From the Fields: Corn is turning

The last time we talked, we were great on moisture. I don’t think it rained since then until a few days ago and we got a half inch of rain. Between then, things dried up big time. The corn is turning pretty quick, just because it has been so dry. We got a half inch of rain and the surrounding area got an inch or better so we missed out on that. The beans — the group 3.9, the 4.1s — aren’t dropping leaves just yet but they are starting to change color so the dry spell progressed things faster than what we were on pace for.

We’ve got the fifth cutting of hay on the ground right now drying. This fifth cutting we’re going to put up as dry hay, bale it all because the chopper is set up for corn silage. We’ll bale this stuff that’s on the ground and then we should be able to get a sixth cutting in.

We had alfalfa sowed several weeks ago because there was a chance of rain and we missed that. So that alfalfa was just sitting out there for several weeks but this half inch ought to be enough to bring it up. That might be the silver lining in not getting a lot of rain, because alfalfa is really small and you don’t sow it very deep. So that’s the only good thing about only getting a half inch of rain.