Author: Nuttygrass

I'm a nut and grass farmer, EMT, Firefighter, and world traveler. I love a good laugh and a great adventure!

Daytime Harvest has started!

We started harvest for 2024 about 17 days ago. But most of that work has been happening in the middle of the night and early morning hours. Today however marks the first harvest day in the daytime!

Swathing or cutting the crop into rows for combining is usually done at night when the air is cooler and the dew can help keep seeds on the stem.

I’m excited to get started and get this show on the road! First on the list is crimson clover. This crop looked pretty good but a late surge of disease has me questioning what it will end up like after we get the final yield numbers.

This crop in the past has been really good and it’s also been pretty awful. It’s a great rotation for us, fits in well with our dryland ground especially. But the price can fluctuate greatly as can when it gets sold and shipped (aka when we get paid for it). Some years we get a nice fall check after good movement and other years (this past 2023 crop for example) we are lucky to have a check to take in before we are harvesting another.

In a county that boasts growing over 280 or so crops it always amazes me how few options we really have and what a struggle it can be to find something that’s consistent, not super risky, low labor and can be grown with the crops and infrastructure that we have already.

So while today marks the start of our daytime harvest here in Oregon, the real story of how this year will end up for our farm; when bills are paid and checks are cashed, is many months away.

Next in our 2024 harvest line up we have grass seed (both tall fescue and perennial), green beans, radish, wheat and finally we will wrap up the year with filberts.

Harvest has started

Usually our first crop that is ready to harvest is crimson clover. It goes through a similar process as grass seed. Once it’s mature we swath it into rows, usually at night or in the early morning to allow for the higher moisture in the air to keep the seeds from falling off the stems.

We got a little bit of rain today, but with this crop particularly the little bit of rain after it’s swathed will help it combine easier. So this cooler and a little wet weather is a welcome sight even if just for a short time.

The kids got to get some hours on their time cards too. We have to look for vetch in the cut rows and pull it out. The vetch is difficult to remove when we send it to the seed cleaner so we try to get it out of there before it ever goes through the combine and into the truck. Clean seed is an important part of producing quality products that come off our farm.

Things I’m glad I’m not in charge of…..

****I wrote this post about 5 days ago….woke up to some beautiful sunshine this morning, but the intent stands true; I’m still glad I’m not in charge of the weather!****

Maybe you wouldn’t know it by the title but this is a weather post. Because you see the the weather is by and large the one thing that I’m most happy to not be in charge of. I mean sure there’s other things like, I’m glad I’m not the sole person in charge of making sure my kids don’t grow up to be crazy & absolutely wild but that’s a blog for another day.

Windshield raindrops

It’s raining today here in the Willamette Valley. We have needed this rain so much. The days leading up to this weather system were hectic at best. Lots of triage of what to spray, what to fertilize, what to mow, scrape, plant, fix, put away….you get the point here. We had a lot to do.

And if I’m being honest there’s always more that could have been done, but today I woke up and heard the rain and felt grateful. I know there are plenty of folks out there who woke up not loving the raindrops, maybe a farmer or two who had a lot left on their list of things to get done (I’ve been this farmer also).

But at the end of the day that’s why I’m grateful that I’m not in charge of the weather; too much to consider, too many decisions to make, and I’ll leave all that up to the big guy upstairs.

But also….I mean….it has been a few days and it could probably go ahead and be sunny again…we do have beans to plant next week….just a thought to the guy who is in charge….but still I’m glad I’m not in charge….anyway moving right along….happy farming out there no matter the weather!!