Friday on the Farm

 

Between unloading corn and filling a grain bin, I checked on the field of rye. The rye has grown about two inches since last week. Through the corn residue, the rye is growing. The field of rye is starting to green.

 

Friday on the Farm

So, I am checking on the field of rye this morning. It is snowing. The flakes of snow were falling from the sky and melting on the rye.  

[ agriculture photos @ monicastevens.photoshelter.com ]

forage peas: week 1

We drilled peas on October 2 [ post from seeding peas ] and rye on October 3. The Austrian Winter Peas are forage peas. They will be chopped and bagged next spring as silage for our cows.

emerging peas

Today, I scouted the field. I was happy to see that the forage peas were emerging! And, I am excited to see how much they grow next week!

Friday on the Farm

Austrian Winter Peas were seeded in a field. Eight acres of winter peas will be used as forage. Next spring, they will be chopped and bagged as silage for our cows.

austrian winter peas

Rye and Austrian Winter Peas were drilled in a field where corn was chopped for silage. Seeding rye and peas on the field will protect the soil from erosion. The rye and peas will be chopped and bagged next spring as forage. It should be great forage!

peas and rye

It rained this morning, so the forage peas and rye should have a great start to growing. It look forward to seeing the progress of the peas!

rye: 2018



Rye was no-till drilled on October 18 and November 1. 

 
The two fields of rye were cut on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning... one field of6 acres, and the second field of 8 acres. These fields were cut to be chopped and bagged as ryelage. And, we will feed the ryelage to cows late this summer as needed.

Rye was raked this morning to be chopped and loaded into wagons to fill a bag. 

catching rye as it is being chopped

Loads of rye were hauled back to the farm to fill the silage bag. Bagging crops like ryelage allows us to harvest high nutritional value forage and store it for later use. It has worked very well for us.

We finished chopping and bagging one field of rye. Then unfortunately, rain arrived. We were caught in a rain delay. So, we will have to wait to finish the second field of rye.

seeding rye

This afternoon, we finished seeding rye as forage for our cattle.

 

bags of rye

Dad sprayed a 7 acre field of hay field to be seeded. The hay field had been cut and baled as forage since 2010. Since we need high quality and quantity of forage, we decided to seed the field. We no-till drilled rye into the field this morning. The rye was seeded at a rate of 72 pounds per acre. Rain is in the forecast, so it should be great for germination.

 

no-till drill filled with rye

We are planning on planting red clover and spring peas into the rye next spring. The rye, clover, and peas will then be chopped and bagged as silage. It should be a quality forage high in nutritional value. I am pretty excited about this forage for our cows!