Photo dump from the last week or so of work on the Massey. I'm very glad to say the alfalfa is in the ground! I'm still not confident this is going to work, but we've done all we can and now the rest up to the Lord, as my father-in-law would say.
First here's some work from last week in the lower barn plot. The rain this year has been heaven sent, I didn't think after these last few years, I'd ever see clover like this again! Look to the right and you can actually see my footprints, it's so lush and thick. I spread cereals, forage radish, clover and chicory, and mowed it down. I left the clover where we will put brassicas next year, the deer are hitting it so hard, I just couldn't bring myself to mow all of it down.
After the throw and mow
Another half acre got conventional planting with the same seed
This is the bean experiment in the ag field edge I mentioned a while back. The hay beans are doing well, even though they continue to get nailed every day by the deer, some were almost approaching knee height. I don't think they will do much for pods, I planted them too late. So I broadcast some wheat into them. The bag only cost $15 if the wheat is too shaded out to do much.
I tracked down a no-till from a neighbor, when I found out the county conservation office drill is out of commission. It was in better shape than the county drill anyway. Those Great Plains drills are quite the machines!
That bag cost over $500
... So I REALLY hope this works, since that bag had 3 other siblings!
After the drilling was done, I called the big dogs on a whim, thinking there was no way they would load up enough glyphosate for just 10 acres. Well, it was my lucky day, a nearby farmer wanted some gly sprayed on his corn stubble to get rid of cool season grasses too, in prep for wheat.
As you can see in the above pic, the brassicas have some unwanted guests with the abundant rain we've gotten. So I sprayed some cleth the old fashioned way. I thought the below scene was a little funny with the big rig in the background. No telling what the operator thought. lol
I also put that blue dye to use and it worked great with the hand sprayer; and thanks to the ample warning here, I was careful and didn't end up looking like Papa Smurf.
It's not their fault, but talk about bad timing!
