First signs of life

The most nerve racking time in the farmers year is right about now. It's the time between when the crop has been planted and when it can actually be seen coming up out of the ground. (The other time is in lightening storms in December during harvest, but that's another story). Well I'm happy to report that yes our first crops are now starting to emerge, and they seem to be looking ok. The reason it's so nerve racking for me, is that I'm never absolutely sure that it's gonna come up at all, or if there were problems during planting and there will be big blank gaps in the crops where no seeds were planted (yes embarrassing I know, but yes it does happen - 2 years in a row for me in one paddock once. Believe me, I made sure that same spot wasn't missed the 3rd year running). Planting a crop each year is like taking a huge gamble that it is going to be successful, the crops actually coming up out of the ground is the first part of the journey. Whilst it is a nerve racking stage it is also a good thing that this stage happens while seeding is still going on so I generally don't have that much time to think about it. So the cropping program is still continuing and I'd say that I'm about 2/3rds the way through our 3200acres. All the canola and wheat has been planted, I'm just about finished the peas leaving only barley after that and a little pasture seed. The weather had been quite good for us in the last week or so. The wind is the main thing that holds me up as I cant get out there and spray the paddocks if it's too windy, which it has been today, so the seeding operation grinds to a halt. The rain also slows us down... but you wont hear a farmer complaining about any rain in the growing season