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Junior Member
 
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 2 days ago @ 2:03:58 PM
Posts: 125,
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We hope you have enjoyed swapping knowledge with other hobby farmers on the message boards. Now here's a chance to put your knowledge to work.
We at HobbyFarms.com want to know how this year's rainy weather has affected your crop harvest. Tell us about the crop you harvest. Was your harvest time delayed? What happened to your crops? What challenges to harvesting did the weather pose? Is the weather still causing problems?
Please let us know and you might be contacted for an article to appear on HobbyFarms.com. Thanks for your help!
Sincerely,
The Hobby Farms team
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Average Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 6:17:56 PM
Posts: 657,
Visits: 710
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| This is a record amount of rain since the 18?? down here. It's too early to see if our rye grass/red clover will get up and grow. We went through a dry spell last year around rye grass planting time and we did not bail the first bail of rye grass hay (2008). But the pecans that are falling now are good and not dried up in their shell like they were last year. P2's clover patch has two leaves on each sprout and it looks like he will have a good crop as long as I can keep hubby and Pa-Paw away with the lawn more...LOL...
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Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 6:22:13 PM
Posts: 167,
Visits: 587
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| Because the spring & first half of the summer were so rainy (near record rainfall) my planting was delayed slightly but the first time the rain stopped for a couple days and it was warm & sunny the seeds started to take right off all except the peas those never did come up. the tomaotes grew but rotted before they ripened, the watermelon & cuke plants got stem rot and never finished growing, and the lettuce went to seed almost immediately. The peppers did great I froze 6 pints, used a bunch as soon as they were picked and gave the neighbors a bunch, greenbeans did great I picked 20 quarts, the squash did so so the zucchini did really well but the yellow crookneck didn't do as well I did get some but almost as many rotted as soon as they started to get big enough to pick, the pumpkins did so so too I picked 7 really good sized ones but had a dozen that rotted as soon as they got the size of a football. The biggest challenge to harvesting was things rotting before it was big enough to harvest. the weather is no longer an issue for me my growing season ended a month ago.
Lord keep your arm around my shoulder & your hand over my mouth
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Senior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 8:55:34 AM
Posts: 1,155,
Visits: 941
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Being a commercial operation, we got a fair amount of corn in the ground (1200 acres) and the constant rain leached the cow manure we typically use for fertilizer right out of the ground. You could streaks of yellow in the corn where this leaching of nutrients took place.
The Farmers Almanac said a change in weather patterns on August 5th would take place, and just before that we sprayed the corn with anhydrous ammonia...something we have never done. It was 100% luck, but we salvaged our crops. In fact I honestly think we had the best corn in the county because of it, but it costs us dearly to do so.
Our yields were still down however, from a high of 24 tons to the acre a few years ago, to probably 18 tons to the acre this year. Still we have enough feed to feed our sheep and cows so we will make it through the winter.
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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New Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 6:50:47 PM
Posts: 70,
Visits: 414
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| Hay cuttings around North Texas were all messed up because of the rain. I am not sure if anyone close to us got three cuttings this year. We finally got our second cutting Saturday and hopefully will get it baled today. It needed to be done over a month ago, but it have been raining about every third day for over six weeks. It has already headed out and stopped growing so I am not sure what we will have for winter grazing on it. Normally we can get three cuttings and still have some good growth afterwards from the fall grazing.
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New Member
Group: Banned Members
Last Login: 11/15/2009 9:03:36 PM
Posts: 86,
Visits: 84
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| if you bagged it you could get 4 cuttings this year. if you bail dry hay... you were up a tree. corn was great but can't get it off the fields. Gardens went to pot. A black fungus came threw the area and killed all the gardens.
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Starting Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 11/4/2009 12:47:56 PM
Posts: 3,
Visits: 10
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We have received over 12+ inches of rain since the end of August. We were able to do one hay cutting, but in the middle of the second, the rains came (Central East Texas) and did not let up till last week. We are now trying to do a third cut before winter.
Our Summer garden was doing great but a major hail storm damaged it and knocked down all the okra plants, bent over all of our tomato fences and drowned everything else that was in the ground.
In the break between storms, we attempted to till for the Fall garden but the tractor kept getting stuck in the mud etc.
Our Fall planting of our heirloom garden has now become the Winter garden planting, we did not get anything into the soggy ground until October 18th. Our rows are all sloped and slanted because of the ground and the soil was pretty clumpy. We brought in some sandy lome from the back pastures and mixed it in but we still could not smooth out the garden. The day after planting, we got another 3 inches. I have not been able to walk the rows because mud and water are still standing in certain areas.
I have seen some signs of life from the 20+ varieties of seeds, a few sprouts here or there (beets, lettuce, arugula, kale, mustard greens etc..) and am crossing my fingers for a small harvest.
On the up side, our pumpkins were huge and our stock tanks are full. Our coastal grass is still growing. We have not had to feed too much hay yet to our Brahmans so there is a little silver lining in all the rain clouds.
We are baling today and there is no rain in the forecast till next Monday!!
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Starting Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 11/16/2009 7:11:34 PM
Posts: 46,
Visits: 107
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| I planted alfalfa back in September, and then it rained, and rained, and rained. Alfalfa doesn't like overly moist soil, so the alfalfa did not even germinate. The annual rye I planted as a companion crop came up fine and is growing like crazy. I guess I'll try again when the soil dries out in the spring.
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