That's not a pleasant sight in those corn fields! Wish I lived nearby. Seriously, I'd come and help pick corn for free! (well, maybe not totally free.......4 cobs a day! lol) I admire those teenagers out there picking veggies in the field. Good kids!! Much respect for them.
Lol. When I was growing up, we had corn at the dinner table almost every night during sweetcorn season and my dad would polish off six in a row just about every night and I can put pretty good on it myself but my kids don’t like it which I cannot understand so we hardly ever have corn for dinner unless I bring it in just for myself Today was the last day for 7 of those teens heading back to high school and college. Things are gonna be tough for the next few weeks.
Mother nature...she is a beast. In the end, she decides whether or not, u get grow produce and fees thw world. And there is nit much u can do when she decides to get a little spicy. All we can do is learn from what she does and adjust how we do things in thw future. Low tunnels r going to b a staple on farm once I get going on larger production. I shouldn't b growing some of thw things I do, but, with some preventative procedures, it can b done. In the end mother nature is just an obstacle we need to learn to work with to do what we love. U have definitely got thiae kids trained up great and working like a well oiled machine. These r skills they will take with them for the rest of their lives. Thx for all u do.
Yep, you can’t fight the weather. You never know what you’re gonna get it and take you out in a heartbeat. I used to get different types of Crop insurance but stopped doing it about 15 years ago and just make sure my eggs are not all in one basket so if we lose a couple crops will still be OK. For me, ultimately it’s putting my faith in something other than what I can do or control and at the end of the day it’s putting my faith in the Lord that He will protect and provide.
Our sweet corn crop in North Central Minnesota was a complete loss this year. Between never getting in the ground cuz it never dried out and torrential rain washing everything away we gave up on it a month ago. Hopefully you can recover a bunch of the downed corn.
Wow, I am so sorry to hear that. I’m sure it’s much tougher to grow good crops in that region compared to where I am at. I hope you are successful on your next Crop. Fortunately, we were able to harvest about 90% of the down corn it just was a backbreaking job. It took twice as long as normal.
Been there myself except that I lost quite a bit of produce before they got me back up and running. That's just one of the reasons that there aren't more of us doing this. Risks vs rewards... sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't and few of us can handle that part of farming. Take care my friend. Chuck
That is the same storm that nailed us in sw Ohio. Seeing all that beautiful corn laying down gave me chest pain. We had more damage here than when Ike blew through years ago. Power out for 12 hours and many days of cleaning up the damage. NWS said the wind gusts were between 70-80 mph. Hope by now you were able to salvage most of it. Mother Natire can be ruthless.
I hate wind so much, it’s my nemesis for everything on the farm. In 2002 I lost a 30 x 1 50 Greenhouse, straight line winds opened it up like a can of worms and flipped it upside down and killed 1000 tomato plants instantly.
Hello Jason. My husband says that you should get a cooler off a reefer trailer and attach it to your produce store. The diesel engine would kick in when you lose power. Hope everything went well. Elaine 🌱
Yeah, that would be great to have one of those on hand but just one more thing to Store somewhere. We have a generator for when the power goes out, but that is the first time I’ve ever had a lightning strike damage my compressor since I’ve been doing this in over 25 years.
nah, its in your head and you are being a victim to the "news". Weather does this year in and year out. Some years something bad happens to you or your area some years it doesn't. You just hear about ALL the bad things and people play it up more now as if it never happened before.
Due to the heavy storms we get here in North Queensland , the sugarcane crops often lie down like your corn and I'd say it would be a yearly event here.
We got it bad also. Tornado the news said. Took a few days for the power to come back on luckly my house and shop are fully backedup with generator power i was fortunate enough to stay running. Thats a bummer about the cooler! It was the path of least resistance.
I wonder if I had good lightning rods in my barn if that would have helped. I got back up generators, but never thought I would have this problem. That’s for sure.
@wishwellfarms yeah my knowledge/experiance of lighting is not much. Seems like a powerfull force to say the least. Powerfully beyond my comprehension, a little bitty wire even if it's 00 gauge seems like child's play to tame lightening.
Ugh this is a bummer but the best part is that it was ready to pick right? If it wasn't ready then complete waste if it didn't rebound. Like it will be crappy picking but if its ready you can gut it out and pick it no?
You are most likely right, we would’ve probably had to skip it if it was immature corn that went down. Fortunately, we harvested at least 90% of it. It just took twice as long as normal and it was a backbreaking job.
Yes, but it’s very expensive. The FSA/USDA office offer something called NAP But it basically just covers input costs and is so much paperwork that I quit doing it probably 12 years ago. Now that I don’t have any farm debt or personal debt, I’m willing to take my chances and if you spread your risk out over lots of different crops and not put all your eggs in one basket things have always turned out OK.
I think I can answer based on my experience. Yes they will. It can take a bit of time for some varieties to turn. Once they turn their shelf life on or off the plant is somewhat limited though in my experience. They sure are good fully ripened though!
All green peppers will turn a color, just depends on what variety you planted.Red, yellow, orange, ivory, purple are most of the color options available, but I would say the most popular is green to red.
If you have the acreage, sweet corn is a must but if you don’t, definitely gotta have tomatoes because they last most of the season and if you’re able to grow some early ones under protection, like a hoop house or high tunnel you can get a premium price and beat the competition to the market. Cantaloupes are always a big hit for us as well, but you gotta have the acreage. If you don’t have much land, you’re gonna have to concentrate on things like leafy greens and herbs and other high value crops that don’t take a lot of space.
Strawberries or any fruit is a huge hit at any market, but they take the most labor to harvest and the most work to take care of and protect and nurture
No, absolutely not, we just picked it up like normal, but had to stoop over to get it. just the ears alone weighed thousands of pounds and filled up two wagons with 600 dozen
