Thursday December 26, 2024

Good Morning Folks,

Here are a couple of pictures I mentioned yesterday. The location is familiar to a lot of you and it is in Ruhama. These fields were planted with wheat just a few days ago. They are awaiting the rains in the NW Negev for germinating. With the way the early rains have set up this growing cycle it is to the co-op's advantage to have waited for planting.

This area grows a lot of barley and wheat but once again as many of you know it is used for silage for feeding the dairy farms in the region there. That means it will be cut as soon as it reaches Zadok's 8.0 to 8.3. Some is aviv and some is not. It is dried in the field and either bailed or just heaped for transportation purposes.

That is why the expense of irrigation is not added to the equation in these locations growing grain. Water is a valuable resource and the allotments are used for bigger cash return crops. Thus the grain fields for the most part await for the rains from heaven.

This is a beautiful piece of photography depicting the current look of many of the grain fields in the NW Negev. There are some locations there that have already withered as they were planted in October and early November and received some brief germinating rains but nothing since then. The decision for them is simple; turn the soil and replant or pass on it for the year. Cows need to eat to produce milk, so most will be reseeded in the hope of future rains.

Our piece we give to you.