These furry mice are field voles. Jack said I can't believe the damage you get to tile and all those trees your neighbor boys are cutting out! I said there is no perfect farming system and notill has its challenges. Mine are weeds, voles and notill trees. They are a pain but I will trade them for tillage, erosion and soil destruction.
This time we cut out broken tile and laid it over the holes and filled the holes with some number four's or one inch plus stone. This will make it more challenging for them to bury corn kernals in my tile system. It won't stop them but maybe it will slow them down.
I need to post a picture of my notill tree leaves. I don't know kind of tree it is. I have been calling it sumac bushes but I looked up sumac and it is not the common Staghorn Sumac found in Ohio. I did find this guide useful for identifying native Ohio plants. Maybe you can help me identify the bushes growing in my notill field at the house if I post a picture.
I think just about every combine available was in a field somewhere around here yesterday. Some farmers are just starting, more are about half finished but I imagine a few are wrapping up harvest like my friend in Illinois did yesterday. He was very happy a neighbor showed up with his 3 trucks to help him finish his soybean harvest. Some farmers are reporting better soybean yields than their corn numbers! I am thankful we don't have that here.
I was riding a friends combine yesterday and where he had no Marestail problem the yield monitor was sitting at 60 bushels. As soon as he hit a Marestail patch the monitor went to 50 bushels. At today's price that is 150 dollars per acre less soybeans. I think that would have paid for a different soybean strategy, don't you? Liberty Link beans are more expensive to raise on the chemical side but they don't cost $150 more per acre!
It's another beautiful day in Ohio but the weather is changing this weekend so I better get to work. Govenor Romney is coming to Lebanon today nearby but I don't think I will mess with his political rally.
Have a great weekend.
Ed
150 per acre adds up pretty fast. Hope you have a great weekend, too.
ReplyDeleteVoles... I'm guessing 2012 will be remembered as the year Ed started raising ferrets and weasels. ;)
ReplyDeleteYour friend should be thankful he lost only 10 bushels per acre on this marestail patch, it frequently does much more damage. I hope he can fix it for next year's harvest. Since soybeans are planted late, wouldn't false seedbeds be a good way to get rid of marestail? With no-till, you wouldn't even have to prepare a seedbed, just a light hoeing or burning of the young weeds. And the weeds wouldn't grow any resistance to it like they do for Roundup or other herbicides.
I haven't seen any such equipment for sale though. Friends that use it usually made it themselves. One they call Attila that they use in carrot fields is just a glorified gas burner. They use it both before and after planting, before seed emergence.
What happened to "one hoeing is worth two waterings"? Oh wait, that's a French saying only. ;)
You should post these tree leaves pictures on Crop Talk.
ReplyDeleteYes I need some help on those trees. I like to know what I am dealing with. Good idea.
ReplyDeleteEd
This may sound silly but I have been wanting to try that old saying one hoeing is worth two waterings.
ReplyDeleteWe rotary hoed all our corn after every rain until it got too big. It worked very well. I have an old hoe nearby and have been wanting to try it.
Ed
Nice, you're not farming your corn, you're gardening it!
ReplyDeleteIt's "Un binage vaut deux arrosages" in French.
Lots of "age" word endings in agriculture, like this other old saying: "Labourage et paturage sont les deux mamelles de la France" (Tilling and pasturing are France's two breasts.)
You can see that was before the days of no-tilling...
Tilling and pasturing are France's two breasts??
ReplyDeleteNow I would have to think about that but I better not!
Ed