I laugh that if you do not like the weather in Nebraska, just wait five minutes and it will change…We are still dry, but patches of rain are beginning to crop up in our area. Apparently Mother Nature still remembers how!
How could my heart not be filled with hope as I see this beautiful sight?
God’s paintbrush is incredible. It brings me a sense of peace as well as hope…
In spite of the dry and hot summer, Matt and his crew have been busy growing wheat, alfalfa, corn and soybeans…
The morning sun shines on “wheat straw bales” in the field. Wheat is able to grow with relatively small amounts of moisture, so we do not irrigate our wheat fields…After harvest, we bale the left over plant stalk to feed to our cattle…
This is the field of alfalfa behind my house. It is almost time to cut it again (this will be the fourth cutting)—I can tell because it is starting to get small purple flowers amongst the green leaves. The leaves are a bit smaller than normal due to lack of rain—we do not actively irrigate most of our alfalfa ground…
Today our corn is tasseled and looks pretty good—we have been irrigating the crop since late May so that it has enough water to grow. Some years we irrigate very little, some years (like this one) we are forced to irrigate regularly because Mother Nature does not provide rainfall…
We grow a few (irrigated) soybeans on our farm as well, but it is a very small percentage relative to our other crops…
We are blessed in the Platte River Valley to have access to irrigation water when it fails to rain. As long as we are diligent in our care, our crops are able to grow despite the dry weather. The terrible heat in late June and July was tough on everything, but we are hopeful that harvest will bring the resources that we need to make it through another year.
Thursday’s post will bring an explanation of how all of the different components of our farm (pasture ground, alfalfa, irrigated crops and cattle) all work together to ensure that our farm remains viable despite Mother Nature’s challenges.
