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.
