Couple days ago farmer R stopped by and dropped off close to 1000 pds of straw for bedding use on the farm and he asked/told me that he still has four more of these big bales available for me, and do I want them otherwise, he has a buyer set up for them.
You see the rain, flooding and the fact that he has not been able to get out on the land means that he has already missed the cut off date line for planting wheat, which means that there will be NO new straw for sale this fall, now he is going to try and get in barley.
Needless to say, I booked to have delivered all four big sqaure straw bales for this coming winters use, now I am looking at hay with a groan and sigh, everywhere I turn, the local farmers are telling me that the cost of hay will be going up if you can get your hands on it.
Went to the feed store and already, the cost of each bag is up by about ten percent, since the same time last year its up over 30 percent in my area, and I don’t think that trend is going to reverse any time soon.
This morning I am listening to CBC radio and they have spent the last half hour talking about the droughts and the floods across the world, and how its going to effect this years wheat crops, Its always so interesting to me to hear directly from farmers in other countries, in this case we heard from a farmer in France, as they are in a drought currently.
They had a gentleman on from Texas that was talking about their drought as well and that he was selling off his yearlings early to reduce the herd, and that they are still feeding extra protein months after they normally stop because the pastures have not had the normal spring rains.
While we have not been here that long, this has been the coolest, wets spring we have had to date since we moved to the farm, and my garden is about three weeks behind on a number of things.
How is it going in your area? Are you drier or wetter then normal this year? Or are you having a great planting spring? Are you putting away a little more then normal with the thought that those prices are going to go up this fall, and better to get it at the current prices?
Just another Day on the Farm 
We are a bit behind here and definitely more rain than normal…in fact, I think they said this is the wettest spring we’ve had since 1957. Thankfully we live on a hill and do much of our gardening in raised beds…our soil drains quickly. I was thrilled to see the fields behind/around us planted last week…..that gives me a glimmer of hope for the coming year. That said, I’m hunting for straw and stocking up on grains while they’re still available/affordable.
Hi Andrea,
I am sure it does indeed help to live on the hill, we have one pasture that is tiled for drainage, so it does help to have that done, but the other field, is not done the same as it feeds the shallow well.
Good news indeed that the farmer got his crops in.
Hi Andrea
I am sorry to post this here but Blogger won’t let me comment on your excellent post about the GMO seeds, I can’t watch the movie as i’m on dial up but I read your round two and could not agree more.. its one of the very reason’s that I try and grow and raise my own food as much as possable.
The 17″ of rain we got in April put us behind and now they are predicting rain for the next 7 days. But we did get the majority of our garden in with,really,only the sweet potatoes to put in. But now we’ve been getting chilly mornings in the 30’s. Am amaze how good the garden looks though and picking broccoli,peas,strawberries,lettuce now. Hoping to get in a couple of acres of field corn still and we always plant buckwheat twice for the bees. Neighbor over talking about haying…never seen the grass as tall but wondering how much nutrition it will have. DEE
Glad you got your gardens in, and sounds like you could have a bumper hay crop if they can get good weather to get it cut/dried and off the fields.
Good luck on getting your corn in, I still need to get mine planted as well, hopefully it will all be done within the next two weeks but can push it to three weeks if we really have to.
The issue, of course, is that we have a global market, so prices are not determined by local production. However, we have to pray that some places are having decent weather and are growing wheat.
We’ve had nothing except rain for weeks. A local grain farmer told me a couple of weeks ago “If it doesn’t dry up by the end of the week so we our grain in, we’ll have problems.” Well, the rest of the week, it just poured, so I’d be surprised if he managed. And places that aren’t being drowned in rain are, from what I can see, in drought. I read about Texan farmers who are bringing in their grains weeks early to try to save even some of the scorched, dehydrated plants.
Lack of grains, lack of hay – this will all affect the cost of meat, which has been rising anyway.
We’re all going to remember 2011 in years to come, I think.
True about it being global but not really for us farmers, I think for most of us, unless you can’t find it we do buy local hay, straw, feed etc.
Honestly if you heard that interview, the answer to “is there somewhere that is having a bumper crop” they were basicly saying no, half the main grain growing areas were in drought, and half were in flood, they did say that those few areas that can get a good crop can expect a very good price and high demand.
We’ve had non stop rain this week and I’m kicking myself for not planting lettuce and rapini because they’d be loving this. It was so cold so late this year that I never got any of my early planting done. I have put peas and beans in recently but I’m afraid they’re just rotting in the ground because it’s been so wet. My tomatoes are hardened off but look miserable and my peppers are barely big enough to pot up yet. The only thing that looks happy at this moment are my strawberries- they are huge and loaded with flowers. If we get some sun and heat fairly soon I might do well with them this year.
yup, I have been having rain off and on for days now, strangely my pea’s are holding their own, not growing like they should but that is temps really. Yes the strawberry plants do look great this year, no flowers yet on my end but the growth patterns is just lovely. My greens have taken off like mad so will agree that they are liking the weather.
Ok, so it sounds like everyone is in agreement that the weather is “off” again this year: 3 weeks behind and too cold, compared to 3 weeks ahead and too hot last year. Farming has always been a crap-shoot as far as weather goes, but it has definitely gotten less predictable over the past 7-10(?) years – seems that way to me here, at least.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the “powers-that-be” would step out of their temperature controlled cars/offices/homes for a while and spend some time out here in the real world? Maybe put in a small garden and try to grow a bit of their own food. Perhaps then they might notice that global climate change is, in fact, a reality and not just made-up by some “special interest groups”?
This year I’m worried about the plants that are susceptible to fungal trouble: like strawberries, potatoes, tomatoes, vines… Have to make sure to pretreat for molds (black spot, potato blight, powdery mildew, etc) as soon as the weather turns to prevent trouble before it happens and, especially this year, not be in a hurry to put down the mulch until things dry out some.
Here’s a great article from Michaela at The Gardener’s Eden. She’s writing here about vines, but the recipe (and advice) is the same for any type of fungal disease.
http://www.thegardenerseden.com/?tag=homemade-remedy-for-powdery-mildew-on-squash-and-cucumbers
We’ve had a lot more rain than is usually expected for this time of year. Combined with less sun than usual (even days that don’t rain have been much grayer than normal) and chillier temperatures, it doesn’t bode well for growing certain crops this year.