First irrigation

The smell of water on the dry ground is wonderful!

We start flushing the ditch

The winter mess is being washed out of the ditches.  This is the main ditch for our place, water is always in this ditch from March until all the crops are done. 

The headgate is opened

It is hard to see, but the headgate is open, and our share of the canal water is starting to flow toward our farm.

Water is turned into the canal

The Water is turned off each year the last week of October and is turned on the last week in March.  It takes a 6 days to reach our place.

Making a waste ditch

 Because we irrigate the rows, they have to flow into a waste ditch.  Terry is using a 115 blade to make the waste ditch in the upper corn field.

Growth

Population growth is occurring everywhere.  We are seeing subdivisions popping up in unlikely places, farms disappearing, and developers from out-of-state buying up anything they can get their hands on.  This is a view of former grazing pastures for cattle.  These houses have appeared in the last 7 years.  The view is from our equipment storage [...]

Frost on Hay

Even though the hay is growing and working the ground is in process, the frost lays down every night, but burns off by the time the sun becomes warm.

Next Comes Leveling

This is a huge blade like scraper, which transfers all the dirt into a flat/level field.  If the ground isn’t level the irrigated rows would not move the water to the end of the field, causing the seeds to not sprout. Or, later on in the season, the water will just ‘flatten’ out and not [...]

Chiseling the Bean Ground

No-till is used on the bean ground.  No-till means, not having to disc, plow, or roll, still the ground needs to be fluffed up.  Chiseling is the process to provide air so moisture is retained.