The Transition Period: From One Crop Year to the Next

Being a diversified farm, like many in the Willamette Valley, usually means that this time of year you’re in a fairly steady pace of transition.

It’s the clash between crop year 2018 and 2019 which often looks like a lot of open dirt fields, a lot of dust, and a few crops left to pickup.

We have crops that have been harvested, fields that have been worked down ready to be planted, crops that are just starting to mature and some that we won’t even look at harvesting for another month or more.

This field is ready to be planted to tall fescue. Tall fescue is perennial so we will hopefully leave this field in for many years, meaning this will be the last time we have to work the ground and have open soil here for years to come.

It’s one of the reasons that I refer to this “season” of farming as triage. Everyday is different. Everyday is a look at the weather, check the fields, look at the soil, make a plan kind of day. Rarely is there an autopilot project, which makes management this time of year tiring and stressful.

Fields for grass seed planting this fall need a seed bed that is smooth as a dance floor. We have worked this soil about 7 times to get the field worked down to be ready to plant. There was also a ton of organic matter from the clover last year that has been worked into the top soil.

Today Matt and I are out in the orchards picking up drip tube from our hazelnut trees. These will be harvested around the end of September through October. The water on the squash has also been turned off and now we wait for the drying down to begin before they come get the seeds. And finally radish seed just got harvested yesterday and will head to the cleaner today.

Then more ground work and tractor time, more planting and prepping to start this whole crazy life of farming again for another year! This year has proven so far to be pretty good, hoping that trend continues as we close the books on 2018.

Video on Spraying Suckers & Drip Irrigation

Good morning! I’m out in the orchard today, so I decided to do a quick video of how and why we keep or chard floors so clean. Just click the link below! Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/LZdF4wbaMTg

As always if you have any questions or comments please feel free to post them below! Have a great day!!

Harvest Updates

It’s all over. Now we are totally bored. That is all.

Haha! Kidding!!

We have finished up the bulk of harvest, crimson clover, tall fescue and perennial ryegrass are all finished up and off to the cleaner. Just over 50% of our farm is dedicated to grass seed, so it is a huge weight off our shoulders when we finish up.

Swiss chard seed should be harvested this week. Next will be radish seed, then squash, then finally hazelnuts at the end of September.

It’s been a great summer so far. It’s been hot here, which basically amounts to lots of sweaty days in the field, a few more volunteers to drive harvesters with AC, and also awesome harvesting weather! We need the heat to cure our seed crops and make them easier to thrash (harvest), so really we aren’t complaining!!

We have also had some great visitors out in the field, which we always love.

Some good friends…

A few cousins….

A few southern friends….

And a few farmers from Canada….

And as always Hoot, Auggie and Millie who still even after some very long hot summer harvest days don’t ever want to miss a thing out in the fields.

Hoot & Auggie taking a combine ride with me.

Millie helping deliver dinner to the crew.

We have had some successes this year, some average and so far only one failure. Which is a testament to why we are so fortunate to be as diversified as we are.

So with that I’m heading back out to the field. There is still a lot of water to be turned on for the remaining crops and some orchard work before hazelnut harvest this fall. Not to mention work on next years crops that has already started. And hopefully harvest will keep chugging along, long days, short nights, and if we are lucky…good yields.