Rain, Rain, Go Away......

[DianaB]

Marilyn, we can't plant two crops a year. We don't have a long enough season for them, but if the farmers have grown wheat (which is cut in the spring) they can plant beans in the same field after the wheat is harvested. They're called "after harvest beans" and they don't produce as much as other fields that rested in the winter. Glen doesn't like to do that because it's really hard on your field and takes so much out of the soil.

You can get soybean seed that grows in a shorter or longer season depending on where you live and how long your growning season. My husband likes to plant his a little later so the beans are still small in the summer heat and have some fall rains to help them grow and fill out. All the farmers have their own way of doing things. Some like to plant early in the spring and some like to plant late. Being a child raised in town I still find things that are confusing even after 35 years!!!

In our area we grow wheat (which is not a lot compared to western Kansas), soybeans, corn, and milo (or grain sorghum), and sometimes sunflowers. Alot of the ground we farm is river bottom so the soil is very rich, but the downfall is that it floods when the river is up. Farming has been a very interesting lifestyle for me. My Mom and Dad both had jobs in town so I grew up very differently than my kids have. I've always been a tom boy at heart so the change hasn't been too bad!!!