It's a cruel, cruel summer
Wed, 06/17/2026 - 11:00pm
The scurs have the Weather Eye continuing to deliver some impressive summer conditions. Does Mother Nature turn the burner back up or does she maintain our excellent sleeping weather? Starting Thursday, partly sunny with highs in the low 70's and lows in the upper 40's. Sunny Friday with a slight chance of p.m. rain. Highs in the mid-70's with lows in the mid-50's. Mostly sunny on Saturday with a fair chance of evening rain. Highs in the upper 70's with lows in the mid-50's. Sunday, the first day of astronomical summer, mostly sunny with a good chance of rain. Highs in the mid-70's with lows in the mid-50's. Mostly cloudy Monday with a slight chance of rain. Highs in the low 70's with lows in the low 50's. Tuesday, partly sunny with a good chance of rain. Highs in the upper 70's with lows in the upper 50's. Mostly sunny on Wednesday with highs in the upper 70's and lows in the upper 50's. On the summer solstice, we'll see a sunrise June 21st at 5:31 a.m. CDT and a sunset at 9 p.m. CDT. Our longest daylight period of the year will last 15 hours 24 minutes and 24 seconds. The normal high for June 21s is 80 and the normal low is 60. The scurs are hoping our storybook growing season doesn't suddenly turn cruel. It can happen.
It certainly has many of us wondering when the other shoe will drop. Talking to many who have traveled around the Midwest and the conclusions are unanimous. We're sitting on one of the nicest looking corn crops in the country here in Southern MN. Sure, there's the odd field that doesn't measure up, but there's usually a reason whether it's corn on corn, poor soil conditions and a later planting date. However, thinking about it, the vast majority, roughly 80% of the corn locally was planted in a four-day window from April 20th - 23rd. It caught the warm temperatures at precisely the right time and hasn't looked back. As of this writing, a lot of the corn is V8 - V10. Soybeans have been making their move as well. It takes a little longer these days, especially since we've cut our planting rates by nearly a third to one half since the 1980's. Some iron deficiency chlorosis here and there, but the rows have started to bush out, and they should move out of it quickly, particularly given some significant rainfall. Flowers on individual soybean plants were noted on Monday in some fields. R1 is just around the corner.
On the subject of rainfall, we were looking at our records to see when the last one-inch rainfall was recorded here in Bugtussle. It was actually back in the first week of March. At the ranch, one has to go back even farther than that. Try mid-August when over 5” fell between the 17th and 18th. That's not so say we're in any grave danger yet, but we certainly will need to see some significant rain to show up post-tassel. The last several years that's exactly what's happened, starting shortly after the 4th of July. Of course, the past two years we really didn't need it to rain due to ample moisture the preceding several months. Let's just hope it doesn't pull a 2012 where we had a pretty good-looking crop coming and couldn't buy a rain to finish it off. East of I-35 where those late July and August rains fell, yields were phenomenal. A summer like 2022 where we had a dry May and June with bountiful rainfall in July and August would be more our speed.
An old friend (emphasis on old) called me over the weekend about some black bugs that were annoying him and had gone so far as to bite him. I couldn't place them based on the description he gave me, so I requested a picture. After a bit I received the photo and looking at it closely, it was a false Japanese beetle. Every so often we see them and usually it's around drier, sandy soils and drainage ditches. While they're generally not damaging, they are definitely annoying. Their bumbling flight tend to put them on a collision course with a person at inopportune times, getting tangled in your hair, down your shirt or crawling around in your vehicle. There have been more reports of their presence in the area since, so don't be surprised if you come across some.
We finally managed to move some sheep over to the kindly neighbors pasture on Sunday the 14th. The weather wasn't boiling hot, so it made the task more bearable. While the sheep weren't entirely cooperative, thanks to some expert help, we got them into the trailer. We always try to make sure that we include some of the same animals that have been in the pasture at least one year before. Most of the lambs are ready to wean, although the Cache Valley virus has delayed the process due to some later than normal lambs. I've never quite figured out why the ewes don't jump at the chance to go someplace where they can ditch the kids that are starting to compete with them at the feed trough. Not to mention a place where you have all you can eat, plenty to drink, and shade with a nice breeze so you can take a nap. Then get up and do it all over again. I think a lot of people would be down with that. Count me in.
Poppy continues her vigilance of the backyard. She's very protective of her turf as the squirrels and bunnies have discovered. There have also been chipmunks spotted again by the granary. While they haven't been seen in the backyard, I suspect that's one of the main reasons she spends a lot of time sniffing at the woodpile. On one of my recent trips home at lunchtime, I spied a wild turkey sauntering around the backyard. After calling Poppy it didn't take her long to chase the intruder, causing it to fly over the electric fence and into the pasture. I have no problem with wild turkeys tooling around in the woods, but when they get into the backyard adjacent to the garden, Houston, we have a problem. And so does Poppy.
See you next week..real good then.