Category: Crops

Walking the Newly Planted Wheat Fields

Good morning!  Here is another edition of Photo Friday…

Yesterday was a beautiful day!  So I set out to check on our newly planted wheat fields and see how they were coming along.  At this point, when they are newly planted slugs are their worst enemy!  We not only plant with bait next to the seed, we also at times have to spread on top of the ground to help keep the population of hungry wheat seed eating machines to a minimum.

2013-03-07_16-21-19_574This is a wheat seed, in a furrow.  You can see the dead grass that is also in there, that is because we no-till planted this wheat in the ground.

2013-03-07_16-20-59_934This little guy is growing fast!

2013-03-07_16-23-56_154Finally I found one that made it through the dirt and is sprouting…and not a slug in sight!

2013-03-07_16-21-40_314What a darn beautiful day to be outside walking fields!!!

The Rest of the Tour

The Tour of Arizona Ag continues!

The next stop was a dry flower company. They grow rare types of wheat, not for the food portion of the wheat, but for the beauty of it! They grow black bearded wheat, millet, among many other varieties of dried flower varieties.

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Their newest product was cotton balls that are sold in plastic bags.

2013-02-11_14-06-15_788This is what they use to harvest all of their crops.

2013-02-11_14-07-16_228He was a collector of some interesting pieces of history.

The next stop was a research station where we learned about how a cotton picker & gin works.

2013-02-11_15-33-18_8472013-02-11_15-16-14_8672013-02-11_15-28-03_9812013-02-11_16-11-18_920And lastly a stop at a kid farm, where they bring in students from all over the Phoenix area to show them what agriculture means to Arizona.

2013-02-11_16-01-18_173My favorite part was this sign, something we all need to remember!

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Tours of Pheonix Arizona, DeJong Dairy

Arizona has 5 C’s of agriculture, Cotton, Cattle, Climate, Citrus and Copper.  So while we were down there I was able to got on a few farm tours.  First I would like to show you my visit to a very large dairy farm.  This farm, although quite large is still family owned.  There are about 80 dairies in the state, with 65 being family businesses.  There are also about 170,000 dairy cattle which employs almost 20,000 people in the state!  So please enjoy the first stop on the Arizona Farm Tour…DeJong Dairy.

2013-02-11_11-33-55_212They have over 28,000 head of cattle on this farm alone!  Varying in all stages & ages.

2013-02-11_11-37-08_73This time of year they have 80 to 100 calves A DAY!!

2013-02-11_12-02-19_445We got to see one cow actually giving birth, when we asked the tour gal (who was a riot) how long until that thing was done.  She replied, Well folks, what takes months to grow takes more than seconds to get out!!

2013-02-11_12-21-57_500They milk 7500-8000 cows, three times per day.  They have two of these turn tables to get the job done.

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Next week, Specialty Dried Flower grower & a research facility.  Have a good weekend!