In addition to getting turkeys delivered this time of year, it's also planting season. I know it probably doesn't seem like planting season, but this is the best opportunity we have had to get cool-season annual grasses planted. For the last several days I have been planting ryegrass and clover, and I'll be planting more for the next 2 days. Hopefully, we'll end up with close to 100 acres of ryegrass. It is a little late to be planting, but the lack of rain for the last half of September and the entire month of October forced us to postpone until now. Plenty of rain is basically guaranteed throughout the winter, so the objective is to get the seed in the ground while the soil is still warm, but after the typical October dry spell. One of the things we love about annual ryegrass is the production consistency we can achieve. Growing a winter forage eliminates the challenge of extreme heat and drought conditions common in the south. In most areas of life the saying "early bird gets the worm" is accurate. However, maybe not for ryegrass planting. The only crop of ryegrass I've ever lost is because I got the seed in the ground early, it was probably late September or very early October. there was enough moisture in the ground to sprout the seed, but then it didn't rain for 4 weeks and the crop died. I learned that year that soil conditions and forecasts matter more than the date on the calendar. Farming has a way of always keeping us humble, and providing lots of learning opportunities.
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| The results of 2022 planting. This pic was April 23, 2023 A beautiful crop that turned into lots of milk and beef. |
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| Planting Last year on Oct 29, 2022 So not to far behind this year. |
