Farming in the DUST BOWL | Planting Cover Crops

Okay, here's the official last load of harvest 24. Meet the Peterson family. Our dad, the three Peterson brothers, and our families farm together in central Kansas. Our family farm started in 1882 and has been raising cattle and crops ever since. Please subscribe to this channel and give us a like and a comment if you enjoy the video. Okay, here's those weaned six-grain heifers. They're up at the bunk eating ration. They don't need any hay. I unhooked the Neville from the Sterling here. The other silage end dump is here and the cat. The cat is waiting its turn to get some work done on it. When we're done with that grain trailer, we do not haul grain in the winter very extensively. We'll haul a little bit in the spring maybe. All right, I'm loading some more wheat to be blended with Triticale as cover crop. This will not go to the seed cleaner, but don't worry. We have a 30 mile an hour wind today, so look, it's cleaning off the cleaning out the lighted. All right, here's my 50-50 blend of wheat and Triticale. I'd say it's blending that pretty nice. Okay, we're done with most of these seed wheat wagons, so we're going to back them in. So I'm putting putting the corn head up. I don't know what you call this job, but it makes it take a lot less space and the kitty came out to help me. I don't think you're going to be able to help me air up the tires, kitty. That side over there is low. I don't think we got to get the portable air compressor out here. Okay, we got that corn head put away. I'm going to move these bales off, put them here by the trench style. They'll be really easy to grab to grind. All right, I'm out here doing some fall tillage. Probably think I'm not getting much done with the drill. So I am drilling a cover crop on this irrigated corn field. I am also putting down some fertilizer. So in the footage of me filling, it's too windy to really talk, but you saw I was pouring in some bags of smaller seed. So on this field, we're doing a four-way blend. So I was putting in radishes and turnips with the wheat and triticale. I was just blending it myself, pouring the bags in. We're giving that a try. Radishes and turnips are blends we've done after wheat that we graze. We've held back from doing it after corn or milo because there's not much moisture there for them to grow and get established. And then when it gets cold, if they're not already established, they don't do real well. And so they don't end up doing much, but they're not very expensive to put in. And if they can stay alive till next spring and grow, they should have a nice taproot to go down. And we'll hopefully get a good rain here tomorrow and they can get up and get established. The other incentive we had to do that is on this field, we're in a EQIP program. It incentivizes cover crops and kind of helps pay for the cost just to give people more reasons to do it, protect the soil. A lot of people like to work under heavy corn stalks. We're not really set up for heavy tillage. We're pretty big believers in no till in our Western area. We're in a pretty arid area. You guys know we've been short on rainfall the last few years. And especially in our dry land scenarios, I think it was about 2005 or so, the dad transitioned to no till. Really saw benefits from leaving residue on top of the ground, watching our organic matter build by not working it every year. Now in an irrigated corn situation and on a flat field where there's basically not erosion and you have irrigation to add water, chiseling is definitely a proven thing as far as getting yields. But since we don't have a chisel, we don't have a real up-to-date tillage equipment for our whole operation, we are out here just with the no till drill we have, a tractor. We don't need a ton of horsepower and we're still going to break down these stalks. They're going to take a little longer to break down, but we're okay with that because that's building organic matter for future years. Then we're going to use biology. We're going to use roots and earthworms to open up the soil for water infiltration and for nutrient cycling so we can get some of the same results. If we can save moisture on dry land, then we might as well save moisture on irrigated. We don't have a huge permit on this field. We can't just pump unlimited water. We used all the water this year and we probably could have gone another pass if we would have had it. So we want to conserve moisture here just like on our dry land and still be able to push yields with that irrigation. We're trying to do as much like cover crops as possible in these dry years where we're getting less than 25 inches of rain per year and having really hot summers. We definitely see the effects of the moisture that the cover crop took over the winter. Usually our average rainfall is 30. So usually we have as many years that we get 35 inches of rain as we do years where we get 25. It just hasn't been happening. So if we got 35, you know, I don't think we would see near the drawbacks that we have the last couple years. You would overcome what you used and then you would get all the other benefits. So we know that everybody's land, everybody's area is different. You know, farmers all over the place deal with different things and so everybody has to decide what works right for them. There's a lot of studies out there, both in tillage and no tillage, of ways to improve. There's no one-size-fits-all for farmers. There's huge diversity in agriculture in the U.S. and around the world. Even from the east side of Kansas to the west side of Kansas, you see huge changes in what farmers can do and how they do it. Done with that. Took me longer than I thought it would, but that's the story of my life. I always think things will go faster than they do. Now I got to pull on the highway. At least I still have a little light. Just going to the next field and then I will, uh, mom's picking me up there. I will fill in the morning, I guess. I told myself if I was going to do cover crops, I wasn't going to stress out about pushing too hard, so. Very windy today. Second day in a row it's going to be 80 degrees and windy and we are almost in November, so that's kind of not the most pleasant. I have some cattle work to do today. Nathan is drilling covers. We're going to try to get some things knocked off the list, some post-harvest things. All right, I'm back to it. It was like 80 degrees all night long with a strong south wind. It's real balmy out here. Real scientific. I got the bulls. They're breeding soundness exam this morning. They both passed. I got to get these 11 heifers, which they're amazing that they're sorting themselves off cows that I don't need. So I got 10 out of the 11, which is real handy. They get their free breeding shots. Okay, here's the last four pair that calved. They're going to go down with the rest of the group. So I'm unhooking from this trailer and we're gonna get them unloaded. Then I'd like to start chores and now that harvest is over, it's like, you know, ideally I can make it in before 6 30. That's my goal, but I didn't make it so far yesterday. So it's basically been 20 mile per hour sustained winds with 45 mile per hour gusts here for Monday and Tuesday of this week. But the weatherman promises that we can get up to three to four inches of rain in the seven day forecast. We're trying to get a lot done before this Wednesday when the rain is supposed to come. And then maybe the fields will get wet and all this wheat ground. It's kind of real dusty conditions around. The roads are terrible dusty. Dust is even like motting out the sun there a little bit. All these wheat fields that have been drilled, they got all that loose soil and we're really hoping that the rain settles the dust and it would make all this wind worth it if it blows in a storm. It's been 70 to 80 degrees and whatever this front is that's meeting in the air hopefully will blow in some moisture. Somehow I think the wind has gotten worse. I'm glad I'm in the cab. Also, Riley spoiled me with bringing me some hickory hut barbecue. Oh boy. Yummy. Pretty dusty. Pretty windy. Narrowing down this field. Well, dad's taking that home. Dropped me off at his tractor he's been moving bales with all afternoon. There's a clumping sorghum stand to yield the bales. The turnips and radishes are still going. Alright, I'm on to the next field. So, you can see we're basically in a dust bowl situation here. Like, it's not cloudy. It's just dusty from the wind blowing. So, no fun. So, I'm basically trying to focus on the most vulnerable acres. We had corn down on that flat field and the corn did pretty good. I drilled the draws through that field this year, just now. So, they'll hopefully be protected. We're still trying to be good stewards and even in the dust bowl they had big washing rains, flooding rains around here and so we want to be able to catch every bit of that rain we can when it does come. Just never know when it's going to be. Okay, we got quite the downpour. I'm pretty happy with it, though. I can deal with feeding in the rain tonight. Okay, got my butcher heifer in this pen. It's been growing with these animals. It's cows in my front yard here grazing these corn stalks, but I brought some distillers over for them as kind of a supplement. So, we're going to feed those to them in the pen here so they're used to coming in the pen in case I need to catch them. Are we going to feed the cows? Yeah. We've got the Sioux Steel fence behind me here that I installed. Continuous fence here late this summer. So, now my pen here is complete and I have a place to catch these cows if I need to. So, shout out to the Sioux Steel continuous fence. Alright, here's your candy. You guys love it. You don't have to take any pictures. Just hold it. You got it? Good job. You did it. Yeah, we're going to go put that one in a different spot. Alright, we got the cows fed there. Got the Sioux Steel continuous fence. That is a straw bale that I had over here in my burn pile with some other straw bales. Those decorations for a wedding and I might not burn it. I might use it for bedding, but the cows moved it. They were playing with it apparently because it was way over here and they moved it all the way over here, but there's the Sioux Steel continuous fence finished and in action. Alright, the cows are enjoying those distillers. They've even got a scratching post. Look at that. And Alaska the Cat's even trying to sniff out, see if he gets anything. Oh, that cow said no. This is for us. Don't eat it. Cows over there. Alright, let's go. Worked pretty hard for parts of the early morning. So, we're at half an inch so far. It's a Saturday. I got my taste aid on. So, we're happy for the rain. I think there's going to be a big wave coming at 10. So, we got everything fed, but their feet might get rained on a little bit before they're all the way cleaned up with some of the pens anyway. Say, help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. Good job. Now, everybody else went through. I know. Well, I was able to get a count on all 40 again. The calves all came in the pen while their moms are eating. The calves are looking pretty happy running around. They want to go out that gate, but I have it closed. That's why they're all running over there. They wanted to run away from me. It's the most colorful set of calves we've had since 2019 when we started the cow herd. My dad did check and the fence was hotter here around the pen than it was out around the field. So, I'm going to go around the field and double check if there's not a ground somewhere. So, here's the far side of the field. They've still got, there's a lot of leaves out here, but they're not, we don't necessarily want them to pick it totally clean. Works out that they kind of work on this organic matter into the soil with their feet. Crosby and I are driving the perimeter. We found a couple insulators off the posts and just some signs that it was it was grounded and the calves took advantage of it and popped those insulators off. Getting a little muddy. Rain two inches, over two inches. Creek has signs of mud. It's not running. So, here's pen five. They're lined up eating. You can see their mound is dry. Some of the places they've walked over here is wet. This is that water we put in. So, it drains off and goes that way. It's got good footing leading up to it. And then we did have a pen of cows here. That's the only thing we've had drinking off of this side of the water so far. Right now we've got this ball sealed. I've got this one open so the calves that have never drank before can find it. We'll take this screw out. We'll take that bolt out and let this come up and seal once it gets to the cold months. Anyway, there's an update on that pen. I'm ready to get the M7 put on the harsh feed wagon here. But, we keep having more bales to move with it and then adding another thing and another thing. So, I still haven't done it yet. But, I'm looking forward to my 40-year upgrade here in the coming week or so. Four A's lined up. Four B's lined up. My load is done. I'm going to watch to see if I need to pull something out of this pen. We finally have a sunny day. It's been really rainy. So, cloudy. So, we're happy for the sun. Helped dry things out. Really thankful for all that moisture we got. They're over three inches of moisture over the last seven days. All right. So, what we're doing is, this is Kendall's field. We're kind of grazing section by section. So, we're going to move this wire from where Kendall is to the road over there. We're going to basically pivot it like an irrigation pivot across to where this wire is along the road. So, we can graze this next. This has not been grazed. This has been. All right, Kendall. I'm running now. I'm here in the middle lifting up the wire. Oh, there it finally stops. Lifting up the wire so that it pulls easier. And then, now we're basically going to move it to where along the gravel road there. All right. Now, we're putting up posts. looks beautiful. That being said, the cattle pens are kind of turned into a mess. It's supposed to rain another inch and a half tomorrow, but we'd rather have it be raining than it be as dry as last couple of years. Hopefully, this is signaling the end of our three-year drought, and it just keeps raining all through next year. If that's the case, then we'll gladly deal with muddy cattle pens, but if it rains all winter and then shuts off again in the spring and summer, that's not ideal. That's basically what happened last year. Oh. Thanks for watching, everyone. Check out our music videos linked in the description. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, and explore our website, www.petersonfarmbrothers.com. See you guys next time.