Provider: Ryan & Hope
Pjesky
Profession: Farmers/Ranchers
Hometown: Goltry, Oklahoma
Summer 2008
June 2008
June in Oklahoma brings with it wheat harvest. This year, June not
only brought golden fields of ripe wheat but also nearly 15 inches of rain. Because
of the rain harvest took nearly the entire month to complete and even then
we still had to leave wheat standing in several mud holes in our fields. Harvest
is a very stressful time. The equipment we use for harvest is very
complex and sometimes breaks down. During harvest, more than any other
time of the year, a farmer’s skills as a marketer, mechanic and heavy
equipment operator are truly used to their fullest. Stress is also
high as storms and rain affect the quality and price of the crop, so speed
is of the essence. Markets move quite rapidly during this time. In
one day the value of our crop decreased by nearly $12,000! The good
thing about markets is that they can also go up just as rapidly. I
hope they do.
A typical harvest day consists of servicing the combines in the morning. Then
harvesting from approximately 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. and then home for supper,
a shower and bed to get up at 6:30 a.m. to start all over again. After
last year’s complete crop failure this harvest was one for the record
books. We harvested more total bushels and more bushels per acre than
ever before. We are very fortunate and grateful for our bountiful harvest
and very glad it is over. As we move into next crop year the rising
costs we face are very troubling. Fertilizer will be 3 times as expensive
as last year and fuel for our tractors twice as high. As usual farming
is risky and scary but rewarding. This won’t change.
July 2008
What proved to be yet another very wet June provided us with ample moisture
to get our primary tillage done during the month of July. Primary tillage
consists of disking in the straw from wheat harvest and then using a moldboard
plow or chisel plow to open up and loosen the soil to enable it to better
soak in and retain moisture. In July we also start getting cattle for
wheat pasture next fall. Special care must be taken when weaning these
calves in very hot temperatures. We provide barns for shade and fog
nozzles to keep them cool.
August 2008
The hot and dry August has come to an end. The days of over 100 degrees
make me long for the winter when it is cold. During the last month
we have applied nitrogen fertilizer to our wheat land in preparation for
planting in September. This year our cost of fertilizer rose to three
times what it was only a year ago. Fertilizer is made with natural
gas and is yet another item that costs more because of high energy prices.
We sold nearly 200 cattle during the month. We also purchased 200
new, small cattle to replace them. The starting and weaning process
with these 200 new calves was really easy. We had almost no sick trouble
with them which was great. A group I am part of visited several great
places in the Texas Panhandle. We toured two cattle feedlots, a beef
processing facility and an ethanol plant. I really enjoyed these tours.
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