All around us, there are farmer after farmer after farmer who were not able to get their crops in the fields this year. At the farm here they were unable to get about 400 acres of land planted of the 1900 or so that Hubby’s boss operates. Sadly the weather just didn’t cooperate.
On those unplanted fields two things are popping up…weeds and tiling rigs.
Here is a field that Hubby’s boss is having tiled. The rigs and tile are all in place and going to work.
For those of you who aren’t up on farm knowledge, tile is a way to control the moisture of the soil. There is a big tube that they trench into the ground. The tube allows moisture to collect and the moisture can be moved away from the soil.
Being the fields are unplanted, tiling season which is usually early spring and late fall, has lasted all year. There are several tiling companies in our area and all are working long hours trying to meet the demands that farmers have for tilers. One tiler/construction owner was here working on the bin set up and he said he has enough business to get him all the way through December even if he only took on tiling jobs.
I think this year allergy season is going to be much worse for some too. On the land that wasn’t planted, farmers can just leave it. They aren’t required to plant anything or maintain weeds. Our guys have been regularly mowing all of the weeds so that they don’t go to seed making weed control next year even harder but many other farmers are just letting the weeds spring up and go to seed leaving whole fields covered in weeds. Those weeds are adding to pollen counts and those pollen counts many increase the suffering of people with allergies.
I know Hubby’s allergies are worse than ever this year…weeds are just a “crop” that people don’t need.
Interesting. I’m always learning something new about farming and quilting from you. Sad that you got so much rain this year and have to do the tiling. I’m sure the owner will miss the income from the crop and to put more money into the mowing of weeds is thoughtful and amazing. Are the tubes removed before planting next spring? I would guess so.
I used to be a tile drainage employee…best summer job I ever had! It put me through university AND I got a great tan!
Thanks for that info. After living in Kansas over 20 years I never knew about the tile. I’ll have to ask if they do that around here. I know they put “drain tile” which is platic tubing around the basements to carry away the water. Same concept I suppose.
Our field radishes we planted last weekend are popping up. I have to say, I never thought I would see the day when radishes were planted as a cover crop. These are not the normal “garden” variety. These get BIG. They are planted with rye in our fields and will be plowed under as organic matter. We put pig manure on our fields for the fertilizer (nitrogen). As there has not been any corn using the nitrogen on these bare fields this year, the radishes use up the nitrogen, store it in their decomposing organic matter over the winter underground, and then the corn next year can use the nitrogen from the decomposed radishes. Save a lot of $$ in purchasing commercial fertilizer.
It sure seems weird planting crops in August rather than May?!?! After the drought of last summer and the wet spring and cool summer of this year, I wonder what mother nature will throw at us next year…