Pjesky Summer 2008 Diary Entry

Summer 2008

June 2008

June in Oklahoma brings with it wheat harvest. This year, June not only brought golden fields of ripe wheat but also nearly 15 inches of rain. Because of the rain harvest took nearly the entire month to complete and even then we still had to leave wheat standing in several mud holes in our fields. Harvest is a very stressful time. The equipment we use for harvest is very complex and sometimes breaks down. During harvest, more than any other time of the year, a farmer’s skills as a marketer, mechanic and heavy equipment operator are truly used to their fullest. Stress is also high as storms and rain affect the quality and price of the crop, so speed is of the essence. Markets move quite rapidly during this time. In one day the value of our crop decreased by nearly $12,000! The good thing about markets is that they can also go up just as rapidly. I hope they do.

A typical harvest day consists of servicing the combines in the morning. Then harvesting from approximately 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. and then home for supper, a shower and bed to get up at 6:30 a.m. to start all over again. After last year’s complete crop failure this harvest was one for the record books. We harvested more total bushels and more bushels per acre than ever before. We are very fortunate and grateful for our bountiful harvest and very glad it is over. As we move into next crop year the rising costs we face are very troubling. Fertilizer will be 3 times as expensive as last year and fuel for our tractors twice as high. As usual farming is risky and scary but rewarding. This won’t change.

July 2008

What proved to be yet another very wet June provided us with ample moisture to get our primary tillage done during the month of July. Primary tillage consists of disking in the straw from wheat harvest and then using a moldboard plow or chisel plow to open up and loosen the soil to enable it to better soak in and retain moisture. In July we also start getting cattle for wheat pasture next fall. Special care must be taken when weaning these calves in very hot temperatures. We provide barns for shade and fog nozzles to keep them cool.

August 2008

The hot and dry August has come to an end. The days of over 100 degrees make me long for the winter when it is cold. During the last month we have applied nitrogen fertilizer to our wheat land in preparation for planting in September. This year our cost of fertilizer rose to three times what it was only a year ago. Fertilizer is made with natural gas and is yet another item that costs more because of high energy prices.

We sold nearly 200 cattle during the month. We also purchased 200 new, small cattle to replace them. The starting and weaning process with these 200 new calves was really easy. We had almost no sick trouble with them which was great. A group I am part of visited several great places in the Texas Panhandle. We toured two cattle feedlots, a beef processing facility and an ethanol plant. I really enjoyed these tours.