It Must Be June...

Another week has started with a bang.

Second cutting of hay is under way already.  Jim mowed on Saturday and baled this evening.  Yesterday was windy (so windy in fact, that when we came home from Church, the 2000 piece puzzle that I had half finished had blown off the table and onto the floor!!) and today was beautiful...low humidity, sunny and breezy.  Perfect hay drying weather.

See the leaves on this hay bale?  That's beautiful hay...

The cows are eagerly awaiting the "crumbs" from the wagon after it's unloaded.  Jenna swept them into the hay rack in the meadow.  It was getting close to dark, and I like how the cows' eyes are glowing...

Some of them just couldn't wait, and snuck around to the back side of the wagon.  I couldn't get a picture without their heads getting blurry.  They just wouldn't hold still!

After the hay was unloaded, we got a call that the combine was on it's way to the barley field.  The combine outlined against the western sky was truly beautiful. If only I had the right kind of camera.  As it goes, you get to see the edge of the field and the specks of light in the center of the picture just above the barley are the lights from the combine...

I parked along the edge of the road and tried to get a few pictures as he came past...

This is in the field behind him...you can see the straw being spit out the back of the combine into two windrows...

The next step will be baling straw.  Maybe tomorrow?  It should make lots of bales!

(The grain yield was great...roughly 100 bushels per acre!)

As for those kids who wanted to party in the barley field last Saturday night...we found their whiskey bottle.  But no...wait...they hadn't been in the field!!

Barley 2014

I think in my last post, I updated at the end, that the barley was being combined that night!  It's been a whirlwind ever since and I'm just now getting around to posting some pictures from over the weekend.

The barley yield was really, really good...just over 100 bushels per acre.  No complaining about that, for sure!

I was on my way on an errand, when I saw the combine in the field, but didn't have my camera along.  So no pics of the combine in action, but here are some from another year if you'd like to see them.  You'll notice the barley looks different in the two posts.  Any ideas why??

I went to the other farm after milking, just in time to catch Jim finishing up with the baler in the first field...

Jim's Dad ran wagons back and forth from the other farm to home...

...where the kids unloaded it above the outside pen.  It'll make nice bedding for heifer pens...

Just as Jim finished up baling, his cousin Wes showed up at the other farm with his dirt bike.  He was on his way home from a day of riding in Delaware, and Jim took a quick spin in the now clean field before heading home...

All the barley straw has now been baled and unloaded.  Today one field was replanted with soybeans, and the second field will be replanted with short season corn this afternoon, as soon as the corn planter gets here.

It must be summer!

Barley...

Every fall, Jim seeds cover crops of rye and either barley or wheat on some of our fields. 

The rye fields are usually grazed or baled and then "burnt off" before planting, and the barley or wheat fields are harvested for the grain.  After harvesting the grain, the remaining straw is baled for bedding.

This week the barley tested at an acceptable moisture level for harvesting.  So...today the combine arrived. 

The cows, curious as usual, are looking to see what has invaded "their" field.  That's the barley field right on the other side of the combine...

The combine starts through the field...Murphy trotting along behind.  The grain goes into a bin inside the combine, while the straw is discharged out the back. The combine is set to leave the straw in two windrows, which will be just right for our baler to pick up and bale later this evening...

Watching the combine coming across the field towards me...

Beautiful heads of barley up close, just before harvesting...

I rode once around the field in the combine...this is the view from inside.  Several areas of the field were "lodged", or knocked down from the heavy rains we had over the weekend.  When the barley lodges like this, it is difficult, if not impossible for the combine to pick it up, and some of the grain is left on the ground, wasted... 

The combine driver works in comfort in a roomy, air-conditioned cab, with the latest in technology at his fingertips.  This combine is equipped with a computer that has a GPS, which maps the fields as he works.   It tells him exactly how big the field is, the moisture level and yield of the grain, as well as which sections of the field yielded the highest, etc...

All in all, it was a good barley day.  The yield was good, although it would have been even better had it not lodged, and the straw has all been baled and stacked in the barn for bedding.  Next on the agenda for this field will be spreading manure from the heifer pens, and then a short season corn will be planted as a double crop.  And oh yes...there's more hay to bale tomorrow!

It looks like we won't be bored for the next week or so!