For many, summer is over. School is back and the fair and Labor Day weekend have passed. The crops in most of the fields are on a downhill slide to harvest and the end of the season. Just like the Chicago Cubs. As a White Sox fan, I could not resist. I think I will coast and make this article a bunch of random thoughts.
This year I had a field of wheat and oats along side a very busy road. All of the local hunters noticed that many geese visited it daily after the fields were harvested. September 1-15 is a short goose season, called the nuisance season. I did not let anyone hunt the property for geese, despite repeated requests. I was hoping that the geese and the blackbirds were consuming any armyworms that may threaten my fields. I did not want any hunting activity to threaten the birds away.
There are reports that some of the fields of corn are dying a little prematurely. Remember all that heat and humidity? It unleashed a plethora of diseases. Diseased plants may die early and have standability issues. Mother Nature keeps unleashing a battery of storms with just enough wind to test how well all the crops are standing as they mature.
Despite rarely mowing any grass on my farms unless I am going to bale it, I did mow along a field recently. A small patch of thistles was trying to get out of control and some woody brush was starting to grow along the outside of the field. A batwing mower trimmed the edge of the field up nicely. I made sure to leave several hundred feet of the grass that was heavily infested with milkweed. I was trying to do my part to encourage habitat for the Monarch butterfly. Sure enough, the village came along and mowed it all down.
Many times in my life I have been making hay and had to cut hundreds of milkweed plants that were in the field. I used to feel terrible about doing this, knowing that it was the only food source for the monarchs. I was later told it was probably not as devastating as I thought. A wildlife expert told me that the monarchs prefer the younger and less mature plants. I have noticed that quickly after mowing a field many more milkweed plants seem to spring out of the ground. Until I have evidence otherwise, I will assume this is true and not have a guilty conscience as being a “weapon of mass destruction” for monarchs.
Just today, the 8th of September I was able to film hundreds, if not thousands of monarchs that were roosting in trees in a fence line of my hayfield. It was early morning so I suspect they were resting before visiting my flowering alfalfa plants to load up on fuel for their flight back to Mexico for the winter.
hile some may be waiting for the fall equinox on September 22 to end the summer season, meteorologists use the months of June, July and August as summer. It is obvious that the days are getting shorter and before you know it Christmas will be here. That is a good thing; I still have my Christmas lights on from last year.
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