howeenterprise.com
Monday, May 25, 2015
Page #3
Farmers praying for rain...to stop it the last couple of days and we're two weeks away from spraying." said Norman. "Typically, most of that stuff is done with ground rigs, but it will also have to be done with As far as the corn, a lot of it wasn't airplanes." able to even be planted in the first Usually right now, they will be place due to the wet season. applying Roundup to the corn to According to the Farm Service Agency in Sherman, only 20 to 30 clean up the weeds and grass in the corn. However, they can't do that percent of all of the acres in Grayson County were planted due with airplanes because it is too to the lack of opportunity to do it. hazardous. Those that were planted are turning "We're just kind of up against the yellow and water-logged. wall on the corn." said Norman. "All of us plant genetically modified "What we're having to do there is corn and we don't till the corn fly on fertilizer." said Norman. anymore. We used to have to "That's a last resort because it's cultivate it or work it with hoes. But very expensive and if this rain now when the corn is about three continues, we're just digging foot tall right before the leaves ourselves deeper and deeper in a canopy, we spray Roundup with hole. We're not going to make anything anyway. But we're trying ground rigs and it's safe doing that. to be optimistic and try to have the But in airplanes it's real risky unless you're in an iscolated area." opportunity to make an average crop." Norman says that the last 20-30 Another problem is that a spray for years have never had the exact alphatoxins has to be applied to the duplicate of this weather pattern. He says that in 1984 and 2007 were wet corn in the next two weeks. years, but it was a different time Alphatoxin is a fungus that if it frame. This one, he says, has been prevails in the corn, it cannot be the most challenging. sold for human or animal consumption. The rain hasn't affected just the crop "We had some agronomist look at Continued on Page #6 "Either you're going to have to have four-wheel-drive combines or rice tires or both to harvest it." said Norman.
With the rain that has has saturated North Texas for most if the entire 2015 year so far, has farmers caught with the strangest scenario in as long as anyone can remember. Howe crop farmer Jack Norman says that the wheat is about two weeks away from typical maturity and harvest.
Wheat is 60 pounds per bushel by standard. Anything below that is discounted. If the test weight comes in around 56 or 57 pounds per bushel, it can see discounts of 10-30 percent, which obviously is a tremendous devaluation of the crop.
The other main concern with the wheat is just the sheer ability to "Our main concern now with the even harvest it. The ground is so wheat is the head sprout." said soft, that it's almost impossible to Norman. "Once wheat is mature walk in, much less drive a combine and you have moisture that keeps it in. damp, the seed will start to germinate. When that happens, it "We're making preparations and reduces the quality of the wheat putting rice tires on our combines." and you can't sell it for milling said Norman. purposes and it's discounted heavily." Rice tires have heavy cleats with cleats designed to run in wet Even if that doesn't happen, the ground. farmers are facing low test weights.
http://texomaelectrician.com/
