A Little Harvest Update
July 18th, 2006 by Northern FarmerWe’re starting oats harvest around here now and today I finished swathing the oats. Tomorrow we’ll probably get the combine out and start getting that ready. That takes a day or two to go over everything, but it’s better taking care of it in the yard than fixing in the field, that’s for sure. Not really my cup of tea doing repairs out in the field. And as always we’re searching the sky for rain, the +100 degree temps and the high wind with it sucked up any moister that fell last Thursday. But at least the temps are more manageable now, from 15 to 20 degrees cooler than this past weekend.
For anyone that didn’t catch the picture of me swathing outs, here’s the link again. This was taken from high ground over looking our little valley. If you look closely at the picture you can see the huge damage to the corn field below from the drought and heat. Luckily it ain’t our field. That’s that inferior hybrid corn you know. If I have any time we’ll get some pictures of our OP corn which for the most part is holding on yet. I’m having a lot of problems doing photos here, but figured out a way to post them on the web and then just link to them in the posts. So I’ll be back into pictures here and there showing life around here. Will even try to get a Gilbert photo posted, we took some good ones a few minutes ago.
So it’s the same as last year as far as posting now, busy with farm work but will try to get some things in here and there.
July 18th, 2006 at 7:37 pm
Hi Tom! Thank you for linking that photo; I think I “get it” now.
Are the oats for animal feed only or personal consumption as well? Also, are you able to use the grain to plant the next crop? We had our hottest day yet today with close to 100 degrees. The chickens and guineas were all panting to beat the band. They started getting excited late in the day so I knew a change in the weather was on its way. Tonight the break is coming; there’s been a big temperature drop and hopefully some rain will hit later on. Hope things stay cooled off for you and you get a good drenching when you need it.
July 19th, 2006 at 3:35 am
Emily,
I hoped that the picture would help because when I think about it, it’s hard to explain. As far as us here, we only use the oats for animal feed although I sure would like to learn how to process it into human food. Also the straw is as valuable to us as the grain itself, for animal bedding and even some cow feed. The seed is our own, year after year. I just clean it, also called fanning the oats in spring for planting. No fertilizer is used on the fields, there’s a healthy enough soil left from the crop rotation that we don’t even want to try it. No need for spraying the crop, if it’s planted as soon as a person can get it in after snow melt the oats will crowd out the weeds. In reality, the way we figure it, it’s a good and profitable crop with barely any input cost and it’s a healthy food to boot. Thanks!
Tom
July 19th, 2006 at 4:08 am
morning Tom,
that picture is a good one! be careful working out today!
blessing
July 19th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
Hi Jan!
Well, I didn’t get what you’d call over worked today. We headed for the sales barn and sold ten heifers. And they sure sold for a good price, Praise Jesus!
Tom
July 19th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
Hi Tom, for some reason I didn’t find a link to your photo. Am I missing where it is located?
July 20th, 2006 at 3:38 am
Hi Lynn,
The link is in the word “link” in the post. It should have a slightly different color than the other words. If all else fails try this,
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7318/1072/1600/000_0842.jpg
I hope it works for you, thanks!
Tom
July 20th, 2006 at 5:58 am
Well, it didn’t work, so I’ll just have to wait until you post another one!
July 20th, 2006 at 6:14 am
Now I’m confused !!!!!! Does it work for anyone out there??? I gotta know!!!
Tom
July 20th, 2006 at 7:17 am
it worked for me!
July 20th, 2006 at 8:21 am
Tom,
The latest newsletter from the Weston A. Price Foundation talks about using oats for human consumption. The article says that the hulls need to be removed and that apparently just grinding them does not completely eliminate the hull. The article talks about hulless oats. (Johnny’s seeds sells them.) Hulless oats do not have to be milled to eliminate the hull. I think I will call a friend who runs a feed mill and see if any of the local feed mills have the capability to remove the hulls.
Jim
July 20th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
Jan,
Glad it worked for you, I know it must have for Emily and I know it does for me. Never could figure these contraptions out like some folks, but no big deal.
Jim,
The further processing of oats is really interesting to me, I mean home processing that is. This is something I really want to look into, because face it, oats is a darn good food for us people. I know Seed Savers have a lot of hulless oats offered in their big book, might have to look into it. But I don’t know if it’s in little bitty seed packs or what. I’d like to get at least ten bushels for an experimental plot, which would still be pretty small. If you ever find out anything let me know, because I’m truly interested! Thank you sir!
July 21st, 2006 at 8:46 am
Tom,
Check out this article on oats: http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0302hsted/030210logsdon/030210ch5.htm
The author thinks that a small roller mill would remove the hulls and says that adjusting the threshing cylinder on the combine may remove about 1/3 of the hulls. I talked to my friend who runs a feed mill and he did not think any of the local feed mills had the ability to remove the hulls. I am going to get some oats from the feed mill and just try grinding them - we’ll see what the hulls do when they go through a grinder.
Jim
July 21st, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Good link there Jim! That’s a major goal around here, to use all our own grains and corns for human consumtion also. That would sure be a major step forward. I’ll be trying some of the OP corns also for corn flour later. And with the oats we have an old fanning mill to get it clean so that’ll help. Keep me informed how things work for you and if it works I’ll give you some “good oats” if your ever in the neighborhood here!
July 22nd, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Tom,
Once you start removing the hulls on oats you realize how much hull there is. (You’ve probably already done this.) If you put the oats through a grinder, you just get a lot of hull all ground up. A neighbor put oats through a hammer mill with a fine screen and we ended up with good sized pieces of hulls. I wonder what the old-timers did with oats? I tried putting some oats into the blender. You get a lot of hull. I managed to get a lot of the hulls knocked off, but then you would probably need to put the result through a fanning mill. Looks like a roller mill set appropriately would work the best. But I don’t know anyone with a roller mill.
On another note - did you ever get goats? We had 4 goat kids born in the last few days.
Jim
July 23rd, 2006 at 6:54 am
Jim,
Well, it’ll be interesting to research this. A guy called me the other day from sw MN and I was telling him about this oats discussion and he said NDU had a variety of oats called “naked oats” that is hulless. Something like that might be interesting to look at this fall and winter. I mean if all else fails it can just be used for animal feed.
Got some little kids eh. Hmmm! Let me know a little more
Tom
July 24th, 2006 at 10:31 am
Tom,
We have two French Alpine does. Last week each doe gave birth to two kids. So we now have 2 does kids and 2 bucks kids. These kids are 50% French Alpine and 50% Nubian since I bred the adult does to a Nubian buck. I normally don’t cross-breed, but this was the easiest and cheapest option for me. Since the goats are the sole responsibility of my 10 year old and 7 year old children, we won’t keep more than a couple goats. (I have my hands full with Jersey cows, steers and sheep and we will be rolling in goat milk and cow milk.) So we will be getting rid of at least some of the goat kids. And these goat kids will be well socialized since my children are spending a lot of time with them.
Have you ever read The book “Reproduction and Animal Health” by Charles Walters and Gearld Fry? I started reading it this weekend. There is some very intriguing information in the book. For example, they say you can preg check a cow by looking at the hair whorl on either side of the belly.
Jim
July 24th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
Jim, If only we lived closer together, we’d be wheeling and dealing all the time. I sure wouldn’t mind them little does.
Never heard of that book, but that sure does sound interesting, I’ll have to go out into the brush and see if we have any cows to calve yet, (amazing isn’t it, I have no idea what’s going on out in the woods with the cattle herd), then I can see if that whorl thing works. Sure beats the arm method
July 26th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
Tom,
We will get these little does grown-up and weaned. Then we can see if you still need goats. I have transported goats in the back of my little suburau wagon - as long as I don’t use my wife’s/family car I am okay.
They say that the hair whorl is more pronounced when a cow is pregnant and that the position of the whorl indicates roughly how many calves the cow will be able to have. They say they can preg check from a pickup. Apparently when the whorl is farther down the belly, or on the underside of the belly, there will be fewer calves. I checked the whorls on my cows. Sure enough, the one I bought as a cull because it would not settle has the whorl basically on the underside of the belly. I have one cow that is bred and the whorl is fairly prominent on her side. I have a heifer that I had serviced on June 24, and I don’t really know if she is bred - but the whorl seems fairly prominent. Another cow is open and I had a harder time finding the hair whorl.
Did this whorl thing seem to make sense with your cows?
Jim
July 26th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Jim,
Let me know when they’re getting big enough and we’ll talk! To bad they’re not ready yet, because the sweet corn is ready here and that means time for some visiting, eh.
I haven’t seen any of our open or close up cows yet the last few days, buggers are out in the woods yet and I haven’t gotten out there. But believe me this is intersting and will be followed up on.
Well, I gotta kick butt here and get off to church quick, thanks!
Tom
July 28th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
Tom,
Here is an article on oats for human consumption: http://www.westonaprice.org/farming/naked-oats.html. This is the article from the Weston A. Price newsletter that I mentioned earlier.
Jim
July 28th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
That’s a good one Jim, I’ll even print that one off for refrence, plus sourse information. I’ll order some in the near future for a small patch for next year.
Thanks!