So visitors to the AgroLiquid website should remember this on the REAL Ranchers part. (Although the site has moved on, but the memory lingers.)
But that guy is a Real Rancher, and also is a Retail Partner for AgroLiquid. His name is Burt Hutson, and I had the opportunity to see him and his real ranch out West near Elk City, Oklahoma in mid-August. It was a pretty evening when we showed up. (And unfortunately those weren't rain clouds.)
That's Burt there talking to Sale Account Manager Brian Waugh. (Burt's on the left). Burt has been a strong advocate of using AgroLiquid's Pro-Germinator + High NRG-N for establishment of wheat pasture. Burt's cattle always produce top quality beef and he has quite a reputation for that. In fact, he is acquainted with a Vice President of the Noble Foundation, which is a well known independent, non-profit research institution in Ardmore, OK. They have an agriculture division whose mission is to help farmers and ranchers be better farmers and ranchers. We have tried in the past to cooperate on some research projects, but haven't been successful. But from Burt's connection and discussions of plant nutrient inputs, they actually sought us out.
So Brian and I met with the Vice President of the Agricultural Division, an Agricultural Systems research manager and a Business Development manager to talk about how fertilizing wheat pasture with AgroLiquid can lead to better feeding of grazing cattle. Well it was kind of late to set up a bonafide research plot, but they offered an alternative that could be conducted yet this fall. There was a 140 acre piece of land that had been in grass pasture for a number of years that could be split and planted to wheat for cattle pasture. Half AgroLiquid and half whatever they would recommend. They would put cattle out on it and would be able to keep track of cattle weight gains through an automatic scale system at their water stations. I've seen one and they're cool. Plus we will analyze for feed quality from the wheat. So that was quite an opportunity. But time was short to get this done. With the help of Retail Partner Heritage Liquid Fertilizer over in Marlow, we were able to get it planted and fertilized with AgroLiquid on September 23. I was not there for the planting, but Brian was and he sent me these pics.
Loading up the Sunflower drill with seed wheat. Sunflowers do a good job planting no-till wheat.
Did I mention that the field has not been in crops for some time? It was recently sprayed down with Roundup, but is still a planting challenge.
These headless guys are checking seed placement. I guess it found some soil down there through the thatch. The whole field was planted at this time, but only half got AgroLiquid. The other half would get some dry fertilizer blown on some time later, as that is their normal practice.
So how is it looking now? Well I am on a fertilizer mission next week to find out. I usually don't like to talk about things before I see them, but I'm feeling confident.
