So the big question in northern Iowa is, when are the temperature going to rise above 50 degrees F? It has been a cold and wet spring thus far and everyone around is getting anxious for the warm weather, especially us farmers. In 2010, I guess they had a tremendous spring that was dry and warm, great planting weather. As I learn more about crop disease, insects and weeds, I am learning that the type of weather during the spring really sets the disease, insect and weed climate for the year. For example, a dry, hot summer is the catalyst for a robust season of grasshoppers, or a wet spring with late planting brings out more issues with plant fungus. I am realizing more and more that farmers need to know A LOT of things and BE a lot of things, from climatologist to mechanic to market analyst to agronomist to CFO, they wear many hats. It’s what also makes the profession so intriguing and fulfilling. In addition, staying up to date on all of the world events, including weather patterns in other heavy agriculture countries, is key.

It’s all a waiting game now. The temperature of the soil needs to be 50 degrees and the condition of the ground needs to be drier or else we will sink, get stuck, and make a big mess in our field, tearing up all that beautiful soil we have been trying so hard to keep from eroding.

Meanwhile, we have 5 more ewes to have lambs. We have given the first round of CND toxoid shots to the older lambs and started giving them creep feed, which is a starter food for lambs as they move away from drinking milk from their mothers. Sheep can overeat and die from a toxin that develops in their body if they eat too much. Without this shot, they can basically kill themselves by gorging themselves. The lambs get one shot when they start on creep feed and one more when they are weaned from their mothers at about 2 months of age.

I forgot to mention that we put elastrator rings around the tails of the lambs when they are a few days old. This is not to be mean or cruel, but it is more sanitary for the lamb because it keeps flies away from their rear end, especially if they were to get diarrhea. If you have flies and manure, you have maggots, and maggots like warm and dark spaces….you can get where I’m going with that. Anyway, recently tails have been falling off the lambs in random areas of the sheep pen. Johnny seems to think they are really neat and enjoys playing tail jokes on me. For example, once I asked him to fetch the mail and instead he brought me a….you guessed it, a tail. The lambs feel some pain for 10 minutes but are quickly over it and begin to play. I have yet to catch on video the lambs playing, it is super cute. They never seem to do it when I’m around.

All the rain is bringing us GREEN, which is such a refreshing color! So I’ve added a photo of our little stream behind our house that turns into a small river when it rains. I have very fond memories of sailing little stick and paper boats down this pasture stream when I was little. I think I might do that again very soon!