So I was in Arkansas last week to see about some field plotwork. After the paperwork session, there was talk of a problem wheat field on some "cut" ground. This refers to ground that has been leveled, exposing subsoil horizons that may be poor in nutrients and structure. Tim Smith, Sales Account Manager Lang and I went to have a look. Now this wheat field had been adequately fertilized with some liquid (not the good Liquid) through the drill and topdressed with urea and ammonium sulfate. Yet there were still large areas that looked poor: short, thin stands and light in color. Probably should have taken some soil and tissue samples, but went with the shotgun approach and came up with a foliar treatment to be applied by air. I asked Tim to take a picture again some time after the application. If it works I will show it. If not, any mention of this situation will be destroyed.
So I know that I have probably overdone the weather reports lately, but that is what farmers do. But it snowed again yesterday, and that was April 3! There were huge flakes coming down just before I got out to take this picture. But it didn't stick around anyway.
Still haven't topdressed our wheat yet. The fields are too muddy and there has been a lot of rain and snow. We got a half inch of rain at the NCRS yesterday afternoon and this morning. I did see a floater with urea on the road as I left town last Wednesday though. Last year we topdressed on March 31, but it was warmer and drier then. In fact in the first 4 days of April 2010 we received 53.2 growing degree days (GDD), thanks to a high temp of 81.6 degrees on the 2nd. And in 2009 we received 4.5 GDD in the same time. So far this year in April: 0 (zero) GDD. 