Starting in August, when most in our area were wanting to get the fields ready to plant wheat, or some, like me, wanted to start planting, it was basically too dry.
A little wheat was planted in a few places and looked so-so, but there were some, like me, who still had cattle on those fields grazing the weeds of cheat or crabgrass or basically anything green. Then, of course, we wanted God to send us rain at the right time to farm it and soon plant again. Some would say that is greediness. Some would say that is stupidity, and others would say that is survival.
I cannot be thankful enough starting, mostly in November, that we have received fantastic rains. Some have said it would have sure been nice to have gotten those rains in September, but more importantly we better just thank God that we got them now. The weather has been nice enough that a lot of the wheat looks good, and the late-planted wheat has at least come up to where we can see we have a good stand.
This year, in several of my wheat fields, I planted some cane. Since I graze out all of mine, this gives the cattle some forage to go along with the wheat so that we don’t have to put out as much hay. If it snows, they can go to that part of the field and eat cane that is sticking up above the snow. We used to do this a lot of years ago, and I plan to do more of that in the years to come.
Another thing I liked in our early-planted wheat, or in mine, was triticale. There was some cane still in the drill, planting outside rounds to both. I like that in early planting as I think the grasshoppers eat fewer of the outside rounds that way.
Keep in mind I have never been accused of being a good farmer. One man said the other day that he sometimes plants wheat and never takes the cattle out. Perhaps there weren’t a lot of cattle out there, but he said he still cut 35 to 40 bushels of wheat after that.
A friend of mine says she speaks her mind because it hurts to bite her tongue.
I was sent a text that said, “Breaking news — Trump is to start deporting Democrats.” Now Mexico has responded by starting to build a border wall. Oh now, Democrats, go ahead and laugh.
I have to laugh at jokes said about me because sometimes even those are funny. Let’s all strive to be happier. We don’t have to agree on everything to still be friends. Like my Dad told me several times, “It’s all the same price. You might as well enjoy it.”
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the view of High Plains Journal. Jerry Nine, Woodward, Oklahoma, is a lifetime cattleman who grew up on his family’s ranch near Slapout, Oklahoma.
