Lee Druffel's Harvest Blog

Happy New Year

2010-01-05T17:33:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year from your sustainable farm friend!
I have been having a winter overhaul, my mechanic ( a friend and very good orthopedic) fused a few more crumbly bones in my back side. I've been out of the field since September but now back in the game!
Well my first post in 2010 is another affirmation of the righteousness of Direct Seeding. We had a very cold period prior to Christmas that froze our soil about a foot deep. Shortly after New Years Day we had 4 to 5 inches of snow. Then in very typical Palouse fashion the temperature rose and the rain came down. Unfortunately the ground was still frozen. The results were very predictable, the soil not under direct seeding is making its way to the ocean!

It did not take long for the snow to melt
With the ground froze the water left very quickly scouring the fields soil, nutrients and pesticides
From Cow Creek to Palouse River to Snake River to Columbia River
our resource is lost forever!

Here is what happens to a Direct Seeded Field in the same area that still had its residue. The ground was also frozen but as the snow melted the water that could not be held by the residue left the field slowly and almost clear!

It is hard to appreciate in this picture but the runoff is almost crystal clear
(no soil or pesticides!) HOO RAY for the Direct Seeder!!

Well winters not over yet, so stay close to whoever keeps ya WARM!

Tomorrow HAS to be better!

2009-10-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Allen only seeded thirty acres because the big wheel on the back of the drill broke off! This morning he said today will be a lot BETTER!
Before he had even got around the field once today the OTHER big wheel broke off on a really steep hill! Then it started raining making the work area like a giant slip and slide with really messy (but healthy) dirt.

If you look closely you can see the level of the liquid in the white tank, that gives you some idea of how steep this hill is. When it quits raining we will go look for the wheel, it took of like a scared rubber deer!

Allen was wrong about today, he seeded only 10 acres. We all told Allen tomorrow HAS to be BETTER, we are out of big wheels!

Some R & R between harvests

2009-09-20T07:02:00.000-07:00

The grain is all cut and safe in the bin, a good safe harvest. However the garbanzo beans are hanging on to their growth cycle! We have to "euthanize" them with a desiccate and wait. In the meantime Joanne and I took a drive along the beautiful Salmon River above Riggens Idaho.
This is the top of Lick Creek Summit between McCall and the river. This is only a couple of hours away from our home.
This determined little tree might inspire us , the rock (conventional agriculture) said you can't grow here and the tree (Shepherds Grain farmers and customers) Said "YES WE CAN"!

Allen and Jerry are looking over their Notill drills to start the cycle again!

Harvest weather plus - temp HOT!!

2009-08-22T05:58:00.000-07:00

From not even getting to 70 F a week ago to over 100 F this afternoon has brought on a lot of grain. Temperature at 2 pm in the field- 107 F! Nobody talks about a break down, it would be a miserable time to fix anything! Jerry gets the very top of the hill today!

Evening comes with NO breakdowns, were all headed in to the barn! I drove bank out wagon this afternoon, our regular driver Kirk is back to school at the U of Idaho. The combine men are looking for a "replacement" of the replacement for TOMORROW already!??

Last task of the day is to clean them up with a giant air compressor so they are ready for service in the morning at 6. Lights out tonight at 9 pm, home by 10! EAT, SLEEP, WORK - simple schedule for about 30 days.

Restart after "rain rest time"!

2009-08-18T05:23:00.000-07:00

Well we sent out a scout to reconnoiter the wheat field and decided to ATTACK!

Allen cranked up our ONE combine and went down into "Coyotee Hole", a bottomless little triangle that is all steep and small.

Sundance supervises the loading of his truck. Do not put to much in, the Port of Entry cop has no humor for hapless farmers who think they are real truckers!

This is farming at a different scale, LB pulled into a 300ac field with 8 combines, 3 bankouts and lots of BIG trucks. They went round and round a while, the trucks came and went like crazy, and in a couple hours the field was DONE!

Rain Delay !

2009-08-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

Here is the rain we ordered 2 months age! We caught about 0.9 inches but there were reports of 2 inches. Really don't need it now but it gives a chance to catch up on rest and repairs.

While the kids do the repairs upper management catches a tree!

Got away from the trees and caught what I was looking for. Seniority has a few "perks"! We should be back to harvest in a couple of nice sunny days.

Moving Pictures (color to!)

2009-07-24T05:53:00.000-07:00

This is first attempt at video with my new pocket camera. Allen and his 87 year Grandpa Jerry are cutting the HRW that was the star of the previous posts. I learned that like those right hand mirrors on cars the view finder makes the combine further away, I about got harvested!

Papa's comment: "UNBELIEVABLE" Also "The reel goes too fast"

Wheat is a nice yield and EXCELLENT quality, just right for SG Flour. The tractor is piloted by "Captain Kirk" our young neighbor and excellent summer help!

Shepherds grain getting ripe.

2009-07-19T06:05:00.000-07:00

This is the SG hard red winter wheat of two posts ago. It received a real nice rain a week ago to finish filling it. Harvest is probably two weeks away here. We are cutting our early ground by Lewiston right now.
This is SG dark northern spring that is in the back ground of the above picture. The rain saved it for the time being, but it still has a long way to go before harvest, We were late with spring seeding, to cold and wet at the start so the crops are behind for this time of year. Yesterday it was 95 here, sure not cool now!
The DNS on the left is a conventionally fertilized and seeded crop. Our notill DNS is on the right. Although seeded at the same time the conventional wheat could not hang on for the rain. Both crops have a long way to go but right now I will keep ours! The difference in these crops is not only the moisture savings of notill, but our fertility program includes amendments specifically designed to improve our soils health and hopefully the plants health. Hard to say how much this is helping but I am encouraged enough to continue with our program. We eat what comes from our dirt so I would rather eat stuff from healthy dirt!!

first problem this harvest

2009-07-15T06:31:00.000-07:00

Allen has the combine ready to go, but can't get out of the YARD! The darn things to BIG!

So we go back to the shop and smoke some ribs on Allen and Nathans home made smoker, food always helps us think through problems. We do seem to eat a LOT!

Shepherds Grain Hard Red Winter 2009

2009-06-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

This is HRW on the breaks above the Snake River, a reeeeeally dry area at times. The crop was just about to have permanent moisture stress damage when a very timely rain came. This crop is growing on soil groomed for increasing soil health. The ground had a shot of calcium carbonate ( lime) prior to a green manure crop in '08. The HRW was seeded with a small amount of "conventional" fertility (NPKS) and molasses for the soil biology, humic acid to increase nutrient efficiancy, and an enzyme that releases soil elements. The crop has been able to resist the moisture stress better than the neighbors conventional approach. This management is very different and far from perfected. It is something we have been working on for several years and beginning to show promise. Our idea is to feed the soil, make it healthy and in turn a healthy soil will result in a healthy food!

2009 DNS Progress

2009-06-21T06:56:00.000-07:00

Shepherds Grain DNS starting to head, located above the Snake River outside Uniontown, WA (June 10)

Black Saturday Big Time Erosion Spring 2009

2009-06-08T16:45:00.000-07:00

These are pics of erosion from an intense thunderstorm just up the road from our house last Saturday (6/09)
These are pea and garbanzo bean fields that were "conventionally" planted in May.
The conventional tillage leaves these fields defenseless to erosion when hit by the precipitation from a cloudburst. Tons of "Palouse Gold" (our soil) is lost in minutes. ABSOLUTELY ,PERMANENTLY GONE!
The county road grader had to clean the mud off the road. Whitman county spends over $700,000 per year cleaning roads and ditches of eroded soil.
This is our Direct Seeded garbanzo field in the same area, its hard to understand why farmers don't get involved with Direct Seed Technology!

2009-06-04T05:22:00.000-07:00

A stand of Tara spring wheat for Shepherds Grain in the middle of May 2009. Direct Seed left a very good residue cover for moisture retention and erosion control. We are a little late this year but look good so far!

Early Start 09 ?

2009-05-30T07:01:00.000-07:00

Allen wanted to get started, last year at the time this picture was taken we had been in the field 3 weeks!

Palouse Erosion Primer, pictures from 2009 Winter

2009-05-30T06:08:00.000-07:00

This is how erosion starts in the Palouse, a lot of snow on the hills!
A warm rain starts and the snow melts.
The melted water saturates the soil and starts moving off the hills.

Eventually the soil (and fertilizer, and pesticides) leaves the field and head into the streams of the Palouse
This is a close up of the winter wheat in the eroded field
This is my notilled field acrossed the road from the conventional tilled field above.
This is the stand of winter wheat in the notilled field, easy to see why notill wins the soil saving award!

2008-12-14T06:58:00.000-08:00

Definitely "fireplace time", snowed in until a plow comes and the wind stops blowing!
Temp = -5 (that's minus, not Celsius either)
Wind = 20 mph
Hopefully we have enough snow cover to protect the winter wheat!

2008-11-12T05:51:00.000-08:00

2008-10-13T05:31:00.000-07:00

Last of the Fall seeding

2008-10-12T06:58:00.001-07:00

LAST MOVE, ALMOST DONE! FIX A LITTLE, ADJUST A LITTLE & THEN SEED!!

Were all done for this fall!! Went for a long lunch at Elenores and sent the crew home for a weekend of REST!!
Somebodys got to cleanup and put this old iron to bed for the winter!?? We will face that on MONDAY!

Fall Seeding 2008

2008-09-28T06:25:00.000-07:00

From early morning to late in the evening the guys are tucking seeds into the ground to start another crop cycle. We have good moisture this fall so we will expect emergence in a couple of weeks.

Direct Seeding Works

2008-09-24T06:03:00.000-07:00

Palouse Pics

2008-09-23T05:09:00.000-07:00

Fall seeding next

2008-09-20T06:02:00.000-07:00

Getten DONE

2008-09-07T07:03:00.000-07:00

Its two days before the first game and we want to tailgate. We get our cousins "big green machine " to attack the last of the grain! We made it for the game! Tailgate great, game not so much!

2008-09-05T05:16:00.000-07:00

Some days are like this. We were having a barbecue this evening for the crew and when going in to park the combine the whole wheel assembly broke off! Worse it was in the middle of the county road during harvest! We drug it off with a BIG tractor and ate BURGERS. Took us two days to fix!

2008-09-01T05:57:00.000-07:00

I am going to REST until someone other than ME looks at this BLOG (I don't count Joanne (wife) either!

This is like putting a sturgen in a suitcase, you don't know what will happen!

2008-08-30T05:46:00.000-07:00

Been a little cold and wet lately, were trying to get to harvesting again. Hope to have fresh shots of Shepherds Gain being harvested(WHEN it thaws!)

Harvest! 2008

2008-08-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

OK, were start'n slow to see if a Simple Farmer can conquer the web! tHE FIRST THING TO KNOW IS SPELLING IS NOT MY LONG SUITE AND I DON'T CARE! So don't correct me PLEASE!

2008-08-30T05:26:00.000-07:00

First Entry

2008-08-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

At Shepherd's Grain we strive to bring the consumer and producer closer together. In that thinking, this harvest we decided to start a harvest blog. This summer's will mostly be made up of pictures, but we hope that this let's you better understand where and by whom your Shepherd's Grain flour is grown.