We really needed this rain

Rain is a necessary commodity. It has many uses other than messing up vacation plans.

The Great Lakes are still low, as are many inland lakes. The woods were bone dry, and when it's as dry as it has been, the chance of a wild fire (once called forest fires) goes up.

Farmers have been looking for rain, and what we've been given in the past several days has ended our drought conditions. A drought occurs when the ground is baked dry, and dust puffs up with every step. It's what we've had for several weeks.

Rain over the past 10 days may save our food plots. only time will tell.

The rain, including that which rumbled through the area about midnight last night, was a heavy downpour. The problem with that is it fell so hard and fast that little soaked into the ground. It's better to get a steady rain that slowly soaks the ground than a deluge.

My food plots were looking miserable, and I'm hoping the rain came in time to save this years crops. Two or three clover patches were looking very poor, especially during that spate of dry 90-degree weather.

If some rain continues, as is forecast, we may still have decent food plots. My Imperial Whitetail Clover, Brassic and Purple-Top turnips, plantings were almost burned up by the hot sun two and three weeks ago. and I'm keeping a close watch on it. Drought conditions just do not produce the quality of food plots that some people desire.

Many farmers are wondering if they will be getting a decent second-cutting of hay this year. Corn fields seem to be growing well but some feel a second cutting of hay may not be in the cards this year. It's much the same with clover and other things planted in food plots.

Some state areas have had plenty of rain while other locations, such as around Traverse City, had suffered. I'd counted on making three or four plantings.

I suspect my proposed fall plantings will be put off until spring.

I will hold off on ther plantings until next spring, and see how my plots make it. Instead, I'd been thinking of some winter wheat planted on some of my woods trails to give the deer some greenery to eat this fall, and it might come up and provide an early food source next spring when deer need a nourishing early source of easy-to-find nourishment. Such a planting this fall is now in doubt.

I've said this before, and will say it again, but I'm not well learned in planting and growing things. I discuss my food plots with people I trust, and then hope the weather conditions are suitable for producing good crops.

It's one of these late-in-life situations where I hope to put something back into the resources, provide better cover and food for the animals and birds. I'm learning that Mother Nature has a somewhat perverted sense of humor: she teases us with rain, and then sends it north or south. To add insult to injury, she often decides to send us more snow.

My eyes are peeled for my Imperial Whitetail Clover plantings. Some seems to be greening up a bit, but most of our crop was brown and down. We  did the soil tests, planted at the proper time, had a bit of rain early, and then the drought began just as it did in 2007.

Giving back to nature is my prime motivations for putting in food plots.

It's difficult watching a crop go downhill, but I now have a better understanding of what farmers go through on a year to year basis.  A drought serves no one, whether a farmer growing crops for market or a sportsman who plants crops for the wildlife.

Nature and the weather can be incredibly cruel at times. We invest our sweat equity into seed, fertilizer and lime, and hope for the best. The best this year can bring will be to have a mediocre crop, and it will only happen with even more rain, sunshine and warm weather.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors