Tumbling Tumbleweeds

     Back last October, Neighborly called.  “Say, would you mind if I mowed your stubble field?”  What?  Mow the stubble.  I didn’t have long to think about it.

     “I was coming home from town the other day when that wind hit (“that wind” was a strong southwest blast which spread east from the Rockies and went many states east before expending all its energy).  Tumbleweeds were moving all across the fields.  When I got home, there were tumbleweeds going over the top of my house.”

     “They had your house covered up”?

     “Not really.  But the yard was full of them and the wind was blowing so hard some of them were going clear up over the house roof.”  The pieces began to form a picture.  Southwest wind, tumbleweeds, my wheat stubble the source of the tumbleweeds.

     Doing things the “old way” means, after the wheat is harvested, the field is either left alone to grow whatever it will, or the field is fenced and cattle graze it. The dust storms of the dry 30’s and 50’s made farmers reluctant to till the soil after wheat harvest.  Leave ground cover to protect against erosion. 

     Having no cattle and little time for fence-building, I let the field go.  It grew Russian thistles and fire weeds, also known as kochia. The stems of these weeds become brittle after a freeze and the plant dies.  A good breeze snaps off the weed near ground level, and away it rolls, scattering its seed as it tumbles.

    Nowadays, the sprayer follows hard upon the combine, and the weeds don’t get a chance to grow in the wheat stubble.  Chemical fallow doesn’t spawn tumbleweeds.

     “There’s some nitrogen in those weeds.  Mowing them would keep them in the field,” he said.

      “Well sure, mow away.  I’m sorry you have to do that.  Send me a bill.”

     “Nah, I don’t want anything to do it.  Maybe it will help keep the weeds out of my yard.”

    “We will have to do something different next year,” I said thinking maybe I could build a fence and let some cows in on the stubble. 

     The mowing was done in a day.  Sometime later, I asked if mowing had kept the tumbleweeds out of the yard.  “Mmm, now they’re coming from the north,” was the answer.  Apparently a fellow “tiller of the ground” (ugh! following in Cain’s footsteps!) still exists to our north.

       Here it is nearly a year later, I didn’t have time to build a fence, and the weeds have flourished.  “We” will do something different this year.  This year, another neighbor will make hay out of the fireweed and Russian thistle, and any other weed that has had the temerity to raise its head above the level of the wheat stubble.

      Making hay out of weeds brought back memories of the 50’s, when the spring and summer were so dry we weren’t able to raise our usual millet crop, leaving us without hay to feed cattle during the winter.  So, we made hay out of the fire weeds and thistles.  I also remember using a pitch fork to pull weeds out of the fences as part of getting the pasture ready for spring grazing, and burning the weeds to keep them from rolling back into the fence as soon as the next breeze blows.

      But that’s a story for another day.

      Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the haymaking turned out to be a cooperation between neighbors.  I was drilling wheat when the 30-foot swather pulled into the weed field.  Neighborly called the Goodwife using his cell phone to say he was starting on the weeds.

      That was Saturday afternoon.  A little after noon on Sunday, the 160 acres were windrowed.  On Monday, Roger pulled in and went around the field once with his big round bailing machine.  Too damp yet.  The weeds needed a day or two to cure.

     Let’s see, hay on the ground, wheat freshly planted.  You can’t guess what happened next.  Rain.

      Well, there’s no satisfying a farmer.  He wants a rain when he wants it.  He wants it dry the rest of the time, especially for harvest and hay time.  Some dry weather is needed to plant, too. Plus a rain followed by sun and wind creates a “crust” on the soil surface that newly emerging seedlings can’t get through.

     However, the wheat first planted is  beginning to come up and looks good.

  It remains to be seen whether some of the later-planted wheat will need to be replanted.    At first I thought the windrowed weeds might have to be turned so they could dry enough to be bailed.  But the windrows are light and fluffy with plenty of room for air to get through.  A good breeze should render the weeds ready for bailing.

      Meanwhile, the truncated weeds should stay put.  With their tops cut off, they have lost their round shape and should find it difficult to go tumbling across the country when winter winds come howling across the plains.  “Stay!  Don’t go bothering the neighbors.”