Monday, April 28, 2014

Tonight's The Night!

So I hope you don't have plans tonight.  Other than watching Rural America Live (formerly known as RFD Live) that is.  If you don't have Dish or Direct TV, call at once or invite yourself over to someone that does.  Because tonight has a show about in-season fertility options.  I know you are already daft with anticipation.  But wait...it gets better!  
Your panelists will be none other than ME and GALYNN.  Now Galynn has probably forgotten more than most people know about in-season options.  Some of them will even make sense.  And I, of course, will make sound statements that are research-based.  If we haven't tested it at the NCRS, it's probably not worth doing.  So gather up the family and tune in for an hour of solid fertilizer knowledge and sure-to-be witty banter on: Rural America Live!!! 
 As if that weren't news enough for one blog, here are a few highlights from last week.  We have a new tool at the NCRS: a Krause vertical tillage tool, that is.  This will be primarily useful in breaking up corn stalk residue for 15" row soybeans.  It will certainly help with uniform stand, which is extra important in plots.  But it breaks down the stalks with only minimal soil disturbance maintaining near no-till conditions.  Here it goes last week on Farm 3.
Remember in the previous post about concerns of freeze in Oklahoma and potential effects on our wheat plots there.  Well at the plots near Hinton, the plots were unscathed.  Here is a sliced open stalk showing that the head is still green and fleshy.  It is about one or two inches from emergence.  The flag leaf is fully open however, but was not frozen.  I think it's partly because this is high ground and there is a canyon, Red Rock Canyon State Park, just beside this field.  So maybe all of the cold air fell into the canyon.
 Here we see SAM Clint and a researcher there examining the plots up close.  Nice and green.  Although needs water.
 But not all fields were so lucky.  The low ground seemed to take it the worst.  You can see the upper ground in the background.  Plus this poor grower had this under a pivot so he was ready for drought.  But not a late frost.  Very sad.  But there is time to get it declared a loss for insurance and plant it to something else.

So that was a week, but the start of this one will be good if you watch the show Monday Night.