So this past week it was a visit to Eastern North Dakota. There are some contract research plots there that I needed to check on. North Dakota is under the sales jurisdiction of SAM Brad shown here keeping watch. I was with Brad last week in Nebraska and failed to show a picture, so here you go.
There is a replicated plot test of liquid and dry fertilizer comparisons in corn. Here I am discussing plot info with the contract researcher. We have worked with this particular facility for several years on spring wheat and canola with favorable results. But never corn until this year.
It has been dry this summer, but the corn looks pretty good. Harvest isn't too far away.
We also had some fertilizer comparisons in spring wheat here. Here is where those plots were. The data hasn't been summarized yet, so I don't know yet how it turned out.
It is something to see all of the corn that is now grown in North Dakota. I remember years ago when I first started with Liquid seeing the first soybeans being grown in ND. And then corn a few years later. Now there is corn virtually everywhere, thanks to the new short season hybrids that have been developed. And good Liquid fertilizer too.
And I have also never seen so many new grain bins around the country. They are all over the place. Although North Dakota produces a lot of corn where we were, they are 14th in US corn production. Iowa and Illinois are by far the biggest states if you were wondering. But I'll bet ND leads in new bins.
In the Red River Valley, sugarbeet harvest is just beginning as fields are opened up to get the beet sugar plants started.
Potato harvest is getting started as well. Here is a big field that has had had the vine killer applied and is awaiting digging. If you look close you can see the smoke from the American Crystal beet sugar plant in the background.
We also saw a number of soybean fields being harvested. Again, it was a dry summer and yields are down. But the good price is holding which helps.
So by Thursday afternoon I was back at the office. But I always enjoy my time in North Dakota.
