I used the European spelling just to make sure you knew I wasn’t complaining that this was the hardest, if not the longest, week of the spring. We were working very hard to finish planting. By all estimates, that should not have been difficult. We were not successful.

I don’t think there has ever been a year - much less a week - much less a 3-day period -  like we had this week. We went through six tires in 72 hours. Five of which were on the main wheels of the soybean planter (there are only 4 main wheels, one of the repairs did not hold). That might be the reason we did not finish planting beans this week. Ok, no might be about it. It is the reason.

The worst spring I remember involved changing tires every time I turned around. The tally that year was 11, most of them easy to source implements. The planter tires aren’t easy to source, they are also much more expensive. Expense wise, I’m sure this total will surpass that of the 11.

We make it a point to have a spare for every implement we own. Who would have ever thought we would go through them two at a time? It wasn’t obstacles or debris. Failure was due to age, road wear, and a design that overloads the tires to begin with. The one day we didn’t have a tire go down this week, we had the seals go out of a hydraulic cylinder on the planter.

It was a hard week.

Usually we would be celebrating this rain as we were able to finish planting corn. When I was a child, it was common to plant all the corn then plant the soybeans. The first rain after finishing with corn meant we got to go out to eat. Now with planting all crops simultaneously and the societal shift to more frequent dining out, finishing up corn doesn’t carry the significance anymore.

After a week like this, I think we should go back to the olden days. We could use a little victory celebration every once and a while.

The opinions of the author are not necessarily those of Farm Futures or Penton Agriculture.