Field work pictures

[john in la]

Had the camera with me today so I took a bunch of pictures of our local fields. Here is a few I picked out to share with you guys. I will put them as links for the guys with dial up.

I have seen the pictures from up north where you guys are still cultivating. As you can see we are long past that stage. This is the crop for this year set to be harvested this fall.
<a href="http://www.rieckesbaysidegallery.com/programfiles/talers/sugarcane%20015.JPG">picture 1</a>

Here is a picture of a fallow field. We use fallow fields instead of crop rotation. These fields have been planted with the same crop for over 250 years. If you look good you can see the cranes in the background where Marathon is building a oil refinery expansion to the tune of 3.2 billion. Anybody that thinks oil is running out ought to inform them because they believe there is plenty left.
<a href="http://www.rieckesbaysidegallery.com/programfiles/talers/sugarcane%20006.JPG">picture 2</a>

This is another picture of this years crop. In the center background is a large grain elevator on the Mississippi River where they unload corn and bean barges from Iowa and load it on ships headed overseas.
<a href="http://www.rieckesbaysidegallery.com/programfiles/talers/sugarcane%20002.JPG">picture 3</a>

This is the tractors working the fallow field getting it ready to plant in mid to late Aug. As you can see they have dug out all the ditches; leveled the field; and now have it up in rows. They will make this pass to turn under any weeds and pile the rows up more. They will come back again in early Aug and do it one more time just before planting.
<a href="http://www.rieckesbaysidegallery.com/programfiles/talers/sugarcane%20012.JPG">picture 4</a>

While you could also see it in the last picture this picture shows the same field with the tractor cutting cross groves threw the field. It is the spray of dust just this side of the building. The grove cutter runs on PTO power and cuts a grove for water drainage across the rows.
<a href="http://www.rieckesbaysidegallery.com/programfiles/talers/sugarcane%20010.JPG">picture 5</a>

This is what the cross grove looks like from the side of a field. The water runs down the row to a cross grove and out to the ditches on the side of the fields.
<a href="http://www.rieckesbaysidegallery.com/programfiles/talers/sugarcane%20019.JPG">picture 6</a>

This picture is just a over view of a growing field. A lot of work out there when you consider these farms average a couple thousand acres and each row is planted and harvested 1 row at a time.
<a href="http://www.rieckesbaysidegallery.com/programfiles/talers/sugarcane%20017.JPG">picture 7</a>

 

[Bayou Dave in La]

Hey john. Picture 3 is at the corner of NW 19th street in Reserve, La. I built the surfactant plant that is just across the RR tracks on the left. I think Air Products owns it now.

What are you doing down on this side of the Lake?

 

[huntingreen]

Great pictures. Keep them coming.

 

[2x4]

Some of the pics look like the area I made my trip to, Abbeville La. I saw this but didnt understand the fallow field idea. Area I was in had rice paddies/crawfish ponds. Water is a big issue there, as the land is so level for so large an area, if drainage isnt properly addressed, you have a lake. John Deere sent some experimental tractors to Leroy (Lafayette) La. to make rice paddies. These big tractors had land levelers behind them, lasers & a satellite link. The object was to level these paddies so fewer cross dams had to be used. The laser/satellite sent tractor to high spot, told it how deep to cut & drug the dirt to a low spot! The tractors had operators but they did nothing unless something went wrong.

 

[john in la]

All of these picture are off Airline Hwy from West 19th to just past Marathon drive.

My job brings me to this area daily. I use to load fuel at Marathon with my last job. Now working for a LTL carrier and this is my route area. Everything from St Rose to Zapps Chips in Gramercy.

You still living up in that yankee land (Alexandria) are was that to far north for you and you had to come back south.

 

[john in la]

The fallow field idea comes from the months it takes for the crops to grow.
They will plant this fallow field starting in mid Aug and will finish first week in Sept or so. Then they will start harvesting crop for market and will not finsh till after new years. Remember I said its 1 row at a time.
The field they plant this year will be cut 3 times from this planting. (once a year)
On the 4th year they will let the field go fallow from Jan till Aug for a rest period. They use this time to dig out the ditches of run off; level the fields perfectly flat to aid in water run off; and turn it over several times to kill off any weeds growing.
Then it starts all over again.
In other words they only get a crop of 3/4 of the acres they own each year and then some of that harvested crop is used to plant the new (1/4) field.

Look at these fields real good. That is nothing but good transplanted Iowa dirt. The Mississippi is less than a 1/2 mile away from here.

This area is what use to be the San Francisco plantation.

 

[super99]

Nice pictures! What's the crop? Sugarcane? Chris

 

[john in la]

Yes that is sugarcane.

 

[NawlensGator]

Well I recognize airline hwy and those cane fields. Thanks for the pics and the education. I work off the river road (Hwy 44) side at the dupont plant but live on the north shore.