So by "early" I meant "early in the season" and certainly not early in the day. But this was a farming basics tour for the AgroLiquid employees in the corporate office and Ashley manufacturing plant. We have sessions every so often to go over the basics of farming and how the fertilizer is applied and how it works. This primarily for those who may not be too familiar with what all of this fertlizer business that they work on is all about. After a little a welcome and history by me, agronomist Dan Peterson from Wisconsin covered nutrients, products and discussed the GMO situation. I talked about planters, gps, and the different ways farmer apply our Liquid. (I should probably get me one of those selfie stick things to better show me in action. But really it was very interesting. I listened to every word I said.)
We went into the field to see a variety of the research plots we have, and pointed out fertilizer differences. One of the stops was where Dr. Zouheir Massri has one of his phosphate fertilizer studies. He is measuring P movement from the application band as rainwater moves through the soil. We should be getting some early results very soon.
He showed the collection procedure in the syringes from the buried lysimeters. Very interesting and pioneering research at the NCRS.
We also stopped at the apple orchard where researcher Jacob Emling talked about the high-density orchard and the plans for the upcoming installation of the fixed spray canopy systems. Everyone volunteered for a taste test.
On the long drive back to the NCRS office, agronomist John Leif talked about the timely topic of cover crops. What they are, what they do and why they are seeing more acres of them each year. Also interesting, it was.
So that is yet another reason why the employees of AgroLiquid are the most knowledgeable anywhere about the job they do plus the company they work for. Or I mean, ...the company for whom they work. Even our grammar is good.
