Well, I am busy summarizing data and trying to create a report at the Station. It is slightly depressing since there are numerous things that worked against all things here this year. First off, a very late spring meant late planting dates, roughly as much as a month later for some trials. That along with our on-going tile issues just started things off poorly. We did have some nice warm days but then that brought us multiple strong thunderstorms that also resulted in flooded trials and plot loss. We were able to pass our trial inspections so there was still hope for some decent data near the end of July. With the later planting season this obviously resulted in a later harvest date. Unfortunately for the first time ever we had severe geese damage. I will stress we always have geese, but they have never gone directly into plots, so I am wondering if it was just because of the late season. They even cleaned off our soybean trial. I have never had them near the soybeans in the past. They were not the only pesty creatures, we had a bear that ate every corn cob we had on the place. So, to be honest, it is a depressing report, and I am not sure if it is worth making in public. It will be something I will have to discuss with my boss. The same amount of work went into everything, but we just have very little to show for it.
Saturday, I took my mom, and we drove down to Ashland to watch Maddie play hockey. They played the # 1 team in the Nation -! It was not the score that anyone likes but Maddie did stop around 80-90 shots (they had a hard time keeping up.) Ashland has only 2 lines and some smaller players. To be honest, they really played well, and things certainly could have gone a lot worse! It was great to see Maddie and she is living her best life!
Since taking Saturday off I had a lot of jobs to catch up on Sunday. It started off rather miserable with a dead cow. She got over to far on her side/back and couldn’t get up. It hasn’t happened that long because the birds hadn’t started picking at her. It is one of the most miserable parts of owning cows. There is not a thing you can do about it, and I keep telling myself you cannot be with them full time. (It doesn’t really help.) I blame myself a bit since I am feeling some old hay and when you take the spoilage off the bale, they tend to lay on that. It is likely 4 in thick and if they lay the wrong way that is all it takes. If you were to ask me the 2 worst things about farming it would be dealing with weather (mud) and cows getting over on their back. Both things are out of our control. I realize there are worst things going on in the world, but it still makes me sad. So writing a sad report, my dead cow, fighting the mud and the upcoming forecast doesn’t have me in the best mood!
