Clayton VanAernam is 17 and a junior at Audubon High School. He farms with his parents, Andy and Ashley, near Exira in Audubon County. They have a cow-calf herd, and Clayton helps his uncle with his row crop operation. He is involved with FFA, serving as chapter president, and is also active in 4-H.

Planting season is just starting around here. We are planning on starting sometime today. We have received large amounts of rain within the last few weeks — roughly 3.5 inches. It has finally dried off enough so we can being to start field work. The pastures are beginning to take off, and the hay is the same way. We have five cows left to calve for the spring. Calves are looking to be one of the best sets we have had this year. Overall we are starting at a good point.

Once again planting came to a halt due to a light rain last night. We are hoping to run tomorrow morning. Most people have started, but a few are still waiting. On the cattle front, the pastures are growing great, and we are looking to get a few out on grass next week. The hay crop is starting to look great and should be a good turnout due to the rain we have gotten this spring. We are hoping to get a good run on planting this week.

Planting is a full go in our area. Most guys are getting to the end stretch. If I had to guess, most have a week to two weeks left. The big thing that we need is a rain so we can get everything to come up well due to simply how hard the ground is becoming. On the cattle front, we moved a few out to grass over the weekend, and we are looking to A.I. some this weekend.

We finished up planting this past week. The biggest thing we could use at the moment is a rain. Some of our first-planted crops have begun to come up the past few days. Hay crop is looking to be dropped within the next few weeks and looks to be a good cutting. We started to A.I. cows over the weekend and are hoping to get everything out to pasture soon.

We received an inch of rain over the past two days, which is a blessing! We have completely finished planting and pretty much everyone is done around us. The sprayers are starting to roll. On the cattle front, we are hoping to drop hay in the next week and are moving cows out to pasture this week as we wrap up breeding. Overall we are standing well and are going to receive more rain tonight. Hopefully we stay out of the wind.

This week has been a great one. We have finally started to receive some rain, right around an inch this week. Overall we just need some heat to get everything going strong. On the cattle front, we have moved everything out to pasture and are getting ready to mow hay once it dries.

We ended up getting a half inch of rain this weekend. It got most of our first cut of hay wet, which was a bummer. The corn and bean crop is coming up well and appears to be on the right track. The pastures are nice and thick and appears to be a good year. Overall we are standing well.

We ended up with roughly seven-tenths of rain over the past week, which was much needed. We could use a bit more though, and Thursday we have a good chance. The crops are taking off and appear to be in a good spot. On the cattle front, pastures are standing well and cattle are looking great out on grass. Second cut of alfalfa is starting to grow at a good pace. We are hoping to start our grass hay at the end of this week.