Boots on the Ground

We had some terrific storms late last week, which gave us about 5" or so of rain. Rain is a good thing. I didn't realize how good until we moved to the country. Our income has never, and still doesn't, depend on the weather and the growing season, and may never depend on that. We've had lots of opportunities, though, to observe those around us who do depend on the weather and good crops to put food on their tables. By that, I don't just mean a good crop of tomatoes in the family garden. I'm talking about the folks around here, mostly corn and soybean growers, who work doggone hard to get a good crop each year. Sometimes they even get one.

Last year it really hit home to us, because the hay harvest was so nasty. We had already struggled with bad corn and soybeans causing our animals' feeds to go up significantly in price during the previous two summers. Finally it hit the hay, which is just dry grass, after all, and not so susceptible to weather and other factors. With the long, cool, wet spring we had, followed by a cool, wet summer, the hay was stemmy and sparse and often rotted in the field before it could be baled. The price went up, even for the garbagy stuff that resulted. Our "hay guy" drove up to Green Bay, Wisconsin, before he found hay good enough for his customers, which include one of the local feed stores. We paid painful prices for good hay last summer. While we're getting better hay locally this year, it seems the price isn't going down much. That's more a factor of people like us being willing to pay more last year; why bring the price down now?

This year, though, we seem to be getting good rain at good times. The temperatures and the sun seem to be cooperating to produce healthy plants and what looks to be a good crop, come September and October. Stay tuned...