Thursday, September 01, 2005

Crop checking

After all the wind and rain yesterday, and seeing the leaf-littered streets and my bedraggled, leaned-over garden, I was afraid to look at the crops. But as I drove out to an oil well site south of Carlyle today, I decided it could have been worse. (Keep in mind that I wasn't raised on a grain farm, so I'm not a good judge of crop condition, especially when I'm just driving by.) A lot of fields have been combined already, and there didn't seem to be many down in swath. I expected to see some lodging, but I only noticed a few small patches that were lying flat. I did see some fields that looked not quite right, as if most of the heads were bent over and only a scattering of them were still standing straight up. I'm wondering if it was hail, or just the cumulative effect of a whole day of gusty wind on a wet crop that's too ripe to straighten up again after.

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