Published: September 09, 2008 05:37 pm            

From the Fields: Summertime is coming to an end

Originally published in the September 5, 2008, print edition.

We’re still weeks away from autumn’s official Sept. 22 start, but for Dale Mischke fall already arrived last week.

That is when he began getting calls from farmers needing their silage bagged. After doing custom bagging for over 20 years, Mischke knows this as a tell-tale sign of summer’s end.

When The Land caught up with Mischke late in the evening on Aug. 28, he was just getting geared up for the next day’s activities. Those included setting the bagger up, pouring cement for a neighbor, loading cattle and whatever else might come up.

Mischke is also hosting a Mycogen field day event at his farm this week. He has 15 to 20 hybrids and six bean varieties. He is expecting 50 to 75 field day participants, with he and his wife cooking for them all.

While there is a lot to do on the Mischke farm, something they haven’t done much lately is watch it rain. Mischke said that they have received just “three-tenths of an inch since the middle of July.” Despite the dry days, his crop has looked “real good up until last week.”

He was afraid of what the warm temperatures this week would do to his crop if they still were without precipitation.

The lack of rain didn’t stop the third crop of alfalfa from looking real good, though Mischke believes a fourth crop is unlikely due to the dry weather.

He is still on the look out for aphids; Mischke said “not a whole lot of guys spraying twice (in his area).” He predicted that the beans won’t be ready for at least a month.

It hasn’t been all work and no play on the Mischke farm. The family spent last weekend at a Minnesota Vikings pre-season game. Even though he said the game was “about as boring as watching paint dry,” he enjoyed the family time nonetheless. There was also a trip to the Mall of America and, of course, to the Nickelodeon Park there. Mischke called the trip “relaxing.”

The whole Mischke family also helped at the beef stand at the Cottonwood County Fair a couple of weeks ago. And Mischke took son Ethan to the Beef Royale on Aug. 26 at the Double M Ranch in Westbrook.

This event featured 55 beef steers and 25 heifers that get slaughtered for a carcass contest. There were a couple of cattle buyers there to judge the event, and the top winners receive a cash price. While Mischke had participated in the past, some last-minute farm work kept him from entering his cattle in this year’s event.

Ethan, the youngest Mischke, is off to kindergarten this year, so the days are now a little quieter around the house. With fall already here for the Mischke farm, harvest doesn’t seem too far away.

        

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