So Friday was just a beautiful day here in mid-Michigan. Warm, sunny and no wind. It was also the first harvest of a soybean test on Farm 7 at the NCRS. Senior sales manager Galynn was in town, so we went out to check progress without being in the way.
Well that didn't last long as Galynn was soon up in the weigh wagon-grain cart sharing wisdom(?) with Stephanie. Phil was at the combine controls and that's Tim D down guiding the tractor. The beans were drier than we expected, running around 10.5% moisture. What is that in Stephanie's hand? It's an iPad that records the plot weights and then instantly calculates yield and gives treatment summaries when finished. This is the first year for that, having retired the pen and clipboard used in the past.
It can also act as a shield against bouncing soybeans. I'll bet the Apple people never thought of that as an iPad app.
Some "production" soybeans also on Farm 7 had been harvested earlier, and Jeff gets started planting winter wheat in this field. With rain predicted for the weekend, it should be off to a good start along with the Liquid fertilizer that is applied at the same time. (Note: the tank is on the back side of the drill in case you were going to call me out.)
In addition to the field crops, the vegetable crew has been busy recently with all sorts of harvest activity. Here are Gina, Erin and Tim B harvesting some Roma tomatoes. This is all hand labor, so they deserve to sit while they work to get closer to the ground.. Look at all of the tomatoes from a short distance of plants. Look for salsa next week.
The vegetable crew is also the fruit crew, and here they are harvesting Concord grapes from the NCRS vineyard. We see Brian, Erin and Gina picking away. I will say that all of this picking is pretty hard work and not for everyone. We are grateful for the help of Gina and Erin this fall. I believe that hard work with a purpose will make any young person a better older person no matter what they do in life.
So how do you like the brand new Liquid T-shirts? This is a trial run, but Renee from Marketing and I approve. There are two versions as seen below. What do you think?
The next few weeks will be nothing but harvest as we find out the results of all of those fertilizer applications made way back when.
