unnatural landscapes

even when they are planted in the local bi-annual monoculture of soybeans ( like these in porter county ) or dense yellow #2 there is nothing "natural" about these fields...chemically treated to a sterile "growth medium" with neat rows of all the same plants ( which is why there's a need for herbicides and pesticides...the lack of diversity makes them vulnerable to all sorts of issues...there's a lesson in that ) these fields are pretty much industrial plants and removed from nature....green or not...the majority of planted fields hereabouts are soybeans...

there are a few fields of corn here as well...replete with ears...they are, however a distinct minority along the roadside...

at least as populous along the county roads are the fallow fields...some, like this one, are supporting volunteer corn...which, in my experience, will not provide much of a yield...

many of the fallow fields have been plowed...this one looks to have been turned recently...

most of the ones that were turned in late june or last month have begun to show signs of a return if "native plants"...a first, albeit temporary, step towards a more "natural" landscape...

and there are a few out there that have been left untouched...work for the tractor come spring...the usda released its planted acreage estimate for corn yesterday and prices took a hit settling at $177.26 a metric ton...down $9.45 a metric ton since i last checked prices...the government maintains that 90 million acres are planted in corn...successful farming says 87.7 million...the usda figures are roughly equal to the total for 2018 which has some questioning them ( notably successful farming )...the harvest isn't in yet and prices will remain fluid and driven by speculation...if anyone takes a hit it will be the farmer.

wet...fallow...late...eroded

this...call it fifteen hundredths of an inch...rain from the first of june brings my back yard total since may first to 10.55"...rather a lot actually...and there is a possibility of more rain later this week which is not especially good news for industrial farming hereabouts...

admittedly there are a number of farmers around here who have begun to use "no till" methods and it would be a bit difficult to tell just yet if they had been planted...however i have been watching these particular fields for a number of years and they have always been plowed in the past...

the field behind the big box stores ( which by the way are mostly closed now...i don't get out that way too much these days ) is fallow as well...then again there have been years when it was not planted and that didn't have anything to do with rain...perhaps a less reliable barometer of planting than the more rural fields...still we will be looking in on it until we are certain it is not going to be planted...

you can clearly see where water collected and sat before it dried...

and even more clearly where it still is collected...

all that collected water had to run off form somewhere and when it did it washed down topsoil and cut through berms which is another can of worms in the fields...the agronomists at purdue university say that "late planting" accounts for only a twelve to sixteen percent drop off in harvests...one supposes there must be a consensus definition of "late" but i do not seem able to find it...the usda seems less sanguine and according to index mundi the price of a metric tonne of dense yellow #2 on may thirty-first was $33.79 higher than it was on april thirtieth..a commodity price ( along with soy beans and soybean oil ) worth watching over the summer and into harvest.

harvest

even though they are clearly done there are still fields of soybeans unharvested pout south on county line road...

not as many as there were though...like the filed by the supermarket a good number have been brought in and i was wondering if the beans were a priority because there might be a race to get them to market as the price continues to fall...down $3.95 a metric ton in the past five days...corn's daily price is actually up and i thought beans might be the focus...then i thought again...

as i drove down 450N i saw a truck parked in the opposite lane ans sure enough there was a combine in the field...they seemed to be just getting started ( it was around 11:30 a.m. ) and had only cut a few swathes along the road...

everything was stopped...perhaps they had gathered enough to fill the truck...or maybe it was just lunchtime...however i had begun to think there might be a movement afoot to balance dropping soybean prices with stable income from dense yellow #2..or maybe it was just time to start bringing it in...it has been a wet month so far and who knows what's next? no one.

zea

alternating from top to bottom, dense yellow #2 in the field and northern tepehuan teosinte in the back yard...both the similarities ( flowering, tasseling, leaf structure ) and the dissimilarities ( ear structure, tillering ) will become more pronounced as the teosinte grows...it is not "improved" and so keeps to its own timetable.