Still waterlogged here in western, Ohio. Seems rain every other day. Have the field cultivator parked about 30 feet from the edge of the field behind the barn. Tried to get the tractor to it on Monday and got stuck before I got half way to it. Finally got it headed back toward the grass and on solid ground. Want to change the sweeps on the cultivator, but another inch of rain with marble size hail and will still be there for a few more days.

I was driving through Urbana and West Liberty Monday and the tractors and planters were working there and only 25 miles south of here. Much different ground there, with gravel and sandy soil. Saw corn growing enough to row in some fields along Route 36 west of Urbana. Still water standing here and totally saturated, so everything runs off. No reserve capacity in the soil at all. Temperature has been warm the last few days and sunshine, but so humid that very little drying occurring.

Still plenty time to plant the soybeans here.

Gene

We finally have had a decent break in WNY.  A few days in the 60's with a steady wind to get some drying going on.  Yesterday was over 70 and today over 80, but now 50% chance for rain for about the next week.  My big thing in life these days is lawn so have taken advantage of this chance.  



My main lawn is now in good shape, having been cut three times. Part of the back lawns are equally well done.



Another part had to be cut at four inches, but considering the grass was eight to twelve inches, it came out pretty well.



After this dried in the sun for a day, I hit it again this evening at three inches (normal for out there) and it is fine now.  
Just one small area still under water as the next photo will show.  I came as near as I want to get to being stuck there.



Charlie V.

Charlie, its getting pretty bad when you can almost get stuck with a lawnmower. We have some green grass here finally but none in need of cutting yet.
Gene, too bad you can't get in the field. We have been lucky lately with some good drying winds improving the field situation . I got in my first day on the anhydrous cultivator today and did a tank full in the afternoon. Actually making some dust as you can see in the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdGegzD1D5Y[video=youtube;BdGegzD1D5Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdGegzD1D5Y[/video]

Yet another good Roosty6 video, Ralph.  It would seem that your abundance of lakefront property would have far more value as resort property than for agriculture!


Only kidding.  I know that situation is NOT FUNNY.

As you probably know the turf tires on mowers will get stuck easily, even on a banana peel.  It took every ounce of good luck that I had along to get out of the mud in the picture without a tow.  I notice that some guys put ATV type bar tread tires on those mowers.  I am sure ATV tires would improve the ride but I never wanted to shell out the money for them.  Because they are less firm, they may adversely effect the level cutting somewhat it would seem.

Charlie V.

P.S.  We are back to all night, all day rain today.

Default Western Ohio Update

   " Still waterlogged here in western, Ohio. "

Your forecast for today through Wednesday looks like a ditto of ours, Gene.  When the change comes it will probably be full bore summer and hotter than he-double toothpocks.  We had two thermometers locked on 91 F  (not in direct sun) yesterday pm and another at 88 in full shade.  Humidity was not real high, but it was still pretty uncomfortable out there.  It just takes a while to shift out of winter and thin the blood for summer.

Charlie V.

Ohio Hasn't changed, except for cooling off. Had another inch of rain this afternoon, with hunderstorms. A tornado was sighted at Piqua, about 30 miles southwest of me. Moving north and weakening now.

Got my new sweeps for the field cultivator yesterday evening. Went out early with the bulldozer and chain and pulled it to solider ground so I could get it hooked to the tractor and bring up to the shop. Got all the old sweeps off and about half the new sweeps on when the rain started. Finished in the rain, all except one. I miscounted the sweeps and was one short. Went back out after the rain stopped and sorted out the best of the old sweeps and put it on. Got rained out again. Came into the house for dinner and rest period during the rain. Went back out and finished a couple other jobs on it. Finally finished about 6:00pm. I had left the bulldozer out on a dry patch of ground to dry the mud on the tracks before I put it in the barn. Went to put it in this evening and wouldn't you know, it was setting in the second wettest spot in the field.

Weather cooled off while i was on break. Put on a light sweatshirt when I went back out. Temp forecast for early part of the week is for near record lows. What a change.

Gene

I got my lawn mowed yesterday after 3 days without rain. Still very wet. Thursday I managed to get the Gravely off into a plow furrow and had to pull it out with the tractor. Mowed yesterday with the John Deere. Not as fast as the Gravely, but handles the wet grass better. Mowed all the lawn around the house, almost 3 hours. Most of it was in good shape, except the east end where water runs off the neighbor field. Almost got stuck, but the bar tread tires pulled me through. Only had to leave a small patch and a few tracks.. At least it will look good for now and won't worry about the rain.

Gene

Haven't seen Ralph on here for a while. Must have dried out in Sask. so he can put his crops in. Haven't been so fortunate here in Ohio. Had a decent 3 day weekend for drying. Fields still too wet, but we're slowly gaining on the moisture. Well, Monday, along comes another storm and cascaded another inch of rain in 10 minutes, on top of the half inch on Sunday evening. Warmer weather has helped some, if we could get some dry winds and lower humidity. Working dry ground has only been a dream here this spring, and to think I actually cursed the dry hard ground while plowing last fall.

Went to Portland, Indiana swap meet last Friday and didn't see a single field planted. Flew around the area on Sunday and saw one field along a small ditch that had been worked and the planter sitting at the edge of the field. Not a tractor running anywhere that I saw.

Gene

Hi Gene,

Ralph is finally getting an opportunity to blow some seed into some of his fields.  He has a new video out that he may post on here when he gets a few minutes to spare.

I checked a few thousand acres in a 20 mile jaunt this evening and saw only one field with nice rows of corn sprouted.  Many acres of land have been plowed either last fall or the first week of this April, and there they lay.  I saw quite a lot of timothy fields and a few Alfalfa fields that look to be enjoying this weather  and having good stands.  Many, many acres of winter wheat that mostly look about knee high and very lush green.  Except for a few fields with patches of wheat killed off by ponding, the rest looks happy and healthy. Any lawn mowing at my place is out of the question right now unless I fire up the canoe and use a hand sickle.  I guess that would be too much work.

Charlie V.

I sure regret passing along bad news. Ohio had another 3 to 5 inches of rain from 2 storms that passed through last evening and early morning today. Winds of up to 65 MPH and quite a light show and thunder. Couple tornados touched down east of Lima. 2 semi trucks blown over in the Dayton area. Rivers and roads flooding again. Still no corn planted in my area or most of Ohio and eastern Indiana. Man, this is starting to get OLD!!!

Gene

Gene, Charlie,
Here in western Iowa right around me(just southeast of Sioux City), the corn is probably 95% planted and most of that is up and going.  The soybean planting got interrupted by the rain that has gone nutz and I really have not a clue as to how much got planted.  I will venture a guess of around 50-60% with a few fields starting to emerge.  The rest is mud.  All in all, we are in very good shape here with the exception of the areas that have had storm damage.

Ron Cook
Salix, IA

Hi Ron,

Good to have you posting here as it is mainly pretty quiet so the more, the better.  I, like you, followed Ralph to the coffee cup and have been lurking there for several months.  Those guys keep it interesting, don't they.  I considered posting a couple of times, but haven't.  That thread is a perfect example of what I tried to point out here some time back.  It is not up to Spencer to make this forum interesting. That can only be accomplished by the users of the forum via posting content interesting enough so other users will return often and comment often.  All in all, I am happy that those of us here do O.K. with that.  Some days we just do not have much new to add.

Hope you stay out of the wind.

Charlie V.

Hi Ron,

Good to have you posting here as it is mainly pretty quiet so the more, the better.  I, like you, follower Ralph to the coffee cup and have been lurking there for several months.  Those guys keep it interesting, don't they.  I considered posting a couple of times, but haven't.  That thread is a perfect example of what I tried to point out here some time back.  It is not up to Spencer to make this forum interesting. That can only be accomplished by the users of the forum via posting content interesting enough so other users will return often and comment often.  All in all, I am happy that those of us here do O.K. with that.  Some days we just do not have much new to add.

Hope you stay out of the wind.

Charlie V.

 
Charlie, you have summed it up pretty well. A good forum requires input from members, the more the better. I've been spending most of my days and parts of some nights in the tractor seeding, harrowing, picking rocks and generally making good progress. Only problem is, due to wet weather and other delays I am two weeks behind normal and just can't catch up . Everything I do needed to be done yesterday it seems. Days aren't long enough and I don't feel like spending half the night out there too so I guess it will get done when it gets done..
Yes, I carry my camera all the time and have a few pictures and videos but haven't got around to posting them anywhere. Usually by the time I get in and make supper it is late and I am too tired to do any more than check email. Tonight, being an early night, here is the seeding video.[video=youtube;_-CHic3bPrY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-CHic3bPrY[/video]

June 4 update.

What a difference a week of dry warm weather can make. Most field work resumed on May 31 and now tractors and planters are running everywhere in the area. Had a couple days with 93 degrees, a little wind and much lower humidity. Ground conditions are good. Tillage has been hard pulling, but working up in pretty good shape. Made the old Case 700 grunt pulling the 13 foot field cultivator.

I finished planting my soybeans yesterday, so with reasonable weather should have a chance of reasonable yields. Hope to start cutting hay today. It is a little past ripe but ground is dry now to give it a chance at curing.

Gene

Hi Gene, looks like you might have a couple days of good weather to work with--hope you get your hay in while the dry weather holds.  Yesterday was dry and sunny here in Dayton except for a brief thunderstorm that rolled through mid-morning, literally out of the blue, and knocked the power out for a while, and another that rolled through around ten pm.  My route to work takes me past some nearby fields that the farmer managed to get planted between rains a couple weeks ago, and the corn is now looking pretty good everywhere except the next-to-lowest spots--where nothing came up at all.   The lowest areas didn't even get planted, just bypassed on planting day since they were so wet.

Dean