Family Farm Friday #92: Milo Watch 2014

My dad and his trusty iPhone camera have been helping me with a little project for the last 5 months.  Today, we have the results of this project, Milo Watch 2014.  As I've mentioned before, it had been 5 long, hot, dry, pretty miserable years on the farm.  The drought was record-setting.  We were allotted no irrigation water.  So not much farming was going on.  But this year, things turned around and we got rain and irrigation water and well, my dad went to work.  He planted milo (also called maize and/or grain sorghum) this spring.  And we've been photographing it's progress ever since.



 

This is how things looked back in June. 

 

 

And this is where we were in July.

 

 



And next up we have the first weekend in August (and some of our engagement photos helping to show off that crop!)



Here's where things stood mid-August.  Look at those colors!



 

Next up, we have September's shot.  Starting to see some red.

 

 

Then came a photo in late October.

 

 

 

And then, in early November, it was time to harvest.  The grain is cut using the combine, then it is put into the grain truck, where we take it to our storage bin.  Over the next year, we'll be grinding this grain up, mixing it with hay, and feeding it to our sheep.

 

 

Farming is hard work.  You're dependent on the weather--will it rain enough?  Will it rain too much (usually not an issue for us....)?  Will the hail or wind damage the crop?  What will go wrong with the tractor/combine/grain truck?  What is the moisture content of the grain so we know when to harvest?  Are there any issues with weeds or bugs in the field?  I could go on an on all day.  But all of the work and sweat and worries aside, my dad has put up a great crop this year.  That gives us one more thing to add to our list as we celebrate the harvest this Thanksgiving!