Measure up!

After attending an AgChat conference and teaching a "Sustainable World Food Systems" class, I'm reminded of the importance of telling folks what we do. No matter how 'just part of the day' to us, those who aren't out here with us would like to have a glimpse of farm life.  At our conference we heard how important it is to be ourselves while telling our story. My posts won't measure up to the great story tellers or photographers you may follow. But, this is us and what we might be chasing around our little part of the world.

In the last two years we have updated from wheel & handlines to center pivot irrigation at our home place.  The pivots save water, power, labor and allow us to grow a wider variety of crops.  While there is technology available to measure every drop coming out of a pivot, in agriculture we also have to consider economics. We are using the old fashioned water measuring technique.  Jeff equally spaced rain gauges under the pivot and the kids and I headed out to record how much 'rain' was in each gauge.  Its important to equate an amount of water put on with a specific speed of the pivot.  We can also check for potential problems if there is a huge difference in the amount of water applied as you move along the pivot.
 
This field is a freshly {hand} planted seed crop.  Watching the labor crew and talking to the growers about labor is another post(s) in itself!

Cows graze in the background on another portion of the field that will be turned into no-till beans.  Small red beans, that is, no soybeans in our neighborhood!

Hope everyone is enjoying spring and here's to a commitment from me to give you a quick glimpse of something we're up to.