Done Seeding and.....

We have caterpillars. Tent Caterpillars in hordes like a science fiction movie. If you are the type that has a phobia about creepy crawlers you won't want to visit my hundred acre woods. And the other woods around it. The poplar trees are literally stripped of leaves and the branches hang with webs from the worms. They have spread out into the fields too but hopefully don't eat crops.

Caterpillars coating the tires of my truck today. 

They rode along on the booms of the sprayer this morning. Even a 6 mile ride down the gravel road did not shake them loose. 

The whole month of May has been pretty much a blur of activity and here it is over already. I was surprised and glad to see canola coming up today. I did not expect to see it til a rain fell but I guess there was enough moisture in the soil to sprout it. That glyphosate burn off was a good idea and sure set the weeds back, giving the crop a chance to get a start. Say what you will against Monsanto but their products work and make our life easier here on the farm. 

As expected there is a tremendous crop of volounteer flax coming in the canola crop but roundup will take care of that. 

I pretty much pushed the limit on the glyphosate burn off on the last field of oats I planted. 3 days of non stop wind kept me from spraying and I was afraid the oats would be out of the ground before I got it done. Which would very likely kill the oats. But the weeds were so bad that I figured take a chance as there would not be much of a crop if I didn't spray to kill the twitch grass etc. 

Been a long day having been up since 5:00 for an early start on chem fallow. I need to do the same tomorrow to finish up the last 60 acres. Then a short break before the canola is ready for it's first pass with glyphosate (roundup). Probably next week. 

Crop Spraying

Its going well, until it isn't. We had one really good day this week. Meaning no wind, not too hot or raining. Otherwise it is usually too windy and I end up spraying herbicide when it is less than ideal and blowing expensive poison all across the countryside.
Crops doing pretty good with only moderate weed competition.

Looks like I was a little too cheap with the roundup on the chem fallow. Everything except the twitch grass is dying as intended but the grass is hanging on. Should have thrown another jug in the tank.
Daytime highs hitting into the 80s a few days. Been a while since the last rain. Days? Maybe a week. No worries yet. Plenty of mosquitos to make life miserable when there is no wind to keep them away. Tent caterpillars are starting to thin out. As are the leaves on the trees due to the caterpillars.
Still trapping rats in the chop bin but no luck with raccoons. Turns out I had the safety latch on the trap for a month and wondered why it never caught anything. I really need to pay more attention to details.
Hilled my first row of potatoes already and they are looking great. Everything is a bit early this year so I should probably be hitching onto the haybine any day now.