Farmer Roy's Random Thoughts - I never said it was easy.

[Farmer Roy]

 

[Farmer Roy]

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

Early start again (1am)
despite 30kph + winds overnight. Managed to get string around it .

Was only 10% moisture when I started. Only thing that saved my bacon was baling early so conditions didnt change.

 

[Farmer Roy]

Early start again (1am)
despite 30kph + winds overnight. Managed to get string around it .View attachment 941852View attachment 941853View attachment 941854
Was only 10% moisture when I started. Only thing that saved my bacon was baling early so conditions didnt change.

so - have you worked right thru to now or have you had a bit of a camp ?

 

[Steel]

I recon he has had a camp and has just got up to milk the cows.

so - have you worked right thru to now or have you had a bit of a camp ?

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

Not much time for "camping" when your irrigating at the same time.... . Not milking either got enough to do without those cùnts of f**king things

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

Think I've had 9 hrs sleep in the last 4 days.....not including the grand sum of 1 hr sleep Saturday night. And you know the reason for that Roy. Might get to the point where I'm not "responsible" for my sctions........

 

[Karliboy]

In the TAW thread you say you harvested your chickpeas in December and you won’t plant Durum until June. Is there a reason to leave it fallow so long? You say you have a full profile of moisture now so if it went dry again now how would that affect planting in June?
It just seems wrong with respect to not have a growing crop sooner rather than later?

 

[sahara]

With that SureFire Bait @Farmer Roy , based on a personal experience, be very careful if you are using around the house, near pets etc.

We had a VERY lucky escape/near miss with my Cocker Spaniel with a product with the same active. I have no doubt that you are, but I wouldn't like you to have the same experience we had!

 

[Farmer Roy]

In the TAW thread you say you harvested your chickpeas in December and you won’t plant Durum until June. Is there a reason to leave it fallow so long? You say you have a full profile of moisture now so if it went dry again now how would that affect planting in June?
It just seems wrong with respect to not have a growing crop sooner rather than later?

fair enough question

its all about our soil types, climate / environment & timing of various crops.

the number one reason for the fallow period is to build up soil moisture.
plain & simple.
with our climate, we cant rely on rain falling when we want it, so the number 1 guiding principle is moisture conservation. Thats one of the reasons we zero-till & why retaining straw / stubble / crop residues / groundcover is vital to us. We have very deep, high clay content, alluvial soils that have a very high water holding capacity. They are also classed as "self mulching", which means they develop a dry crumbly surface, which acts like a mulch & helps to insulate the moist soil below.
I generally wont plant a commercial cash crop unless I have at least 1 metre of stored subsoil moisture. This is measured by a simple push probe made from 1/2" rod - i have posted pics of this before. The idea of this stored moisture is that you are in fact saving it for later - just like putting money in the bank. If we can maintain groundcover, dont cultivate or disturb the soil, dont drive all over it & dont let other plants use it, that sub soil moisture will still be there even if it doesnt rain till June. Ok, the surface may be dry, but its deep moisture & at rooting depth that is crucial to ensuring the crop makes it thru to harvest.

why didnt i plant anything after harvest in Dec ?
main reason, the soil profile was too dry ( chickpeas are very efficient at using PAW - plant available water _ generally really dry out the profile ) & there wasnt sufficient moisture to complete a crop.
Second reason, our main "summer" crops ( sorghum, cotton, ) are best planted mid - spring, in say Oct or early Nov. Dec or Jan planted summer crops can run out of time at the other end, coming into autumn, with the season getting too short. This can lead to potential disease issues, frost damage, or just harvest delays due to heavy dews, short days etc.

in an ideal situation, if moisture levels are good & if we have sufficient time to grow a crop, then yes planting another crop immediately after another is harvested is what i would do.
that is what i did with the mung beans after Durum. The durum country wasnt as dry as the chickpeas & wetted up quicker when we did get some good rain after harvest. Mung Beans are a very quick ( 90 days ) crop that has lower water requirements than most others & they will be harvested late March / April, which avoids the issues of a later harvest. Also, because they have lower water requirements & will be harvested early autumn, there is quite a good chance that we will have sufficient moisture in those fields to maybe plant barley or another cool season crop into. The only other real crop option for that Dec / Jan planting date is late Sunflowers, but i discounted them for a few reasons. As they are a longer growing season, their water requirements are higher & I was working with the amount of moisture I had, not what i "hoped" to get with future rain. Secondly, as I am near the edge of the plain ( ie, lots of trees not very far away, as youd see from some of my pics ) & NO ONE else out there was growing sunnies, the birds ( galahs & cockatoos ) would have just given me a real hammering. That was a battle I just wasnt prepared to fight. With the current mice situation, I am even more glad I didnt plant sunnies, the mice would be an absolute nightmare in them chasing the seed - even worse than they are now.
As it is, you can see bird damage around the edges of the sorghum ( gues what seeds make up part of your "parrot mix ? ), but i can live with that

back to the chickpeas. Even if i had sufficient moisture in Dec, I doubt if I would have planted Mung Beans back into them, as they are both broadleaf legumes & I really prefer to alternate plant types, not grow the same immediately following, if possible. If there had of been a bit more moisture, I would have planted millet, or maybe a millet & cowpea mix, purely for ground cover over summer ( as I said, thats the biggest issue with chickies - no residues / groundcover after harvest ) & probably terminated about now ( unless it looked like it would be worthwhile carrying thru to harvest, with the condition of the crop & based on how much moisture was under it ), to plant the durum in June.
And the honest truth is, I couldnt afford to do anything that wasnt going to be bringing in $$$ in a few months time.

everything here revolves around managing soil moisture & utilising it the best way we can. Without sufficient soil moisture, we have one arm tied behind our back . . .

that comes back to our systems having to be very flexible & adaptable. In wet years, we will do a lot more double cropping ( planting another crop straight behind the one just harvested ), whereas through drier times our cropping sequence will be more spread out. EDIT - thinking about, that is a bit like holistic planned rotational grazing. . . a similar mindset

at this stage, I am hoping to be able to plant chickpeas behind the sorghum when it is harvested, but the final decision will be made after sorghum harvest, based on soil moisture entirely. We are forecast a wetter than average autumn, so who knows . . .

getting back to the chickies / millet / cowpeas type. In an ideal world, when i have a situation of having enough moisture to plant something, but not enough to carry it through to producing grain ( or fibre ), i would dearly love to plant diverse multi species "cover crops" & graze short term trade cattle on them, between the cropping sequences, to help build sol biology & add some diversity to my farm business & another cash stream. However, apart my my own personal failings / lethargy or whatever, there is no water or fencing infrastructure there at all to start with $$$$$$$$$$$, & cattle are now ridiculously expensive, apparently the dearest in the world. Short term agistment of someone elses stock, while that would normally be quite a good option, isnt really an option now as most people are understocked as it is & have no shortage of feed . . .

err, i think i have answered / justified everything ?
if it makes sense ?

feel free to question anything

 

[Farmer Roy]

With that SureFire Bait @Farmer Roy , based on a personal experience, be very careful if you are using around the house, near pets etc.

We had a VERY lucky escape/near miss with my Cocker Spaniel with a product with the same active. I have no doubt that you are, but I wouldn't like you to have the same experience we had!

yeah, only using it in roof, wall cavities or areas that aren't accessible to our dogs or native wildlife

 

[Sharpy]

fair enough question

its all about our soil types, climate / environment & timing of various crops.

the number one reason for the fallow period is to build up soil moisture.
plain & simple.
with our climate, we cant rely on rain falling when we want it, so the number 1 guiding principle is moisture conservation. Thats one of the reasons we zero-till & why retaining straw / stubble / crop residues / groundcover is vital to us. We have very deep, high clay content, alluvial soils that have a very high water holding capacity. They are also classed as "self mulching", which means they develop a dry crumbly surface, which acts like a mulch & helps to insulate the moist soil below.
I generally wont plant a commercial cash crop unless I have at least 1 metre of stored subsoil moisture. This is measured by a simple push probe made from 1/2" rod - i have posted pics of this before. The idea of this stored moisture is that you are in fact saving it for later - just like putting money in the bank. If we can maintain groundcover, dont cultivate or disturb the soil, dont drive all over it & dont let other plants use it, that sub soil moisture will still be there even if it doesnt rain till June. Ok, the surface may be dry, but its deep moisture & at rooting depth that is crucial to ensuring the crop makes it thru to harvest.

why didnt i plant anything after harvest in Dec ?
main reason, the soil profile was too dry ( chickpeas are very efficient at using PAW - plant available water _ generally really dry out the profile ) & there wasnt sufficient moisture to complete a crop.
Second reason, our main "summer" crops ( sorghum, cotton, ) are best planted mid - spring, in say Oct or early Nov. Dec or Jan planted summer crops can run out of time at the other end, coming into autumn, with the season getting too short. This can lead to potential disease issues, frost damage, or just harvest delays due to heavy dews, short days etc.

in an ideal situation, if moisture levels are good & if we have sufficient time to grow a crop, then yes planting another crop immediately after another is harvested is what i would do.
that is what i did with the mung beans after Durum. The durum country wasnt as dry as the chickpeas & wetted up quicker when we did get some good rain after harvest. Mung Beans are a very quick ( 90 days ) crop that has lower water requirements than most others & they will be harvested late March / April, which avoids the issues of a later harvest. Also, because they have lower water requirements & will be harvested early autumn, there is quite a good chance that we will have sufficient moisture in those fields to maybe plant barley or another cool season crop into. The only other real crop option for that Dec / Jan planting date is late Sunflowers, but i discounted them for a few reasons. As they are a longer growing season, their water requirements are higher & I was working with the amount of moisture I had, not what i "hoped" to get with future rain. Secondly, as I am near the edge of the plain ( ie, lots of trees not very far away, as youd see from some of my pics ) & NO ONE else out there was growing sunnies, the birds ( galahs & cockatoos ) would have just given me a real hammering. That was a battle I just wasnt prepared to fight. With the current mice situation, I am even more glad I didnt plant sunnies, the mice would be an absolute nightmare in them chasing the seed - even worse than they are now.

back to the chickpeas. Even if i had sufficient moisture in Dec, I doubt if I would have planted Mung Beans back into them, as they are both broadleaf legumes & I really prefer to alternate plant types, not grow the same immediately following, if possible. If there had of been a bit more moisture, I would have planted millet, or maybe a millet & cowpea mix, purely for ground cover over summer ( as I said, thats the biggest issue with chickies - no residues / groundcover after harvest ) & probably terminated about now ( unless it looked like it would be worthwhile carrying thru to harvest, with the condition of the crop & based on how much moisture was under it ), to plant the durum in June.
And the honest truth is, I couldnt afford to do anything that wasnt going to be bringing in $$$ in a few months time.

everything here revolves around managing soil moisture & utilising it the best way we can. Without sufficient soil moisture, we have one arm tied behind our back . . .

that comes back to our systems having to be very flexible & adaptable. In wet years, we will do a lot more double cropping ( planting another crop straight behind the one just harvested ), whereas through drier times our cropping sequence will be more spread out.

at this stage, I am hoping to be able to plant chickpeas behind the sorghum when it is harvested, but the final decision will be made after sorghum harvest, based on soil moisture entirely. We are forecast a wetter than average autumn, so who knows . . .

getting back to the chickies / millet / cowpeas type. In an ideal world, when i have a situation of having enough moisture to plant something, but not enough to carry it through to producing grain ( or fibre ), i would dearly love to plant diverse multi species "cover crops" & graze short term trade cattle on them, between the cropping sequences, to help build sol biology & add some diversity to my farm business & another cash stream. However, apart my my own personal failings / lethargy or whatever, there is no water or fencing infrastructure there at all to start with $$$$$$$$$$$, & cattle are now ridiculously expensive, apparently the dearest in the world. Short term agistment of someone elses stock, while that would normally be quite a good option, isnt really an option now as most people are understocked as it is & have no shortage of feed . . .

err, i think i have answered / justified everything ?
if it makes sense ?

feel free to question anything

Lovely comprehensive answer!

 

[Farmer Roy]

In the TAW thread you say you harvested your chickpeas in December and you won’t plant Durum until June. Is there a reason to leave it fallow so long? You say you have a full profile of moisture now so if it went dry again now how would that affect planting in June?
It just seems wrong with respect to not have a growing crop sooner rather than later?

in respect to planting in June - that is the ideal time for planting most cool season cereals here ( although winter wheats - trouble, most are "feed" varieties, not hard milling wheats - are an option earlier. I dont have any FSS, but yes, its an option Im looking at in the future, but Durum just works for me for a number of reasons, as well as usually being a significant premium over bread wheat ) ), any earlier we would run into late frost issues in the spring. As it was, i had a frost in late Sept that took out all the early flowers & pods on the chickpeas & probably caused about a 20% yield loss in the wheat & durum - you could see the white / dead heads through it
Earlier planting date options for cool season crops are faba beans or canola, but for reasons stated earlier I would prefer not to grow them following another broadleaf crop. ESPECIALLY Fabas after chickies - would be a disease disaster

so, its a "short fallow" period, of conserving soil moisture for 5 months or so, till its the right time for the next crop

 

[sahara]

Don't know how she got hold of it, but I happened to see her running about the yard and then stop and eat something, it broke in half and was bright red. Of course being a Spaniel when I went to investigate and try to get if off her she wolfed it down. I subconsciously realised what it was, and then found a little bit left uneaten on the ground. So a very quick mildly stressful drive to the vet, some thing to make her vomit, some charcoal stuff so absorb any left overs, I think there was another jab, and a bill for about £300. Followed by a fairly sleepless nights sleep as I checked up on her. She is now known at the vet as "Rat bait Ruby!"
A sharp shock all round for us.

 

[Farmer Roy]

looking at the label, it says Vitamin K, Phytomenadione is antidotal . . .

 

[Farmer Roy]

do you have the equivalent of our Poisons Information Centre in the UK ? You, or doctors or vets or ER nurses or anyone can instantly obtain all relevant info about any poisions with a phone call ?
Thats one reason ( so the product can be clearly identified ) why labels are mandated by law, must always remain visible & product must not be put into another container - ie a drink bottle or something . . .
You will see it on the label i posted above

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Don't know how she got hold of it, but I happened to see her running about the yard and then stop and eat something, it broke in half and was bright red. Of course being a Spaniel when I went to investigate and try to get if off her she wolfed it down. I subconsciously realised what it was, and then found a little bit left uneaten on the ground. So a very quick mildly stressful drive to the vet, some thing to make her vomit, some charcoal stuff so absorb any left overs, I think there was another jab, and a bill for about £300. Followed by a fairly sleepless nights sleep as I checked up on her. She is now known at the vet as "Rat bait Ruby!"
A sharp shock all round for us.

Sometimes a drop of dishwash in the corner of the eye is used to induce vomiting in cats and dogs... don't know how that would ever work but....

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

do you have the equivalent of our Poisons Information Centre in the UK ? You, or doctors or vets or ER nurses or anyone can instantly obtain all relevant info about any poisions with a phone call ?
Thats one reason ( so the product can be clearly identified ) why labels are mandated by law, must always remain visible & product must not be put into another container - ie a drink bottle or something . . .
You will see it on the label i posted above

The National Poisons Information Service – what it is and does – UK Health Security Agency

The official blog of the UK Health Security Agency, providing expert insight on the organisation's work and all aspects of health security

publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk

Vets have access too.

 

[Kidds]

Only ever had two dogs of my own. First one found the slug pellets my dad left out, then when I replaced that dog he did it again and that dog found them.
I didn't get another dog after that.

 

[hendrebc]

Found a 6 leaf clover yesterday