June is hay season. We are currently getting toward the end of first crop hay, though there is still quite a bit of hay to cut, rake, bale, haul, and wrap.
June is weed season. I seem to be out in my garden every day picking out the pigweed, clover, dandelions, and quack grass that seem to multiply exponentially despite my daily weeding. The guys have been busy cultivating the corn fields in between haying duties, but there's still some of that left to do too. We want the corn to be knee-high by the 4th of July, not the weeds.
June is also fly season. I feel bad for the cows because they come into the barn followed by hordes of the pests. Despite the continual tail swishing and kicking feet, the flies continue to bother. We do use an organic fly repellant but it only lasts so long. I feel especially bad for a young cow with the unfortunate nickname of "Shortcut". She lost her tail for unknown reasons (most likely cause-frozen off during a winter) and is left with a piddly little stump about a foot in length. We've tried to come up with a fake tail that would allow her to swish flies with the best of them, but haven't figured out a good way to attach it. Any ideas?
2 comments:
My advice for weed control is a thick layer of mulch. We mulched our garden with meadow hay about a month ago and I've weeded maybe 15 minutes since we put it on. Never again will I not mulch, it's pretty much awesome! Plus, it retains moisture so there is less watering.
I do plan to mulch, mulch, MULCH but unfortunately, I need to wait until Lanny gets around to hauling a bale of meadow hay home for me. It's on his ever expanding Honey Do list.
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