So some may recall that AgroLiquid cooperated on a wheat pasture trail with the Noble Foundation in Southern Oklahoma last year. Brian Waugh and I went to their headquarters in Ardmore in August 2016 to propose a test, and were fortunate that they implemented a split field trial of 75 acres each of AgroLiquid and dry. I have reported on some visits there in the past. It was just a preliminary test. Well we are now in year 2, and it will be a better trial this year. Last year there was only one herd and they moved it from side to side each week. So didn't really get a chance to measure feed effects on growth. But this year there will be a separate herd on each side which will enable separate tracking of cows and pasture. It will be a cow-calf population and should be put out around December 1.
Recently SAM Jay Ostmeyer, Agronomist Reid Abbot and I paid a visit on October 18. It had been planted almost a month earlier on September 20-22.
It had been dry, and there wasn't as much growth as there had been at the same interval as last year. This is a view of the conventional side. It had a broadcast application of 150 lb/A of MAP (11-52-0) recently. But no other fertilizer. They will top-dress with urea later. There was no phosphorus applied last year. You can kind of see where the dividing fence will be on the left.
And just to the West of that same fence line is the Agro side. It had an 11.5 gal/A drill application of a blend of High NRG-N, Pro-Germinator, Kalibrate, Micro 500 and Manganese, same as last year. It will be top-dressed with High NRG-N later. I think it looks better, but I'm not a cow.
There was moisture earlier in the fall, but not now. It is heavy ground too (CEC around 30), especially when dry. Reid is just able to dig a hard chunk. Rain was in the forecast, and they did get 0.7" three days later. So that should help.
They dug a pond last year in anticipation of having a two herd test someday. This is at the South end of the field and will be just for the AgroLiquid cows. Sorry, but we have to discriminate for science. There is another pond at the North end for the conventional cows. This picture was taken last year on October 21, and reported in the blog on October 25, 2016 (OK wheat pasture update....). So it wasn't much of a pond then, just a hole. But it filled up rather quickly. I was there on January 21, 2017 and it was full. (See Home on the range, Feb 13 blog).
And here it is nearly a year later from nearly the same angle. Those hoof prints may be from last spring as there haven't been any cattle here for a long time.
And here it is from the dam on the South side, looking up toward the pasture field. Looks drinkable to me.
So need some more wheat growth for the the future cow residents. I will be back some time for an update.
