By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

CEDAR BLUFF RESERVOIR -- With an eye on the weather, Ronnie Burns didn't have much time to waste when he refilled his planter with milo seed and fertilizer.

But he said the field where he was planting was "plenty wet," what with the no-till operation saving virtually all of the moisture that falls.

Just last week, the field just south of Cedar Bluff had received anywhere from 11âÑ2 inches to 2 inches of rain.

"I planted some before the rain, and it was dry," he said. "Dry and hard."

Burns, of Ransom, was custom farming the patch of land for Dave Hilker.

Hilker is a Cimarron farmer who purchased what had been the heart of the Trego County Circle S operation. Hilker Farms, as it now is known, is primarily rangeland, but Burns said Hilker has about 350 acres of milo and almost 400 acres of wheat.

Recent rains, he said, have helped area wheat fields.

"The earlier wheat, it doesn't look as good as the later wheat," Burns said, something of a reversal from what it should be.

Typically, the early planted wheat would hold more promise.

"I'm guessing its going to be some 40- to 50-bushel wheat," he said.

Burns said the area has been short of rain for the most part, receiving about 3 inches in early April and then another 11âÑ2 inches last week.

"We were needing it," Burns said of the rain last week. "Like I said, it was getting dry."

Custom farming takes Burns throughout the area, stretching down near Jetmore and as far east as Otis.

"I plant about 10,000 acres a year," he said.

That's part of the reason why he looked to an Australian company to fit new soil openers on his planter.

"They sent a guy over to help me put them on," he said of the change-out.

He's planted 60,000 acres without a bearing going out, compared to about 1,200 acres on the original equipment.

"It cost $17,000 to put them on," Burns said. "But they're sure trouble free."