We had a crazy spring this year -a cool, wet, late spring. That means that we ran about three weeks behind in our planting. Normally, we’ve got everything planted by about June 1, but this year it was closer to July 1. I’ll admit it, after the last of the hay and the corn was in, I slept through the night for the first time in a while. It put my mind at ease to know that it was done.
The first thing you have to learn as a farmer is that you have no control over so many things. There are three variables: weather, economics, and feed. Mother Nature is in charge of the weather, so it’s important to have a contingency plan. Here at Majestic Crossing we do a lot of planning in the winter around crop rotation and what will go where. This year, we’ve had to go back to the drawing board many times. People say to me, “You must be on plan B,” but the truth is we’re on plan G.
We have a lot of mouths to feed here on the farm, and we have good carryover of extra forage and hay for our animals. With our late spring, we’ve had to dive into that pretty hard this year.
But the good thing is, the corn this year looks like some of the best we’ve had. Now it’s a question of whether we will have enough daylight and warmth for it to thrive. I always say that farmers make their decisions based on what they know today. You can’t know what’s coming, you just do your best.
