On a warm sunny day with high humidity, the dew points could climb a little higher because of ‘corn sweat’. Corn fields don’t really sweat, but they do transpire moisture known as evapotranspiration, the natural process of water evaporating from plants to the air. An acre of corn can give off 3,000 to 4,000 gallons of water each day, according to the U.S. Geological Survey Office so it may extra humid out today.
Corn Sweating
Lately my critters, especially my cats, have no cooperation with each other or even tolerate one another, so watching seven horses working together in a field was a shock. I wouldn’t have the skills to drive a team like that.
Seven Hitch Team
With a few dry days, farmers were busy cutting hay in hopes of getting it baled up without it getting rained on.
Cutting Hay
Farming with horses is a look back at how my grandparents farmed until being replaced by tractors and mother machinery, but horses are still used for plowing, planting and harvesting crops throughout the world.
Plowing with Real Horse Power
Farmers have been busy with spring planting and there is a little more ‘horsepower’ in this outfit than the draft horses pictured last week.
Spring Field Work
While most corn is combined these days, there are still some farmers who pick the corn to feed ground cob corn to steers and each fall it is a gamble with the weather waiting for the corn to dry down to a moisture level which the corn can be stored in a crib and before the snow gets too deep to get in the fields with the corn picker. On wet years, sometimes they have to wait until the ground freezes so they don’t bury the tractor and equipment in the fields.
The mature cob corn might not be very appealing to us who want the nice juicy sweet corn in the summer, but the critters like this corn including the squirrels and birds that also eat on the corn in the crib.
Corn on the Cob
All around the countryside, the combines have been working overtime to get the summer grains harvested. A combine was busy in the field behind the barn and by now, the front field has probably been harvested during this sunny week.
Summer Grains
Sometimes newer and bigger isn’t always better as the farmers in the area are finding out. The horse drawn plows have been working in the fields for almost a month, but the big ‘horse’ power tractors have been getting stuck quite frequently in the soggy ground. And then there are the bets going on whether the third tractor will get the second stuck tractor out which was trying to pull the first stuck tractor and plow out.
The Old
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The pleasant farm scene is just a memory until next year as the corn is harvested, the trees are bare and landscape is turning brown soon to be covered in white.
Growing Season Over
It may be Friday, but the work week won’t end for the farmers trying to get the crops in before winter, especially with the forecast of snow flakes in the air. The soybeans are being harvested in this field but there is still corn in the next field to get harvested.
Autumn Harvest
