Last night I was out in the fields literally until I couldn’t see anymore! Fortunately the task at hand was tilling with the tractor and good light was not a necessity. Even so, I didn’t quite get everything done and first thing this morning I went out and finished up. Now, for some of the fields this first pass with the tiller was simply to turn under weeds and cover crops that had been growing since late fall/early spring, but over half of our four acres are pretty much ready to plant (i.e., most of the previous year’s crop residue is broken down and the ground is worked 6-8 inches deep). Of course this happens every year, but you see, it is still April. And last year at this time we had done NONE (as in we hadn’t even been able to mow, which can be done well ahead of tillage, in the fields) of our field preparation. In fact it wasn’t until mid-July that we had prepped as much as we have prepped by mid-April this season. What a difference a year makes, and what a difference a dry spring makes for our field preparation.

Of course as we are used to doing, we are tempering our enthusiasm and not letting ourselves get too excited that this will be the perfect weather year…but it sure has started off nicely.