Planting of the Wheat

After months of badgering, I finally talked my folks into letting me plant a bit of the grassland on their property with winter wheat. The selling point was the use of some of the harvest for chicken feed. A few friends were in town for the Nebraska/Wyoming game and a Willie Nelson concert in late September and while catching up over a few beers we ran into a high school buddy, Clint Jessen, who is an organic wheat farmer east of Cheyenne. Clint answered a few questions I had about the process and when I needed to get the wheat planted (Oct 1, if crop is to be insured in these parts). When I asked where I could get wheat to plant, he replied, "From me!" Earlier that day I had just convinced my father to let me tear up some of his land and all of a sudden I had the info I needed and access to certified organic, kosher wheat. With the exception of the Wyoming loss, it was a really good day. I would love to plant some barley but this is generally winter wheat country while winter barley doesn't survive and spring barley is difficult at this altitude (over 6,000 feet). Anyhoo, I will hopefully have a crop to harvest in July, I am truly excited to grow my own grain for brewing. I am not sure how I will harvest and I may end up out there with a hand scythe, which would be cool in an old school way but would probably suck in actuality. Maybe if there were a saison for lunch I could get through.

I met with Clint the next week and picked up two 50 lbs. sacks of wheat, which according to Clint is enough to plant 2 acres if unirrigated or 4 acres of irrigated land. I will not be irrigating the crop and will be dry land farming--relying on moisture from the winter and spring to feed the wheat. My father has a bit of wheat farming experience from his childhood in Chugwater, WY and it came in handy. I was also fortunate to have the use of his tractors, a restored 1957 Ford with a spring rake, a new Kubota with a rototiller, and a lawn tractor with a spreader. The three tractors weren't necessary but it saved us from changing attachments on a single tractor, while the only spreader available fit only the lawn tractor.

October 2:

We first tilled up the area to be planted, then spread the seed and followed with the spring rake. The land was dry and what dirt I didn't ingest ended up in a thick layer coating my body. While we didn't end up with quite 2 acres it is pretty close and I think we got a nice spread of the seed.

October 6:

Two days of sustained winds up to 70 mph didn't do us any favors to keeping the wheat where it was planted.

October 8: 

7 inches of heavy wet snow hopefully saved the wheat crop that didn't blow away or wasn't eaten by birds. This was the only positive of getting 7'' of snow in early October.