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Doc Krin's avatar

Around here, it's mostly Haying Equipment that is the problem, and that was pretty much done 3 weeks ago.

Clair Kiernan's avatar

I was just passing through south Georgia this week, and some fields still have cotton unharvested! Also now they are wrapping cotton bales into plastic-coated cylinders. Not like when I was a kid.

OldNFO's avatar

Yep, we’ve got unharvested cotton too.

Doc Krin's avatar

back in 1987, when I first moved to Northeast Louisiana, the cotton farmers were still using open, basically unpacked, 'cotton trailers' to haul the crop to the local - rarely more than 5 miles - Gin. travel was likely 15-20 mins each way, and probably around 3-5% of the crop was lost en route

by the mid 1990s, Cotton Modules were coming in - tightly packed cotton usually wrapped in tarps - picked up by 3 axle straight trucks with tipping beds and 'crawler treads' to get the module onto the bed. most of the local gins were closing, as larger ones in the county seats could handle the heavier bales, and with the higher speeds available to the trucks, rather than the trailers, the travel times were not that much different.

However, the amount of nasal and respiratory infections we saw in the areas down wind from the old style gins markedly reduced as those gins were closed. The process was pretty much complete when I moved from the Family Medicine clinic into the Emergency Department full time in 1999.

around the same time, corn and soybeans were also increasing in acreage, while rice was pretty much stable. GPS and laser leveling made the irrigation of the crops far more efficient.

John Van Stry's avatar

With some of the road construction that's been going on this year, it's been a real challenge for farmers to get to some of their fields. Thankfully I haven't been caught up in any of that.

Dixie Drudge's avatar

My brother-in-law was complaining about how rough it is going down US 82 in his big John Deere. I suggested he disk it up and make ir smother for all of us

Jolie's avatar

Funniest looking deer I ever saw.

Dale Flowers's avatar

Gah! I hate those frights where the sphincter sucks vinyl.

Clair Kiernan's avatar

What is it?

OldNFO's avatar

8 row disc with a fertilizer tank behind a big John Deere.