Every Morning is the Dawn of a New Error

I was cleaning out a file drawer and I came across a folder that held a whole bunch of cartoons, pictures, and other stuff that I had posted on my office door when I taught at the University of Minnesota - Morris.  One of the things that apparently got attention from my students was the group of "sayings" that were printed on a couple of sheets of old printer paper.  As I gazed at that paper yet again, I read down to this one:

Every morning is the dawn of a new error.

That triggered a recollection that I had a series of "lessons in farming" that I wrote for the blog several years ago - and some of them featured some of these sayings.  So, I went and looked at those.  I realized that, perhaps, I have learned even more since the time I wrote those and it was time to give them all a new look - with new insights - and maybe even new failures!  How exciting is that?!? 

The prompt for this particular topic came from the preparations that led up to a field day we were hosting at the farm several years ago.  For those who are not familiar with the concept, the idea of a field day on a small-scale, diversified farm, such as ours, is the equivalent to holding an open house so everyone can poke around in your closets and make judgements on how many shoes are there.

Ok.  That's not entirely true.  What is true is that, despite what everyone might say, you FEEL as if all of the attendees are going to be making a whole host of judgements that will be less than flattering to you or your farm.  As a result, the days prior to events like this are spent running in overdrive - hoping that you can clean it all up before the "hour of doom" approaches.

Of course, now that I have even MORE experience, I realize that a large number of the attendees have also hosted field days on their farms - and they can recognize the signs of all of the things we have frantically done just prior to the field day (and were hoping you would not notice!).

Why?  Because they've done them prior to their own field days!

Group at 2016 pollinator field day

The strange thing about the entire process of leading a field day at the farm is the way it encourages me to think more about how things are done (and not done).  It's just a good reminder that farming is a non-trivial process.  It is also a good reminder that there are many ways to successfully (and unsuccessfully) farm.

Bringing this back to my days as a computer science professor, I tried to drill the counter intuitive concept that "successful" tests were those that found errors in computer programs.  Of course, most people think that tests are successful if the program works as intended rather than when it breaks.  So, you can see the uphill battle I had to fight.  But, you can see why this saying was on my door at the time!

Every morning is the dawn of a new error.

Now, of course, there are mistakes and there are mistakes.  But, as I ruminate about mistakes, I come away with a few lessons earned over the years. 

With farming, it is my opinion that you aren't being innovative enough if you don't make mistakes. 

Just to show that we are not immune to errors on our farm, I call your attention to the opening photo from our 2015 season.

Error #1 - Being decisive, but not decisive enough in the face of difficult weather. 

Our first error had to do with planning on re-configuring this field with swales (ditches) in preparation for a new high tunnel.  The wet and cold Spring set the excavator back in his schedule.  We held back planting both because of weather AND because we intended to get this excavation done.  The result is that we had to do some last minute rotation changes.  It also meant that this field didn't get the attention it should have early in the year. 

While we did make some fairly radical shifts - moving crops to the driest fields, pushing others to different time slots, and adjusting how we would deal with putting up Valhalla (the new high tunnel) - we did not allow ourselves to buy into the changes completely.

We were bold - and timid - all at the same time.  What we learned?  If you're going to make a mistake, make it a really GOOD one.  Then pretend you meant to do that all along and no one will know you erred.

Error #2 - If you told yourself you should do something, don't ignore it - do it!

We failed to effectively deal with this area to prevent the inevitable weed pressure.  We disced in the field and then tilled the planting beds with the BCS immediately prior to planting.  There was no gap between these two activities - which set us up for weed problems in these beds. 

In our defense, the wet weather had compressed many of our activities - and we abided by the maxim that the best time to do activity X on the farm is when you are doing activity X.  Why?  Because sometimes you just don't have the ability to do things during the optimal time period in the optimal way.  

It might have been better to let the weed seed bank deplete itself a bit before planting so we could flex tine the bed prior to planting.  Or we could have covered this area with a mulch early in the season and planted into the mulch.  Or we could have skipped a succession.  Or... any number of other options.

The point is, I remember looking at this field and realizing we were going to have problems.  I told myself I should do something about it early on.  I didn't listen.  

Yes, I we were REALLY busy and we didn't have much extra time to do that work.  Pay now or pay later.  I guess we paid later.

Error #3 - not finishing the job you started.

Again - let's be honest here.  We make this mistake over and over again.  And, it's not really a mistake.  It's a reality when you have limited labor hours and you just CAN'T do much more than has already been done.

In this case, we didn't set up irrigation right away on these rows.  Hey, it had been pretty damp up to this point, so we weren't thinking about irrigation.  It was late and we wanted to eat dinner and maybe actually sleep a little.  We still had animal chores to do and you need to put all of your equipment away at the end of the day too.

In short - we were really, really, REALLY tired.  Just like we were at the end of most days.

But, of course, what happens when you wait?  Well, the next day has its own list of things that must be done.  Next thing you know, it's been a couple of weeks and you realize - Hey!  Did we run that irrigation over there?  No???  oops.

Let's just say it gets harder to run drip tape as the plants get bigger for a myriad of reasons and leave it at that.

What did we learn from this (assuming we did learn something)?  If there is no way to get it all done with the resources you have, you need to make a change - and that change may be to back off on your ambition.

Error #4 - cultivator blight is a real thing.

The fourth error is simply embarrassing.   However, I include it because it is ridiculous to even pretend that mistakes of this kind don't happen on our farm.  Don't get me wrong.  We usually do pretty well - but things can happen.  The thin patch of green at the left is where we planted some eggplant.  They are still there, sort of.  But, what happens when a person is discing the next area to be planted, weeds have gotten into the already planted rows and that person is driving the tractor and begins thinking about what his crew needs to be doing next?

Um, yes.  I disced (cultivated) over the row of eggplant.  Ups.  

The bad news?  We immediately lost about a quarter of the plants and the remaining plants were not very strong after this rude treatment.  The good news?  I woke up real quick and reminded myself that I never work with equipment with less than ALL of my attention on the job at hand.  Much better to sacrifice a few eggplant than any of the more expensive or horrifying errors that could happen with distractions while using equipment.

So, the good news is we avoided error number five - dealing with a personal injury accident.  All the others were dealt with in good order and we got some harvest out of these rows that was worthwhile (except the eggplant - we ended up taking them out the rest of the way).