Saturday, April 28, 2012

"The Waving Wheat, Can Sure Smell Sweet" and other stuff

So after the big RFD show, I had to get back to work.  So by the picture below, can you tell where I am?  Now I grew up in Oklahoma, and I always admired Johnny Bench.  I had been through Binger many times as I travelled around to OSU Research Farms working on my Master's degree.  So it was fun to see it again.
Remember that liquid fertilizer application equipment that Doug built?  It is now attached to a plot planter and it will be used to establish some cotton and milo fertilizer plots with a contract researcher.  Stay tuned for updates later this season.
Here is the field where the replicated plots will be.
Later we went to look at some grower's fields where Liquid fertilizer was used.  Here is Area Manger Parker Christian and SAM Jacob in a wheat field.
The wheat is looking great thanks to the regular rain that has fallen this spring, unlike last year's drought year.  The wheat heads have good size, but it would be nice to have another shower to get them filled good.  This field had Pro-Germinator and Micro 500 at planting and topdressed with High NRG-N and 28-0-0-5 and eNhance.  We looked at a number of fields.  The best looking fields we saw had Pro-Germinator + Micro 500 at planting.  The drought made growers a little wary about spending money on wheat fertlizer at planting, but the ones that did are glad they did now.
Here is another wheat field fertilized with Liquid that is looking really good.
Growers are also baling alfalfa now.  Here we see Jake's father and brother running balers on a field well fertilized with Liquid.  Namely a stream-bar application of Pro-Germinator and accesS at green-up.
Below is a field of corn that had an in-furrow application of Pro-Germinator + Sure-K + Micro 500.  Well for a while, one of the rows on the planter had a problem with no fertilizer applied.  You could really see the phosphorus-deficient corn next to the well-fed corn.  The grower, who was a long-time Liquid user was pretty impressed with Liquid performance.  Nice to see, but check your rows for flow. 
So it was a great week seeing interesting things and people.  I start the trek home to Michigan on Sunday with a stop at a new research site in Missouri on Monday.  Hope to show highlights then.