Here it is July already and I’m busy spraying the corn and beans with herbicide. While it would be great to not have to use herbicide, the fact is, all plants like the sun and rain so when the corn grows, so do the weeds. The weeds compete with the corn and soybeans for water and nutrients, which is bad news for farmers. Once the weeds are gone, the corn is able to grow taller, stronger and produce more kernels, which is good news for consumers. We can’t get to “knee high by the 4th of July” if the weeds take all the nutrients! Actually that little ditty is way out of date. If my corn was only knee high by now, I’d be in trouble. Here on our farm the corn is knee high by the middle of June!

It may sound strange for July, but we are hauling the last of grain from the 2008 harvest. More importantly, we are vacuuming out the bins and cleaning them in order to make sure that the new grain doesn’t get contaminated.

When I’m not farming, I focus on helping Bloomsbury Farm get ready. That’s the agritainment part of our family businesses. Now that the corn is high enough, I’ve started to work on the mazes. Last year I explained how the mazes are cut and this year is really no different, other than the pattern. This year’s 10-acre maze is based on the CBS Sunday Morning Show, celebrating 30 years on the air! To compliment the 10 acre maze, our smaller kids maze will be based on the local CBS affiliate. The mazes will be open for fun when Bloomsbury Farm opens to the public at the end of August. Aerial pictures of the maze should be ready next month.

Now for the best news! I get to take a weekend off! Usually a weekend “off” means a convention about farming or agritainment. But this time is just for fun–I’m going to the NASCAR races with my wife.

Later, Dave

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 5:10 am and is filed under Bloomsbury Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.