My Mama Done Told Me

[Jack Cronkhite]

When I was in knee-pants, Son, don't burn the stubble on a windy day.
This was a bit like losing an old friend. I had photographed this yard years ago and then just the day before. When I took the dogs for their hike, I could see a smoke filled sky and decided to head over to maybe get some pics of stubble burning. Got more than that. Today, I spoke with a neighboring farmer to ask if he knew who owned the old homestead. He didn't but he knew who owned all the land you could see - probably 20 sections. An out of province fella bought it all up and had someone burn off some hailed out crops and stubble. The whole country side has been burning for two days and whatever was in the way was of no concern. Sad approach but hey, I don't own the land. The old barn is a survivor and a couple sheds and an overturned outhouse. I thought the house had survived but when I went back today, just the foundation. And another one bites the dust.:(:(:( The hedge rows support some hungarian partridge. May have to visit in the fall.

[Dean Romig]

What is the purpose of burning over an abandoned cropfield? Somebody just like to see fire?

[Harry Collins]

Dean,

We do it here to kill off old crops and weeds prior to planting a different crop. It is cheeper and cleaner than herbicides. We also burn food plots for wildlife every five years or so.

Harry

[Jack Cronkhite]

Harry has the explanation. The section of land that had the old homestead was a 100% hail loss. Easiest way to get the land ready for another crop is to burn off the other mess. Around here, very few burn cereal grain stubble anymore (zero tillage) but flax straw is burned and a hailed out disaster is burned, even though it would make good feed it would cost way too much fuel for what feed bales would return, so it is burned. The new owner of the land obviously believes all stubble should go.
Cheers,
Jack

[Dean Romig]

I sure hope those who burn off crop fields do so early enough that ground nesting birds nests, eggs or chicks are not affected.
I remember very well a forty acre field that was burned over back in about '63 and I found countless pheasant nests with anywhere from 6 to 14 unhatched and cooked eggs in the charred nest remnants. It made a permanent dent in the pheasant population thereabouts.