Ranches in the valleys still have irrigation water and can grow grass or make hay for another 6 weeks.

I need to rearrange the freezer to make space for a half a hog. That will include disposing of some over the hill ufo's in the garden to break down and feed the soil and next year's garden crops. Round and round it goes!

Mary, we built a fence to keep feral hogs out and horses in with cattle panels and hot wire on top, but the total height is only about 5'. The deer jump it but have trouble judging their leap, and we have had several get stuck in the cattle panel and have to be cut out (or shot in the case of a couple with broken legs). We changed the wire for hot tape and have had no more stuck deer - they now jump clean. Anyway, as you doubtless know, 5' isn't tall enough. Works great for the hogs, though!

We have a 2 strand electric wire around our pastures but that is only to keep cattle IN. During the winter we find that the deer jump it and tear it down. But, we keep no cattle during the winter, so it's just a PITA chore the Spousal Unit has to do re: putting it back together and repair in the spring before more beasts are brought over.

The SU is at the neighbor's today..........he's making a bag of snaplage. That's whole ear corn and husks run through a chopper. Corn with a little "greens" mixed in. :>) Don't know how long it wil take them. I"m sure they won't get done today; but I didn't ask him how long of a bag they're doing. I guess when I see him coming he will be home.

Some Mennonites invited me to their monthly hymn sing this evening........I'm still up in the air as to whether I'm going or not. It's not too far from me, but my BFF said she didn't care to go. I really don't MIND going alone............

Anna, I'd love to go with you. Old hymns are the best! I don't care for the modern stuff at all.

Today we picked up half a hog all custom cut, wrapped and frozen solid. We deal with a 3 generation family farm who do everything on their acreage from raising the grain to the finished product. Shipping costs were killing them so they decided if they were going to stay in the hog raising business they would have to do everything themselves. It's called Pig Tail Pork.

My quick fix for the orchard fence is a radio in a plastic bag turned to a 24 hour talk station. I have not seen a deer in there since I put the radio in!

This hymnal had LOTS of hymns I've not heard of in their hymnal. Yes, I did go, and I had a good time. Walked into the room where they were having it (It was their schoolhouse), men on one side, women on the other. The men all hung their hats on a peg on the back wall. I have NO idea how they found their own hat, I mean, they were all the same. I will go back next month if I can.

Anna, that's funny about the hats! Maybe they put their names inside?

Frost was forecast for our area last night but it missed us and was actually 38 on the porch just before daylight. We drove past a farm in the valley below us where we could see a field of pumpkins with plants showing a lot of damaged leaves on their tops but still ok nearer the ground. I brought my Christmas cactus inside for the winter (actually until June) just in case because in about another 2-3 nights it's forecast to be a couple of degrees colder and we might have a different air current over us then. I'm debating on trying to cover vegies, it works for the squash but gives minimal protection to tomato plants growing in field fence circles, and absolutely nothing for the corn. I should start cutting the younger planted corn for horse feed because it won't have time to mature.

Continuation of the orchard fence saga...
I tried putting a small radio in a plastic bag under one of the trees. It was tuned to one of those all night talk stations. The deer stayed out for about 5 nights, then ignored the radio. I picked the fruit and we took down the fence. Bought 10 ft tall heavy duty T posts. I raised hubby up in the tractor bucket so he could get the driver over the top of the posts to drive them into the ground. All ok until the 5th post when he lost his balance and came tumbling down. He's got a few broken ribs to show for that adventure. Our good neighbors came on Saturday and built the fence. Good neighbors are such a blessing!

He did not accuse you of moving the bucket and/or the tractor????

Next time try using the bucket to pound in the T posts - if it will raise high enough.

Hubby pretty much started today helping the neighbor with his corn and soybean harvest. Unless t rains, I do not expect to see him much till Thanksgiving. LOL

Of course, that can work 2 ways, you know.

The tractor bucket will not raise up that high. Hubby doesn't blame me although it was surely my lack of coordination with the various pedals and levers on the tractor that started the unfortunate chain of events. He knows that at 80 he has no business doing such a dangerous task and expecting me to handle a tractor I have only driven 3-4 times and never doing anything like what he had me doing. He is feeling a little better every day now, still can't lie down in bed so he is sleeping in the recliner. Healing up will take weeks.