Thursday, November 12, 2009

Fall Farm Scenes in Kansas

Fall is one of the busiest times on the farms of Washington County. It's the time for harvest of Corn, Milo (Grain Sorghum), Soybeans, and Sunflowers. This is also the time that Winter Wheat is planted. This was an especially difficult Fall for farmers to get the work done, with slow maturing crops, about two to three weeks behind normal and rain interrupting the field work. The harvest is finally winding down in early November with several days of favorable weather. These are scenes across the County and northern Clay County of the Fall crops and harvest.

Corn has been planted on more acres each year in Washington County, as farmers plant less Milo. This is a field just east of Hanover.


Cornfield in the Little Blue River bottoms east of Washington


A large hill south of Barnes with a cornfield in the foreground


Winter Wheat is planted in late September and October and is harvested in June and July the following year. This is a field of newly seeded wheat near Hanover.


Wheat growing on a hillside


Soybean field in the foreground and the ruins of a country school in the background between Hanover and Washington


Harvesting Soybeans on my farm along Peats Creek west of Linn


A field of Sunflowers awaits harvest on my neighbor's farm near Linn


Closeup of a Sunflower seed head


Milo (Grain Sorghum) is widely grown in Kansas, in fact the state is number one in Milo production. It's primarily used as livestock feed. The next photos show fields of ripening Milo.


Milo field north of Hanover


Closeup of Milo


A field of Milo northeast of Washington


Harvesting Milo near Linn


My Brother-in-law harvesting Milo in northern Clay County on Veteran's Day


Many farmers have semis to haul grain from the field to the elevator


The grain elevator in Greenleaf


A pile of Milo at the Farmers Coop in Hanover

5 comments:

  1. Awesome post..nice learning about farming and your world.

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  2. I really enjoyed seeing the Kansas farmland - very nicely done photos!

    I live on WNY farmland and it was fun to compare the crops and landscape & machinery (GO! John Deere green!)

    Thanks for taking the time to do this!
    GailR (Twitter)

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  3. That must be Charleston Center schoolhouse. Last time I saw it, it was still standing and didn't look like it was going to fall in. Wonder what happened. It was a beautiful red brick.

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  4. Wonderful photo essay. I enjoyed the visit.

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  5. Love those beautiful expanses of green and gold. I have a new appreciation for all the work it takes to run a farm. Fantastic!

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