Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[frustratedearthmother]

this time she didn't survive the ordeal so i ended having to dig the hole to bury her. I just hope she don't float up..

 

[Mike CHS]

That would not be a good way to end a day.

 

[farmerjan]

Sorry about the neighbors horse, but I think I would have been a little hesitant to put her back where she could get into trouble again. Sometimes I wonder if they don't do it to themselves when they know the end is near. Other times they are just dumb/stupid. Oh well.

We got a fair snowfall Friday afternoon. About 2 inches. It was Currier and Ives picture postcard perfect out there. The ground is still pretty much white, but temps are creeping a bit. Up to 37 and supposed to get in the mid 40's. Then more rain this afternoon, and into the evening. Tomorrow, Sunday, we are looking at clearing....some sun, and temps to hit the upper 60's. Really. This is nuts. Maybe this little snowstorm was the last hurrah of winter. But we have had some on Easter before.
I am sure ready for some real spring weather this year. The last couple of years we have stayed colder than normal, then it switched to warmer, and right into summer type weather. Of course, last year it just rained all the way through too. I hope we have a little less rain this year, but sure don't want it to dry up and stop raining for the rest of the year. Since we are already at nearly 3 times the YTD normal moisture, it is scary to think it might just quit.
We hope to get an early cutting of rye which will grow fast once the weather warms up a bit. Part of the renovation of the hayfield. The johnson grass is moving into the orchard grass field next to it. While johnson grass makes a pretty decent hay for the cattle, the horse people don't like it in the hay we sell. Since we often roll the first cutting, it doesn't hurt that the johnson grass is in our rolls, and it slows it's growth down a bit so that any in the sq bales we can put aside for the calves. But when it gets growing unchecked, it will ruin the "for sale" hay. Plus there are some other weeds coming up now, so time to renovate. Hay fields have to be done about every 5-10 years.
Then the field will get put in corn, as my son has decided to go with that option. It will give us a bag of corn silage and they will do the chopping and hauling and bagging as a part of the deal. It will be the fastest way to get the field cleaned up of the johnson grass. Plus we will have the rye off early enough to get the corn planted so will get an "extra crop" of rolls of hay to have as insurance.

 

[Baymule]

I don't know of anyone making silage here. I see the silo's, but they may be left over from "the old days" and no longer used. I had a friend in Livingston that gave up on dairy farming and switched to beef cattle. He had silos for the dairy cattle, but stopped using them. There is lots of dairy north of us, I don't know about their feeding schedules.

 

[Bruce]

But we have had some on Easter before.

That won't happen to you this year, Easter isn't until April 21st.

 

[CntryBoy777]

I had to come out of the flannel shirt by 9 this morning....even broke a sweat and had to take a break........when ya say rye, are ya talking grain or ryegrass?

 

[farmerjan]

The rye that we plant is technically an annual, and if allowed to grow out will produce a grain. It gets cut before it starts to head as hay. I'm thinking that "ryegrass" is more of a bunch grass, not an annual, but a perennial. The rye that is typically planted on a farm is the annual, normally planted in late fall (no thanks to the wet fields this past fall-winter) and will start to grow anytime the temps get above 40 or so. Wheat needs more cold temps so it didn't get planted this past fall because we couldn't get on the fields to get it in. Rye is more forgiving to the timing, although it won't do good in the heat, but if gotten in even now, will have enough cooler temps, that it should come on for a decent crop to take off early enough to get the corn in by early June. At least we are hoping. It almost seems a waste but letting the fields lie open is not helping to stem the johnson grass takeover either. The rye will help crowd it out as it grows fast and will be planted thick. And we will hopefully get a "hay crop" to replenish some of the tremendous amount of hay the cattle have been eating this winter.

 

[greybeard]

The rye that we plant is technically an annual, and if allowed to grow out will produce a grain. It gets cut before it starts to head as hay. I'm thinking that "ryegrass" is more of a bunch grass, not an annual, but a perennial.

Ryegrass seed can be either annual or perennial. Both produce a seed head.
Cereal rye (the grain) is different altogether and the seedhead and seed are about twice or 3x as large.
We refer to planting ryegrass as 'winter rye' but that name really belongs to the cereal rye (grain)

1. Lolium multiflorum (annual ryegrass)
2. Lolium perenne (perennial ryegrass)
3. Secale cereale (winter rye)

 

[farmerjan]

@greybeard ; Yeah, I was referring to "winter rye" as that is mostly all that is planted as a cover crop and for both a "hay" crop or for a grain crop that also produces rye straw. Didn't realize that the "rye grass" was both an annual and a perennial... only knew about the perennial type that is in most grass seed mixtures.

 

[greybeard]

@greybeard ; Yeah, I was referring to "winter rye" as that is mostly all that is planted as a cover crop and for both a "hay" crop or for a grain crop that also produces rye straw. Didn't realize that the "rye grass" was both an annual and a perennial... only knew about the perennial type that is in most grass seed mixtures.

The ryegrass seed we plant in the South is usually annual Gulf or Marshall variety and most of it, like a lot of different grass seed, comes from Oregon or somewhere close by in the Pacific NW USA. Annual ryegrass 'will' set some hard seed and some of that will come up the following season if it's allowed to go to seed. It doesn't come back from root, or spread by stolen like the perennial does. Oregon produces about 70% of all the grass seed produced in the world ......everything from ryegrasses to orchard grass, fescues to Ky Bluegrass.
Perennial ryegrass, if left to grow can get up to 4-5 ft tall easy.