Another week of the same – we had 3 good harvest days and then down for 4 days due to rain! This time we had a more substantial amount of rain – a series of thunderstorms on Tuesday night through Wednesday morning left between 26-43mm of rain across the farm. With all the crop standing for straight cut – it really doesn’t matter if it’s 5mm or 40mm (except when the ground is wet and it starts to puddle / or so wet we leave ruts). So even though it’s harvest season this rain was welcome.
We are 39% complete as of Monday September 4th. The barley is all done and we have about 76% of the wheat off. The wheat still is visually holding a milling grade – we are not seeing a higher number of sprouts – the important tests are the falling number tests which we have sent additional samples away for analysis. Wheat yields have been encouraging – just like the barley – we had low expectations. Still below average but given the moisture we had during the growing season it is amazing to see the plants ability to produce seed. The plants are below knee height in a lot of places…
This next week looks to be cooler but also doesn’t appear to have any major rain events. With all the moisture we have had in August the ground is still firm and the weather stations only show a recharge into the 30-50cm level – we will need another 60-70mm after harvest to fully replenish the subsoil for the 2024 growing season.
