If Rocks Were a Cash Crop, Farmer's Would Not Be Poor!

We've been working like crazy trying to get our planting done. Every time we get the field ready, it rains, a lot, and then it has to be done all over again, or it rains and washes away all the seeds. One thing that seems to grow without mercy (other than weeds) is rocks. I'm not talking about the smooth stones people use to adorn the outside, and sometimes inside, of their homes; I'm talking about fifty or sixty pound boulders and sometimes larger. The really big ones somehow get planted around, but the others have got to be either smashed back into the ground or picked up, and the really big ones do not smash back down. I spent six hours on a tractor today running a rock roller after we planted (finally) the soybeans. My husband has picked so many buckets of rocks prior to planting he has lost count and I still had to get off the tractor to pick more that were just too big. Rocks are evil things out to destroy harvesting equipment so they have to go. I sometimes wondered why I didn't just lower the bucket and roll a few of them, but then the other ones would have fallen out and I would have had to re-load all over again.

It's not just us. There are huge rock piles all over the country where farmers have had to pick those things up, and they just keep multiplying. You'd think they'd run out at some point, but no, they always find their way to the top, usually just in time to destroy a combine head or a silage chopper, or a hay mower or baler. So, if rocks were a cash crop, farmers would never be poor, which would be good since it costs so much to repair the damaged equipment. Anyone want to come help pick rocks? I have plenty!