“Oh beautiful, for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,”

                -America the Beautiful, Ray Charles

Ray Charles, legendary singer/songwriter, may have been blind but he absolutely knew what he was talking about when it came to “amber waves of grain”. Here in northeast Nebraska, the amber waves of grain are few and far between.  Wheat is not a widely planted commodity in this part of Nebraska; if you were to go a little farther west or south you can definitely see a wheat field popping up here and there! So imagine everyone’s shock when my husband and I decided to try it. “Oh the horror!” That’s right we are “cheating” on corn.  Just kidding we still planted corn and soybeans.

Now if you have been reading along since I started this page I believe you can tell that we here at SouthernWind Farm like to experiment and try something different. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out according to plan but wheat DID! Across our beautiful Nation many farmers plant wheat, but for those of you unfamiliar with it I will give a quick overview.

Wheat is a small grain plant that is classified in the grass family.  There are several kinds of wheat: Hard red winter wheat, soft red winter wheat, hard red spring wheat, hard white, soft white, and durum (if I forgot any sorry).  The uses for wheat are as follows : durum – pasta, hard red spring/winter – flour and bread, soft red winter/soft white- pastry, cakes, etc, hard white- brewing /bread.

They each have their purpose. Here on our farm we decided to grow Hard Red Winter Wheat. Our wheat was planted into an empty soybean field in October of 2016.  An open soybean field was our only option due to the fact that you have to try and get your wheat in by October in Northern Nebraska or the first hard freeze may kill the wheat if its not allowed enough time to grow before the cold winter settles in.  Also this type was the only one we could send to an elevator around here.   Many of our local elevators only take corn/soybeans which is really a shame as it prevents farmers from having options if one crop goes under.

After we no-till drilled in our wheat we just sat back and watched it grow.  The rainy period during the fall hit just right and we only had to water a few times before winter hit.  Now over the winter, the wheat goes into a dormancy period and turns a mucky beige/brown color.  I was a little worried it wouldn’t come back but as soon as the temperatures began to warm up we had a lovely green field during March-May.  We opted not to apply any herbicides (weed killer) this year as the wheat did a fantastic job of smothering out any weeds that tried to come up. Not everyone can get away with this and we do have few more weeds popping through now but overall we were satisfied without applying.  Also, we figured this gave the land a little break from chemicals.  We were lucky in the fact that we didn’t have to spray fungicides or pesticides this year.  Another break that was welcome.  We did however put out dry fertilizer to give the wheat a little boost! A few more months of growing and some watering and here we are already harvesting.

We are estimating that we’ve pulled in about 70 bushels to an acre which is pretty awesome for our first year.  After the grain head is harvested by our combine the wheat straw/stalk shoots out the back and lays in a “windrow”.  From this windrow my husband/I will take our tractor and baler and bale up the straw.  Now with the straw you can feed it to livestock or use it for bedding.  Wheat really is a versatile crop that I wish a few more people would try.  Not only does it give you two forms of income (grain and straw) but also is fantastic natural erosion control for the field, builds up organic matter in the soil, needs less water/irrigating (less fuel to buy), and may decrease the amount of chemicals that you buy and use.

So the next time you go into the store and buy a loaf of bread it may have come from our field! Enjoy!

I know, I know, long time no see! Believe me it has been a whirlwind here at the farm. The last time I updated you all (are there any of you?) we had just had three adorable lambs, seed had been sown, and the summer work was about to begin. And boy did it ever.  I’m not very “preachy” and I don’t consider myself exceptionally well versed with the Bible (even though I spent my formative years in a parochial school) but the verse from Ecclesiastes 3 could easily sum up the last few months.

2 “A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted”

We highly anticipated the birth of lambs this year and the delivery of our new laying flock. Both things went off without a hitch; three lambs (Poppy, Tulip, and Daffodil) and new chicks (15) arrived just before the lambs. Sadly, the opposite of birth is death and on the farm that is a reoccurring cycle. Our very loved lamb, Poppy, was having problems when she began to eat hay. At first we thought bloat, then choking, and then we suspected maybe she was constipated. When everything we could do didn’t work we called in our wonderful Veterinarian. He suspected a few different problems and we ran a diagnostic x-ray of her esophagus-stomach. Unfortunately she had a congenital heart defect , in which the muscle of the heart constricts around her esophagus not allowing food to pass through so she regurgitates all that she has consumed. There was no feasible surgery or medicine to help, we were instructed to keep her comfortable. Upon seeing the poor little thing I couldn’t bear it any longer and we took her back to the Vet to have euthanized. I’m not one to give up on animals so quickly but pain/suffering are not my thing so she peacefully passed on in my husbands arms. On the bright side her half sisters (Tulip and Daffodil) are doing wonderful and are growing big and strong in our new pasture.

The chickens were doing great as well until a loose cat somehow managed to squeeze his way into there pen and kill eight before I found it and got him out of there. There is no sight or sound more awful than a chicken dying. We doubled our efforts and the remaining chicks are growing and thriving. My daughter had selected two for her 4-h project this year, if you’re not familiar with this (4-H) please go to their site (https://4-h.org/), it’s a wonderful group for kids to be involved in. We listed them both a pullets, of course nature laughs at my plans frequently, and we actually have a pullet and a cockerel (young rooster). She has decided to select another female from our remaining chicks as he was less than excited to be messed with.

We planted and planted, corn, soybeans, barley, alfalfa, and grass seed. Again, mother nature snickered at our efforts. After we finished planting we had beautiful timely rains, until the month of June. And then the water valve was turned off! Now mind you we have most of our fields under irrigation (a well pumps water up through a system of pipes an it is sprayed onto the fields) but of course our alfalfa and grass were not. Suffice it to say our grass is barely there and the alfalfa is toast. When we walk across it, it disintegrates into the ground.  The alfalfa is a total loss. On the flip side though, our barley, wheat, corn and soybeans look fantastic and here around the end of the month we will be harvesting wheat followed by barley! We are praying for good yields.

The struggle on the farm is real! But we LOVE what we do and while that isn’t a great security net when things die or disintegrates; it never the less keeps us moving forward. I have to say being a farmer, whatever size it maybe, makes you realize there is a greater force at work behind everything that happens.