Soggy start to April halting any early progress Between the Rows

by | Apr 10, 2017 | Ohio Country Journal

Ben Klick, Stark County

Ben Klick, Stark County

It is pretty nice here this morning. The sun is shining and there is a breeze. We actually got about three inches of snow on Friday and before that we had on and off rain. Grandpa says we always get a snow some time around Easter. That is generally pretty accurate. This was a wet, heavy snow but the ground was warm enough that it didn?t stick to the concrete and asphalt too much, but it was a solid three inches.

The two-week forecast looks good and we?ll see what happens. If we miss the rain tomorrow, maybe by Wednesday or Thursday we can hopefully get out and get some manure hauled to get the pen pack out of the barn. It is still plenty wet up here in our area. Our ground is heavy enough that we still have water laying in a lot of areas.

The priority is getting the barns cleaned out. It has been the worst winter we can remember for getting out on fields to clean out the barns. There was really only one weekend all winter we could get out.

We?re hauling cattle today, then hopefully hauling manure and then our local co-op sprays for us and maybe we can get some burndown started next week. We hope to get some ground worked by the end of next week. We have a lot of spring chiseling to do. We have to finish up a fencerow cleanup from last fall so we have a bunch of odds and ends stuff to do before we can really get after it.

We are blessed with enough barn space and concrete so our pastures are in really great shape. We have some white clover frost seeded and I am really excited about a good forage program we?ll have in our pasture this summer.

We have plenty of moisture and we learned last year in a couple of places that we needed to be patient. The last week of April last year we had a nice stretch of weather and we pushed the envelope and got a bunch of corn and beans planted. Then it turned ugly on us and we paid for it. As a young guy I want to go, go go and dad and grandpa tell me to relax and be patient. It?ll come.

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