Coming To A TV Near You

Shhhh....I want to tell you something...OK, maybe not that, but the NCRS did have another visitor today. It's kind of a secret. It seems that Agro-Culture Liquid Fertilizers is filming another commercial, and had a film production crew here today. It was LeCrone Communications from Hilliard, Ohio, and we had Brian LeCrone himself. Now I can't tell you exactly what the commercial is about...mainly because I don't know myself. But I gathered that it had something to do with corn. In the picture below, we cut out some corn to enable filming with their cool boom camera. (Marketing will have to re-imburse us for the estimated 0.6 bushels of corn lost for this.) We see Phil providing quality control, while Stephanie stays within earshot in case of mistakes or questions. So how was I able to get this spectacular overhead shot? Well I was in a basket on a fork lift. I took lot's of pictures while up there, including some that were work-related, such as this view of our crops here on Farm 5. Looking good if you ask me.

And here they are filming at another location on the farm. They are getting a good look at some Liquid corn from top to bottom. I'm sure it will be a winner. Sadly they did not need any extras or walk-ons. So I was just a spectator, which is what I usually do best anyway.

So two visitors in the past two days. Can't wait to get to the farm tomorrow to see who is next.

NCRS Welcomes Ron Mulford

So the NCRS had a visitor yesterday and today. Mr. Ron Mulford, an agronomist who just retired from the University of Maryland as manager of the Lower Eastern Shore Research and Education Center, Poplar Hill Facility (now that's a mouthful). We have had the pleasure of working with Ron on various fertilizer projects for the past several years, and he has always expressed interest in visiting our research facility, the North Central Research Station. Ron may be retired, but is still able to conduct field research trials at the Poplar Hill facility, and on grower's fields. Ron is very well known and respected by growers on the Eastern Shore, and elsewhere. So it was a real treat to have him visit us. Ron was accompanied by Sales Account Manager Benjy Conover of Gettysburg, PA, who also manages Liquid sales efforts in Maryland. Regional Account Manager Bob Baxter, who has known Ron for several years also came down. Below Bob, Benjy and Ron have a discussion on soybeans. Stephanie stays within earshot in case of mistakes or questions.

Below Ron takes a closer look at some of the soybean test plots. Unfortunately, Ron said many of the crops in his area are suffering from heat and drought. That is not the case here as we have been blessed with timely rainfall. Here on Farm 7, which is non-irrigated, or rain-fed as I like to say, the crops look great. (But knock on wood, whatever that means.)

Ron was also interested in our plot equipment, and gave it all a thorough going over, as in the case of our grain cart with weigh bars. This was recently featured in the blog about wheat harvest. We have pretty large equipment since our plots are all good sized.

We also discussed some of the on-going trials that we have under Ron's supervision, and reviewed the wheat data from Poplar Hill. It was a pleasure to have Ron visit, who said he was impressed with all of the hard work being done at the NCRS on the thousands of test plots. If you know Ron, I am sure he would be happy to tell you all about his visit. I look forward to visiting him in Maryland in early September.

These Boyz Can Buzz!

So these pictures are actually from last Thursday, and so are not really Live From the NCRS. But I thought they deserved a post. Remember from an earlier post (May 27) I talked about the bee hives that we have at the NCRS to aid primarily our fruit and vegetable pollination. Well I had never paid them a visit until last Thursday. I have not been around hives, and didn't know what to expect. I crept close, and was amazed at the activity. It looked like a sleet storm because you saw streaks of bees going up and down, coming and going. I would be very surprised if there weren't collisions of bees, as I saw no control tower. You can't see that in the picture, but it was pretty amazing to watch. Fortunately I was pollen-free and they left me alone.

The hives have an opening on the bottom for the bees to go in and out. However, one hive had no activity, as seen in the picture below. We learned from the beekeeper that it had lost it's queen. So no queen, no hive.

Here is a picture from the cantaloupe plots, and you can see the hives in the background.

I stood still and listened for some buzzing, and followed this bee as it made it's way from flower to flower.

So I had been gone awhile, and upon my return today, I learned that the sunflowers were flowering. This was taken in the morning looking at the sunflowers looking at the sun. The plots look great and hopefully we will get some useful yield data, again, depending on the birds.

Here is a close-up. I like having the sunflowers on the farm. Maybe it's because I was born in Kansas, you know, the Sunflower State.

Now getting back to the buzzing boyz. Stephanie actually took the picture below. But look, there are two different kinds of bees here. The one on the left is from our hive, I think, but the one on the right is different. I don't know where that hive is. But these sunflowers may be a half mile from the hives. So I will close by saying, buzz on boyz, make the hive happy today.

LIQUID Shows At Hefty's Field Day

So last Friday I had the pleasure of attending the Hefty Seed Company's annual Field Day in Baltic, SD. It was a great demonstration of some of the latest technologies available to growers today, with an eye on tomorrow. You can bet that Agro-Culture Liquid Fertilizers was there to talk to growers both who already are using Liquid nutrition, and those who are interested in doing so. There were growers from all over the Midwest and Upper Plains, and probably farther. Below is the Liquid show booth where you could visit with Area Manager Kevin Abentroth from North Dakota, in red shirt on left, or Chad Schlechter, from South Dakota, under tent in blue shirt. Corn plots fertilized with Liquid fertilizer were on display at the show grounds. With ample rain and good heat units this year, look for a great harvest, especially where ACLF was used.
There were tour stops on a variety of topics available. Below, Darren Hefty discusses plots showing planter fertilizers, Rootworm Resistance, and Twin-Row corn comparisons.

The guy below in blue was concerned about what happened when he spilled some Liquid fertilizer on his legs during planting. We told him things should be back to normal by around 90 days after planting, as that is the duration of the effectiveness of Pro-Germinator. He said he grew like a smoke cloud, but I told him he would stop smoking soon.

Below, one of the Hefty company's Senior Agronomists, Sham Moteelall discusses what is referred to as a "footprint garden." This is where a number of plots that are one-foot square are planted with a variety of vegetables, to prove that bountiful production is possible even on a small area. They got the idea from Mr. Douglas Cook, founder of Agro-Culture Liquid Fertilizers, who demonstrated such at last year's PLFP in St. Johns. Of course a key to making it work is having the correct crop nutrition, and in this case, it was ferti-Rain. He has a small sample bottle in his hand. Actually, Senior Agronomist Rob Fritz set up and maintained these plots, and was impressed with the outcome. He just used some ferti-Rain diluted in water in a squirt bottle, and made weekly foliar applications. Well I did not learn until later that evening when Brian and Darren Hefty said that one reason they did this is because they are working with an orphanage and church in Haiti, and they want to show them that they can produce a lot of food in a small area. So this was their trial run. They hope to send down some fertilizer to help as well. As they said, it is one thing to give aid, but they want to teach the poor survivors down there to help themselves. A noble objective. Darren is actually going down next week with one of their film operators, so look for updates on Ag PhD. Brian will make a follow-up visit this fall.

Meanwhile back at the Liquid tent, Chad obtained some corn plants from the famous "Blank Slate Plots". This is a field totally devoid of all soil nutrients (according to soil test) where some different ACLF programs are being compared. Refer to Darren Hefty's blog, or my post dated June 10 when I made an earlier visit and gave more information. The plant below had an if-furrow application of 5 gal/A of Sure-K + 5 gal/A of Pro-Germinator and 2 qt/A of Micro 500. Look at the tremendous root growth.

So I wanted to see the Blank Slate myself, and made the some 5 mile drive further down the road to have a look. A field picture appears below. The corn looks great. The different treatments begin about a third of the way into the picture, and are all replicated. So I am looking forward to getting the results. I confess that I never would have thought that the corn would look this good when every soil nutrient tested "VL" or very low on the soil test, with high pH, and minimal organic matter. And all it has on it is Liquid fertilizer and UAN with eNhance.

I did walk in a few rows and did not see any signs of nutrient deficiency. Here this corn only had the 10 gallons/A applied at planting as described in the corn picture above at the tent.

So it was a very good and interesting day there in Baltic. I sure hope we have their good luck with the weather, as it was sunny (and hot) all day, but later in the evening a monsoon hit. Almost on schedule in Brian's weather prayer that he shared.

Want To Go Green? Use LIQUID Manganese

Sorry for the delay in getting a new post up on the NCRS blog, but I was on a fertilizer mission this week, and forgot to tell you in my last post. This one will be short, but I found it interesting. One of the things anyone farming new ground has to deal with is unforseen surprises, as with crop nutrient deficiencies. There is quite a bit of manganese deficiency in mid-Michigan, and elsewhere in the Midwest. We found some recently on our new Farm 7 in soybeans, which are sensitive to low soil manganese. This particular area was on the edge of one of the replication strips, and not part of the plot. This was a severe deficiency as all of the leaves were yellow, and the beans were smaller than those in adjacent plots. We decided to see what a full gallon per acre application of ACLF 4% Manganese would do. Now most people would balk at applying a gallon of a micronutrient. We recommend a quart per acre for maintenance, and usually in combination with Sure-K. If you are seeing some deficiency symptoms, two quarts per acre should be applied. But solid yellow beans that are small need more. We did not add any other fertilizer so we could see just the effects of the manganese. This was the only plot showing such severity of deficiency, so we weren't able to put out more treatments or replicate. It's just a see what happens plot, or a "squirt and peek" as some call it. The picture below was taken from the Hagie plot sprayer on July 14 just before application. I applied the gallon of fertilizer in a total spray volume of 10 gallons per acre. We looked at the plot today which was eight days after application. There is a tremendous improvement, as the picture below shows. They are still lighter green than the regular soybeans in the plots, but there was no yellow seen. And the color is very uniform. I would say the plants are responding well to the manganese, but with a gallon, they'd better.
Here is a picture taken between the sprayed plot and the unsprayed plot on the right. You can see it in the first picture, where there was some yellowing, but not as severe as in the plot we sprayed. Now the unsprayed plot is kind of blotchy with yellow and green. But the sprayed plot is uniform in color. The unsprayed plot still has bigger beans, but it had a big headstart. Also notice the border strip. The outside nozzle sprayed the left half of the strip, and you can see that the left half is greener and has more uniform color.

So it's not a replicated test, as we didn't have enough room, but we will keep an eye on it and will check yield for comparison to the unsprayed plot. This brings up another point that we have recently discussed with our sales account managers. It was pointed out that after planting, there may be some leftover fertilizer in the on-farm storage tanks, or even in dealers tanks. It is a good idea to try to get that fertilizer out of the tank and used up, as small volumes sitting in hot storage tanks through the summer can lead to potential problems. Heat and some water evaporation can lead to some crystals settling out at the bottom. And when new fertilizer is added in the fall, the crystals often do not re-dissolve. And this can lead to plugging of screens and orifices the next year. I frequently get calls from growers asking if they can make a foliar application of "corn mix" on their soybeans. Of course the answer is "yes" (except where there is much nitrogen in the mix). We know foliar applications work, so why not put a few gallons per acre through the sprayer? Do the math and figure out how much you need to spray to get it used up. This would be especially effective on your worst ground, and have a clean tank to hold the next load. It is better to take the time and use up the remaining tank fertilizer in a way that will do some good instead of invite planter-stopping problems next spring.

So I am off on a one-day fertilizer mission tomorrow, and perhaps I will be able to share this one with you in my next post.

Spraying Away and Being A Good Neighbor

So here it is again, the Hagie plot sprayer...spraying away on yet another crop. Remember I asked you what field crop hasn't been mentioned for recieving any foliar applications? Well the answer is: edible beans, or in this case Navy and Black Beans. Also remember that these types of bean are planted later than soybeans, in mid June. We have a good looking crop of each. Now we have not yet developed a consistant foliar recommendation for edible beans like for soybeans. I think one of the reasons is that edible beans are usually fertilized at or before planting, and additional foliar fertilizers are often not utilized. Compare that to soybeans that frequently receive no fertilizer in the year of growth, and will often show a response to added foliar nutrition. But we have some new treatments this year and are optomistic that a response will be seen at harvest. I sprayed the Navy Bean treatments on Farm 3 yesterday, but it was still muddy from Thursdays thunderstorm on the Black Beans on Farm 5, which has heavier ground. So poor me had to come in on Saturday to spray them. But who wouldn't treasure a chance to spray again in our good old plot Hagie? Now I assure you that all the plots have been sprayed with the planned foliar treatments. Well, except for application following alfalfa harvest...so you could see the Hagie again. So don't despair. (Man that's a good looking machine!) Here we see Brian on Friday picking broccoli from plots. He has been cutting broccoli several times a week for several weeks now. I know because even I am getting tired of eating it by now, and I love broccoli, steamed with melted cheese on it. But if it keeps regrowing, we, that is, he will pick it. In the background, the rest of the crew is finishing up the extra pickles outside the plots picked yesterday.

So what becomes of all of the vegetables that are picked from the plots? Some of you are aware that it is given away. Most of it goes to the Lansing Food Bank. Last year, nearly 30,000 pounds of vegetables were donated. Below Stephanie provides quality control while Brian does some last minute pickle sorting prior to the Food Bank pick up.

Below we see the vegetables, including pickles, broccoli, and cabbage being loaded onto the Food Bank truck. The truck is new for them, and it is much better. In the past they had a small van and it was quite a chore cramming all of the boxes into it. It is interesting to hear the Food

Bank workers who have not ever been to the NCRS comment. They can't believe all of this fresh produce is being donated. Fresh vegetable donations like this are rare, and it is greatly appreciated. And it makes us feel good, and congrats to Brian, Tim and crew for all of the hard work that will feed so many in need. The truck will be back many times in the coming weeks.

And how could it be any better to eat since it was mostly fertilized with LIQUID crop nutrition???

Pickle Harvest

So I'll bet you thought I would title today's installment something like: Proficient Pickle Pluckers Pick Plot Production, Providing Plenty Product Performance Proof. But I wouldn't stoop that low. However, as promised, Brian's pickle plots were harvested today. This is all hand labor, and it was hot and steamy today, and even had a late afternoon thunderstorm blow up. But we are fortunate to have a great summer staff who picked, weighed, sorted and graded all of the pickles today. Below we see Brian and the crew stripping the vines of the pickles. Below is a bucket from an individual plot. You can see the different sized pickles. They will later be be sorted by size.
After harvest is complete, it is necessary to sort the pickles by size into one of three grading catagories. The weights of each grade will be determined to see if that is a treatment effect.

Each group sorts the pickles based on examples for the standard grades. Tim watches Jake and his other worker Jake sort the pickles using the examples on the floor.

I'll bet most people aren't aware of all of the work that goes on behind the scenes of filling that jar with pickles in the store. So that was a big project and I'm sure they are glad to be done. Brian and crew have already been harvesting broccoli and cauliflower plus other odds and ends, and there is plenty more to come. Stay tuned.