# Getting dry.



## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Went from wet to dry.


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## Ox76 (Oct 22, 2018)

Crazy...


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Yep, April May June a mere mention of rain, as little as 20% would soak us and stop work for another week, now that we can use some rain, a 90% chance gets us a few tenths.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

Same here, wet spring/early summer, dry since July 1. Just checked July 1 until yesterday 3.4", previous 5 year average 7.41". 4th cutting about 5-10% bloom and only about 12-15" high at best. 

Larry


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## PaulN (Mar 4, 2014)

I could use some of that dryness up here. We've been getting an inch or two each week in August. One week was 5.2".
July was not much better. Now we have a 40 to 50 percent chance for the next 5 days.


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

Longest dry spell of the summer here, now up to 9 days! About 7” in July and another 4” thru August. It can quit here till December, corn and beans have plenty to finish, just need 30 days of heat.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Don't have to go far and it is wet.Was at a guys place 60 miles west and he thought they would have to push silage trucks threw the field 2 weeks from now without anymore rain.

The Buffalo Ridge screws up our weather sometimes and it slides north or south or splits.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

We are into our second drought period. Just mowed 5th cutting alfalfa yesterday. Still in the windrow, but I think I can bale it tomorrow.

Regards, Mike


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## Troy Farmer (Jul 31, 2011)

Believe it are not in my little neck of the woods we are a little over 7" behind. It's really been a dry summer. We have gotten some rain but we have missed a lot. Not a drop out of Dorian.


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## Palmettokat (Jul 10, 2017)

Troy, it would have suited my area had you gotteh the rain we did. We got about 8 inches following last few weeks of decent rain following dry spring following a very wet winter from last hurricane. Just be sure to keep the wind..especially following few inches of rain. It does amaze me how rain can vary so much from you to me. At same time it varies lot closer than that. This summer saw corn that looked good and some that looked great within 1/2 mile of each other due to difference in the rain.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

r82230 said:


> Same here, wet spring/early summer, dry since July 1. Just checked July 1 until yesterday 3.4", previous 5 year average 7.41". 4th cutting about 5-10% bloom and only about 12-15" high at best.
> 
> Larry


 I'm not even going to get a third cutting on most of my fields. last time mowed it sat almost two weeks before showing any signs of regrowth, if one follows Purdues recommendations on when to cut the last time, it has 9 days to make up for three weeks.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

3rd dry year in a row here. 1st cut was good, 2nd cut some was ok some was poor, not going to get a 3rd cut as it just didn't rain enough to get it to grow. Crops did surprisingly well for how hot and dry it was. Beans might be hurt though. Its been really cool lately making many wonder if the corn will dry down.

Chances of rain tomorrow and pretty much every day next week. Wish we'd have gotten some of that rain earlier in the year.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Not dry anymore,pic from radio station.I farm in that area but not my field or bales in pic.Up to 7" last night and 10" this week.


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

swmnhay said:


> Not dry anymore,pic from radio station.I farm in that area but not my field or bales in pic.Up to 7" last night and 10" this week.


Cy all you had to do was complain about being dry and look what happens, plenty of rain. Now, turn your attention to low commodity prices!


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Desperately need some rain. I was pulling soil samples on PP acres and decided to check a corn field, have a big ole auger bit for a brace I use with a 20volt Dewalt to pull samples, went maybe 10" down and had nothing but powder. Normally wouldn't worry about it too much, but with as wet as it was earlier everything has shallow roots.


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## danwi (Mar 6, 2015)

Bad deal if a person has to harvest a crop that is already late and wet and not worth much and then have to harvest in the mud.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

danwi said:


> Bad deal if a person has to harvest a crop that is already late and wet and not worth much and then have to harvest in the mud.


Yea alot of guys want to get PP acres baled.A big variety of stuff.Oats,Wheat,Teff,Millet,Annual Ryerass,sorghum sudan grass.This is going to make thing even more difficult to get dry and baled.Also about time to cut silage here in a week or 2 and thats going to be a mess.

2019 sucks!


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

My cousin posted this on FB.It's inbetween 2 farms I rent


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## danwi (Mar 6, 2015)

I cant see the water line O wait is it full? I forgot about prevent plant harvest but that, and corn silage starting here soon, other years that would be rolling along already, Some guys need to start because they are out or running out of corn silage


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## Troy Farmer (Jul 31, 2011)

You would have to add all our rainfall from today back to mid June to equal what's in that gauge.


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## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

swmnhay said:


> My cousin posted this on FB.It's inbetween 2 farms I rent


I loath those rain gauges. That is the only kind I had for a while and I ALWAYS had more rain than everyone else... lots more rain!!! Finally it dawned on me and I took it to my shop... the measurements are spot-on on the side, but the problem is--- there's a funnel on top of it, and the scale does not account for it.

A good starret caliper and a calculator say that the scale on the side of the gauge is off by a factor of 1.81:1.

So, (let's just say) that rain gauge is 8-1/2' tall; it only takes 4.69" of rainfall to fill it.

Mark

I personally don't care, that's still a LOT of rain. Just thought I would throw that out there 'cause there are a jillion of them little buggers around out there. I would hate it if that kind of less-than-perfect information would ever be presented in a coffee shop or sumn 

Oh, by the way, I still have mine; it and a "real" rain gauge are mounted on opposite sides of the same corner post. Thinking of getting a third rain gauge and putting a 1/4" washer on top of it. That way, I could always have either less or more rain than everyone else at the coffee shop, so I could be prepared to complain that I have it the worst whether it be in a drought or monsoon.


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## danwi (Mar 6, 2015)

When I see those rainfall amounts like they had in western Minnesota and they had this week right along the Wisconsin Illinois line It really makes you wonder about guys like stackemup's neighbor who want to farm 20,000 acres.


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## PaulN (Mar 4, 2014)

All of the prevent plant acres in this area are from the big operators. Us small operators got things planted, maybe not at the time we wanted, but there are no idle acres.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

PaulN said:


> All of the prevent plant acres in this area are from the big operators. Us small operators got things planted, maybe not at the time we wanted, but there are no idle acres.


no rhyme or reason here on who planted or not.Seems like everyone has some PP acres, a wetter farm that doesn't drain well or a low part of a field.I know a few didn't plant anything or maybe just their beans but it was June before they could even get in the field.A few that didn't plant a thing are well healed so why fight it,plant corn in June and combine wet corn at thanksgiving with snow coming.Everyone I know that didn't plant went threw it in 93 and didn't want to go threw that again.

Common factor of ones that I know that didn't plant much at all is they own it or most of it,and Prly Pd for so it was like renting it out for the yr for 300+ a acre.

I had manure and fertilizer on already on most acres for corn so I planted that.I have corn just starting to dent so time will tell if I made right desission planting that.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

swmnhay said:


> no rhyme or reason here on who planted or not.Seems like everyone has some PP acres, a wetter farm that doesn't drain well or a low part of a field.I know a few didn't plant anything or maybe just their beans but it was June before they could even get in the field.A few that didn't plant a thing are well healed so why fight it,plant corn in June and combine wet corn at thanksgiving with snow coming.Everyone I know that didn't plant went threw it in 93 and didn't want to go threw that again.
> 
> Common factor of ones that I know that didn't plant much at all is they own it or most of it,and Prly Pd for so it was like renting it out for the yr for 300+ a acre.
> 
> I had manure and fertilizer on already on most acres for corn so I planted that.I have corn just starting to dent so time will tell if I made right desission planting that.


So are you 3 weeks or so away on your corn from being finished?

Regards, Mike


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## PaulN (Mar 4, 2014)

I went to an agronomy meeting last night. The speaker had all kinds of data, facts and
figures. We have a warm spell coming for the next 4-5 days. After that, if we figure on
average temps until Oct 12, we will get another 300 GDU's. That will leave most of us
~100 GDU's short, if we get a killing frost on the 12th. He claims that 100 GDU shortfall
isn't the end of the world. It will likely result in a 5 to 6% yeild reduction. The
moisture however, will be 35% !


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Vol said:


> So are you 3 weeks or so away on your corn from being finished?
> 
> Regards, Mike


I'd say closer to 5-6weeks.Need some warm weather.We get some warm days then days that don't get much over 60 so don't rack up many GDUs

Full moon is about 4 weeks from now,we have to get by that or it will really hurt the yields and test weight.


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## danwi (Mar 6, 2015)

The prevent plant is a lot more noticeable with the big operators because they simply had whole farms or large fields that they didn't plant. The others may have had a field here and there or portions of a field that they tried to plant but had to leave the wet spots.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

swmnhay said:


> I'd say closer to 5-6weeks.Need some warm weather.We get some warm days then days that don't get much over 60 so don't rack up many GDUs
> 
> Full moon is about 4 weeks from now,we have to get by that or it will really hurt the yields and test weight.


Wow, that IS a ways off....and as early as frost and freezes come in your part of the country, it will be tough for it to finish out. We are between 95°- 100° everyday now and have been that way for weeks. It is as dry now as it has been in many years. I am thankful that it really didn't get bad until the last 6 weeks. Pretty sure I won't be making anymore hay this year after this week. I usually make some really nice hay about a month from now, but that is very very doubtful. No rain in sight.

Regards, Mike


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

Went from terribly dry here to wet and muddy in about a 2 week span. Close to 6 inches of rain here in the last month. Makes it tough to get much done. Our silage chopper is behind, getting stuck all the time, not sure when he'll make it here. Most guys got their small grains combined but a few got caught and still have some getting rained on. Fields are so wet not sure how the soybeans will get harvested. We all prayed for rain all summer and now our prayers have been answered but we're all hoping it shuts off and drys up.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

It turned wet here also had from 8-15" on different farms the last few weeks.What a year!Still need to cut 85 acres of Prevent Plant seeded to ryegrass.Corn still isn't blacklayered.Water standing in bean rows yesterday.Everyone around here is ready for 2019 to be over.

Looks like we missed the frost last night it's 35 this morning.

Predicting another 1" of rain for tonight


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## PaulN (Mar 4, 2014)

There are several places in Minnesota that already have 2019 as the wettest year on record. Around here, very little third cutting done, no silage or soybeans getting done either. The last thing we need is more rain tonight.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

more rain here again tonight as well. Only .30 to .50 but still to much. THings will never dry out as cool as it is.


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## PaulN (Mar 4, 2014)

Last night, another 1.2". That makes the one week total 4.5" on top of already saturated soil.


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

Looked in rain gauge, right at 4” since Thursday morning.


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