Life on the Farm

[bjrogg]

Started digging beets with the sun coming up and the moon going down

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Really another pretty day

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Our mixture of rye and radish has really taken off. The radishes are about four feet tall and starting to make seed. I don’t want them to make seed . It would be like weed seeds.

I want to set back the radishes and keep it from making seeds.

I want to keep my rye over winter and plant my sugar beets next spring into the living rye.

I spray the radishes with a product similar to what most people use for their lawns. It will keep the radishes from going to seed but not harm the rye.

Usually I just till the radishes and the rye comes back, but it was very dry and I didn’t want to kill the rye so I decided to try this method.

One thing is for sure . We put tons and tons of organic matter into our soil. The radishes should help with nematode population to.

I have come to enjoy my cover crops as much as my real crops.

My wife said the other day. The time of year all the fields are turning brown.

I said not ours. Ours are all turning green again with cover crops. Boy I really do appreciate that though the winter

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Radishes up to my chest

Starting to make seed

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

The colors are changing.

But our harvested fields are turning green again.

Here’s rye just coming up and leaves on the trees showing off their colors

Bjrogg

[chamookman]

Way cool Bud !  Bob

[bjrogg]

Thank Bob

It’s been a really nice fall here. The colors were really good and they still are holding on better than expected. It has been windy and we did lose some color but still a very beautiful fall.

The permanent pile harvest of sugar beet began 10-27 with perfect conditions for both harvesting and storing sugar beets.

We started in the field we had dug three early digs from. It was 130 acres and we had harvested 105 acres early dig.

We dug the remaining 25 acres and then move to our field right across the railroad tracks from the piling grounds.

Then we dug another 27 acres. A very good first day.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

First loads of permanent piles waiting to be harvested

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

The trucks take the sugar beets to piling grounds. They unload them into the piler . It cleans dirt and rocks from the beets and piles them on big piles.

Then the trucks take the dirt and rocks (tare) back to the field.

Here’s the Mac we painted Green. It was always called the Red Mac. We thought about new names and nobody liked  Kermit except me.

Threw around a couple that didn’t stick.

Then accidentally called it “Red Green”.

That stuck

Here’s Red Green dumping tare in field.

Bjrogg

PS “keep your stick on the ice”

[bjrogg]

We had really good beets again. We were a bit lucky and we also did a few things right. We had good tons and sugar.

We kept the trucks very busy. We dug and delivered over 2,000 tons four days in a row. I have dug more acres in a day but that’s pushing our tons delivered to the record high area.

Here we have two cart loads ready to fill the truck as soon as it arrives.

The first cart dumps its beets and then hurries to the beet digger to get reloaded. The second cart dumps its beets and finishes filling the truck as I start refilling the first cart

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

The fifth day of digging beets is the last one . Got done in record time with harvesting 30% early

One last sunrise in the digger tractor

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

With sugar beet harvest finished we scrap the dirt off the equipment and start harvesting my son’s high moisture corn to fill his bunker silo.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

The weather held and the corn was perfect moisture for the bunker. Good yield too.
Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Here’s where the corn goes. It goes through a roller mill and get cracked. Then the push tractor pushes the cracked corn up on pile and pack it.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Now the cleaning and washing equipment. Storing it away and running it through the shop for maintenance.

I did sneak out with my bow for a couple hours last night. No deer but I did watch the moonrise.

It’s been a good year. I’m getting old enough that I wonder how many more I will be able to participate in. I’m tired, but it’s a good tired. I still really love what I do. I think I have a couple more, but only the good lord knows. Glad to have this one completed.

Bjrogg

PS maybe I will get some time for projects again but it always seems like I stay busy till after new years