by Deanna
Republic County WIFE

September 3, 1998

September has begun and the colors of a dry fall are changing the landscape more quickly than usual.  Hello from our farm!  We live on the northern edge of the state of Kansas, almost in the center.  From our farm, we can see grain elevators in a small town across the state line in Nebraska. 

We raise three crops that will be ready for harvest beginning this month.  Corn shows only a little green now.  Soon it will be tan - the color of the corn shocks that you might have seen in pictures at Halloween time.  The corn ears are hanging down.  The corn on the ears will be hard and each kernel on the ear will be indented.  It will be ready for the combines to shell the corn off the cob.

The second crop we grow for fall harvest are soybeans.  Many fields are ripening naturally.  These are turning golden and will soon be brown.  Other fields where the ground is too dry are turning brown too quickly.  When the plant turns too quickly, the bean inside the pod may become shriveled and tiny.  Before the beans are harvested, most of the leaves on the plant drop onto the ground.  Combines will cut close to the ground because the pods grow low on the plant.

Grain sorghum is beginning to show color now, too.  The more commonly used name for grain sorghum is milo.   Ripe milo may be many shades of color from almost white to dark orange-y brown.  As I drive from field to field, I see fields of green milo and some that are orange.  The leaves on the milo will stay green.  When it becomes cold, and the temperature goes below freezing, the leaves will be frozen.  Then they will dry so the grain can be harvested from the head. 

As we work on the combines and get the tractor and auger wagon checked over, we also continue to watch over our cattle.  The calves that were born last winter and spring are getting almost grown.  We check cattle every day.  The cows are sure to see if a fence that is down.  We really don't want to take time to chase them out of a field of the grains that are ready for harvest.

When we check the cows and calves, we take along some of the ears of corn for them.  They like that so well, that they come right up to the pickup when they hear it coming.  Some of the cows will eat the corn out of our hand.  Their tongue is long enough to wrap around the ear.  Do you suppose they think we're bringing them candy? 

When the fields of corn are picked clean, we'll put up a fence.  Then the cattle will be able to graze for dropped ears.  They eat the leaves and stems that have gone through the combine, too.  There will also be winter wheat and the oats we sow for a cover crop for them to nibble on.  They also have the sheltered areas between the trees that grow next to the field.  They eat leaves from the trees and from the ground and the grasses that have grown during the summer.

Getting the fall harvest into the bins and elevators isn't all we do in the fall of the year. We want to harvest wheat next summer, so this is the time to be planting those wheat seeds into the fields.  We have the ground ready. Most of our wheat ground is minimum tilled … planted into the stalks or residue of the previous crop.  We’ve applied fertilizer, so the growing seed will be well fed.     

We kept some of the wheat we harvested in June to use for seed.  We have cleaned the seed, so it will flow through the drill just right.  The cleaning takes out little stems and any weed seeds, so we can plant good seed.  We also buy seed from commercial seed houses.  We'll use a tractor to pull a grain drill to plant the wheat seeds.  We also use the grain drill to plant oats.  (In the spring, we might use the drill to plant some of our soybean fields.)

One place where we farm has some areas of the ground that are sandy soil. Today's job for Dean was to plant oats.  Oats are planted in the spring to make grain.  When oats are planted in the fall, it is considered a cover crop.  That means it helps protect the more sandy spots from wind erosion.  We work hard in many ways to protect the soil and take care of it.  Good care taken of the soil means that the soil will produce better crops to help feed you and me.