I'm sure the rain missed the farm. Will let you know tomorrow.
Now last year they had a uniformed group carrying the flag. Don't know where they were this year. Like the rest of America, I like Spongebob, but even he doesn't make up for the soldiers.
Sadly, there will be no ball playing in the Wacousta park this year. Maybe water polo.
Looking forward to dinner on the grill tomorrow. Enjoy the weekend.
And the weather cooperated for the visit too. It rained all day so that none of that nasty dust would get her dirty. And it was only in the 40's this afternoon so that she wouldn't get sweaty. Stop by any time young family!
That's it for the week now. I may rent out the blog for the rest of the week.
So what else happened today? As you know, we have been fighting the battle with wet fields this spring. It sure doesn't feel like it will be June next week, as it has been extra cold and wet this year. Here we see Doug and Stephanie checking field condtions on Farm 7. This farm has our heaviest ground. Most of it is still too wet to work, but parts of it offer a chance. Normally we wouldn't push it, but alas, heavy rain is forecast for tomorrow afternoon. A decision is made.
We are thankful that this farm was tiled last fall. Other fields around that aren't tiled are still swamps. It was sunny and warmish today, so we thought that if we could work some ground, then it would dry out enough to plant early tomorrow. Below Jeff lightly works some plot ground.
The West side of this farm is hilly and not used for plots. It is a little higher and has lighter soil. It was still a little wet, but able to be planted. So Amanda was able to run the soybean drill on some production ground. The soil strips are where tile lines are buried. The humps were disked down earlier this spring, but the rest (which was wheat stubble) was just sprayed with Roundup and left to no-till. It went pretty well.
With all of this wet weather, we are spraying all of our wheat with fungicide. Phil broadcast applied Folicure and Headline on different farms. We have a test plot on Farm 3 where we are applying fertilizers N-Response (formerly High NRG-NR) and ferti-Rain with Quadris fungicide on wheat. This is a repeat of a test we did last year where we found significant yield increases where fertilizers were added. However we did not see a response with the fungicide alone, although it was much drier last spring. So we will see. Below is a picture of the field. The wheat is at full flag leaf stage with the heads bulging in the stems. I would expect them to be showing in a day or two.
I made these same applications to this same wheat test, also on Farm 3, exactly a year ago today. It was in my blog on this date then. In fact, a picture very similar to the one below was used. Last year the wheat heads were already emerging when I sprayed, due to more heat units then. But the wheat does look good this year, and we hope to show more significant yield responses with these nutritional products. Stay tuned.
Well I hope tomorrow I can tell you all about our day of planting. Thanks for reading, as we shoot for #200. I am saddened and concerned that more tornados struck today, this time in my home state of Oklahoma. I talked to my parents in Stillwater, and the sirens went off and they went to shelter, but no tornado touchdowns there. But there was damage to the south around Oklahoma City, but I don't know details at this time. I hope and pray that damage was minimal.
I started this last night when a thunderstorm caused a power outage at my home. It did not come back on till 7 this morning. So I did not hear anything about the terrible tornado in Joplin, Missouri until the Today Show. I have driven through Joplin a number of times driving between Oklahoma and Michigan. Again with such terrible devastation and loss of life as we saw recently in the South, especially Tuscaloosa. No one can prepare for how they would react to such a tragedy. How could you? The survivors all seem to be thankful they survived, yet at the same time, sorry for the losses. And all seem to have a strong resolve to rebuild. That's admirable and they sure need our prayers and support.
But let me give a brief recap of activities late last week. Nick actually moved quite a bit of equipment from the existing equipment barn to the new one. These are things that we won't be using for awhile, but were in the way of things that we regularly use. So it was nice to get some things moved. Thanks Nick.
Here is the finished floor of the fertilizer and chemical storage barn. You can see the water tracks that slope towards the sump in the middle. This floor layout is designed to contain a 7000 gallon spill. We really don't want to test it though. It will be nice to get this up and running sometime later this summer.
We also got a 0.3 inch shower last Wednesday night which made Farm 7 too muddy to finish our two remaining corn tests there. So on Friday we switched to soybean plots on Farm 3 which has much lighter soil and had dried out enough to plant then. Below MSU Intern Amanda maneuvers the fertilizer "War Wagon" into position to load plot treatments into the drill, seen in the background in the field. Amanda was raised on Red tractors on her family farm, and it pains her to drive green, but it's all in the name of research.
And our other intern Jeff loads a fertilizer treatment mix into the plot tank of the drill. We are using the drill to plant 15 inch row beans here. This has worked very well in the past, with the fertilizer actually applied in the row, which we generally don't recommend for 30 inch row beans.
And the drill is off again to make another treatment application.
You notice that we plant soybeans as no-till here on Farm 3. We also planted some second year corn as no-till on Farm 3 as I did also on Friday. Most of the pictures to date have been conventional till due mainly to worked ground on other farms after tiling last year. But we do some no-till too, as well as strip till which has been shown here previously.
So what has the Specialty Crop Crew been up to? I just can't seem to get Brian to take enough pictures of their activities, so I have taken some. The price will be pretty steep when he comes seeking pictures for meetings and reports. Below we see Brian and Tim planting potatoes with the mechanical planter. That plot tractor can apply liquid and dry comparison fertilizer as it plants.
And today, the only outside work was over on the so-called "perennial crop" area. Dan and Tim are applying wood mulch around some small trees. You can see the fertilizer effects on the grass around the tree rows, so it is important to get them mulched. They will control the grass later.
So thats all for now from the NCRS!
This is the 97th blog posting since birth last year. Hmm...I think I sense another milestone in the near future. Well excuse me for now...I've got to get back to the celebration.
The concrete aprons of the fertilizer storage barn were poured on Monday.
Randy and Ron A. are busy installing the lights in the shop extension. Heads up Randy.
This week the NCRS has two Michigan State University students on an internship assignment, and will be with us all summer. Amanda and Jeff are both Crops and Soil Sciences majors and we are glad to have them. We hope they will learn much about crop nutrition and conducting agronomic research. Below Jeff does some refinement of the leaching wells.
Below Amanda spreads dry fertilizer in a comparison plot with our dry fertilizer air spreader.
The planter is still following the tractor and, with luck, we should be finished planting the corn experiments tomorrow. And then on to soybeans.
We have started planting some "production acres" of soybeans this week. Below Doug and returning summer worker Jake load bulk soybeans into the drill. The bag above Doug's head is the liquid innoculant that is metered by a tube onto the beans as they enter the auger. This works really well for innoculant application. We call it our soybean IV.
And look at this surprise to the farm we saw this afternoon. A pair of Bald Eagles were down on Farm 1. This one was eating something. (We took a head count after seeing this. All personnel were accounted for.) Tim lives right next to Farm 1 and said that he has seen them earlier. Maybe they are making a nest in the woods. They are pretty big, and very cool to see.
Keep visiting this blog for future eagle updates.
But here is were the story takes an unexpected turn, no pun intended (well maybe.) Rather than back up and try to get back on track, I drove on out and then started planting back towards the spot where I curved so that the rows would eventually line up with the accuracy of the RTK autosteer. But just as I was approaching the spot, the autosteer again disengaged and I started curving again!!! And guess what track number it was? Believe it or not, it was track 13! I am not making this up. So I re-engaged the auto steer and the rows did finally line up. But there will be some extra hoeing to remove the errant corn. But by somebody else, I'm not going back to the haunted corn field!
Here we see several rows of cabbage. Later on they transplanted broccoli. I hope no rabbits are reading this.
We are doing more tillage than usual this year to work down the tile tracks from last year. Here we see Ron running our new (again for us) mulch tiller on the back of Farm 5. It does a nice job of seed bed preparation with the trailing rolling baskets.
And here we see Doug planting a corn plot under Stephanie's watchful eye. We have gotten a number of corn tests planted the past two days. The ground is ready and warmer temps are on the way.
Although we have been busy planting here this week, it's heartbreaking seeing all of the flooding along the swollen rivers to the south. Don't know how all of that will all turn out, but our thoughts and prayers are with all of those poor farmers, and with others affected.
And here Doug plants a plot. Each treatment is replicated four times in this experiment. And the plots are 265 feet long, so that should give us a good read on performance.
Here is a picture of the back of Stephanie's winter coat. (Hey it was only 44 degrees and cloudy yesterday.) Albert got one for each of us research types last fall. That embroidered combine scene on the back is from an actual picture that I took of harvesting a wheat experiment. We all think Albert is a swell guy. More on Albert at the end of this.
After finishing planting of beets today, it was time to clean out the beet seed and change the sugarbeet plates to corn plates. Guest worker Alex Ruff provides assistance. (He is a much harder worker than that other Ruff guy who was out here Monday.)
Here I am planting a corn experiment later today. (This experiment has five replications of treatments and plots are 210 feet long.) It is planting of a stip till (or Nutri-Till) plot featured last year in blogs on October 30 and November 1. So we are comparing fall and spring timing of Nutri-Till fertilizer applications, as well as no-till and fall surface applications of Pro-Germinator and Sure-K in no-till. In this picture I am planting in strips that were made last fall. To the right is a no-till plot and to the right of that is a plot where the strips and fertilizer were applied were made yesterday. This will be a good evaluation of different fertilizer options, because we like to help growers figure out what would work best for them.
And now for a special announcement, if you have not already heard. Albert Bancroft and his lovely wife Allison crossed the bridge from well-rested and childless to parenthood. The sign in their front yard (across the road from Farm 3) says it all. Congratulations to the new family, and to Troy and Jill for their first grand daughter.
So it was a memorable day on many fronts. And hopefully more planting memories yet to come tomorrow. Now I have a date with a pillow.
Guest worker Dale Ruff operates one of those things that vibrates to pack loose dirt. He was told to just keep going in circles.
The roller pushed rocks into the ground while Ron A. smoothes out the taper around a sump. Dale is still going in circles.
Next the tarp was unrolled...
...and then pulled across the floor. Hopefully no one lost their phone or car keys.
Here everyone inspects the work and all agree that they did an excellent job.
Next the sides were nailed up. Here Phil holds the tarp and Ron A. nails it. His work completed, Dale goose steps off the tarp much to Stephanie's amusement.
Later the concrete crew came in to push sand over the tarp. They use a laser leveler to make the grade correct for the concrete containment.
Dale, if it seems like I was picking on you...well I was. But only because I know you can take it. And we really did appreciate your help and experience with this. So thanks, and drop by any time. Stay tuned for tomorrow's report on the big pour. Till next time....good night NCRS.
