When the corn starts to use the nitrogen in the soil, it turns the deep, rich green you see this time of year. Nitrogen is a primary plant nutrient that helps the corn to yield well. You can read more here if you are interested in how it works.
This is the view from our house of the corn growing.
It’s starting to look beautiful.
It’s looking like a green, lush carpet across the road from the back lane.
You can see each row just before it “canopies”. Canopying is when the row leaves meet in the middle and close over the gap between the rows. That helps to shade out some of the weeds so they don’t get a chance to take over!
This is one of my favorite times of the year to watch the crops grow.
Here’s what the corn looks like close-up. I’ll have to ask my son, Matt, what “stage” the corn is in. I usually count the leaves and get it wrong! I’m going to take a shot and say this is at leaf stage V5. Matt? [Note: Matt says it’s V7 stage.]
These are the end rows of corn in the field. The little bit of brown on the leaves is “burn” from some of the fertilizer. It won’t hurt the corn and you won’t even notice it when it grows a bit taller.
In this picture you can see where Richard planted corn on different days in the field. The farther corn was planted several days after the corn in the forefront. I think we got rained out in this field and didn’t get it done.
The corn at our back lane.
The tractor and sprayer sitting in the field waiting for it to dry out after a heavy rain.
The tanks our supplier, Blue Stone, brings our fertilizer in. They each hold about 5000 gallons.
This corn field was planted over several days, hence the different heights of corn.
You can really see the different size here.
I decided to take a ride with Richard to Cargill Bloomingburg to deliver a load of corn.
Here’s what the trailer looks like from the cab.
Here’s my farmer hubby!
Just about to pull onto the scales to get weighed full.
Just a tad bit over legal weight. Oops!
Yes, they unload you on an active railroad line. It can be a little unnerving sometimes.
Here’s my try to get a picture of the inside of one of the huge grain bins at Cargill.
Here’s our “official” weight and net bushels we’ll be paid for.
There’s a horse farm across the road. There were lots of colts and their mamas enjoying the beautiful day.
The rear view in the mirror and the field we passed.
Pretty rows of corn.
In the distance it’s beginning to look like a green carpet from some angles.
This is a shot from across the back lane.
One of my favorite views of the corn.
The alfalfa is growing again. We hope to get three or four more cuttings off of it this season.
Richard got our last 20 acres of corn planted on Saturday evening. Still have about 30 acres of soybeans to go as soon as it dries out.
Avalon Farms Ohio 