Well…we tried.
Last fall, we shared a post about two experimental varieties of fall-planted barley that we were testing. The hope was that these varieties, Thunder and Lightning, might prove to be viable alternatives to spring-planted barley, giving us a leg up by allowing it some of the winter moisture in the form of snow.
And they still might be. But the results of any tests we run on this year’s harvest are going to be skewed because Thunder and Lightning got nailed by…well…Thunder and Lightning (and their devil spawn, Hail.) Both of our 16-acre trial fields got hammered, resulting in significant damage.
For a while, it was looking like they both might be a total loss. In fact, we planned to harvest it all out to prevent disease from taking hold in the damaged plants and perhaps even the soil, but then (because, you know, Mother Nature) it never stopped raining long enough for us to do that. So, we left it much longer than intended, and then (plot twist!) the damaged plants bounced back enough gumption that it looks like maybe (just maybe) we’ll be able to harvest enough to run at least one malting test batch of each. That is if we can make it another few weeks without any more hail, disease, marauding elk herds, or malfunctioning pivots.
Easy peasy, right?
We often try to focus on the upbeat side of farming, but the reality of it is this: sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes they go very wrong, making this whole farming venture occasionally feel like nothing more than minimally controlled chaos. Fields get flattened by hail, entire wheat crops are lost to drought, everything breaks, all the time.
So perhaps we’re getting off easy this year losing only most of our trial Thunder and Lightning fields. On the brighter side, those spring storms and the moisture they brought did wonders for the rest of our plants. The rye crop is going gangbusters, the Genie barley is coming in right on time, and the corn is looking so good…almost as good as this here farmer who farms it.
This is farming, pull and push, rain and hail, sunshine, and storms.
Harvest starts in less than a month.
We’re certain it will be glorious.
But even in the years it’s not, we’re still here, working through it all, knowing that sometimes it takes a little thunder and lightning to grow into the kind of resilient operation we aspire to be.
Although, if anyone could point us in the direction of experimental barley varieties named Sunshine, Rainbows, and Really Stinking Good Yields, we might rather give those a try…
Cheers,
—Olander Farms
