Oklahoma Spring Brings Challenges

So the week before last I made a trip to Oklahoma to check on some research plots and of course found plenty of other things to see.  I'm not really a morning person, but Sales Account Manager Jay and I had to get up early to drive to a breakfast meeting.  The only nice thing about getting up before the sun comes up is watching the sun come up.  Here are some cattle North of Lawton already having breakfast.  (I was happy with this picture considering it was taken at 65 miles an hour.  Don't worry. Jay was driving.)

A little further North is the small town of Carnegie which has a cotton gin.  Cotton is a big crop in this part of Southwestern OK.  A recent innovation in cotton harvesting is the round bale. They are produced within the cotton picker (harvester) and are put out on the end of the fields like a chicken laying an egg.  These bales are big, being nearly 7 feet high and weighing 4 to 5 thousand pounds.  They each have approximately 3.8-500 pound bales of lint.  So it appears that these have pretty much replaced the much larger and harder to move cotton modules.  There were hundreds of bales waiting outside the gin. 

 Parker Christian is a Retail Partner in Cordell who has enabled outstanding production of cotton. Over the past seasons I have shown pictures of fields with AgroLiquid that are superior to those with other fertilizers.  His growers had great success with PrimAgro P fertilizer last year.  So what is going on here?  Well most of Oklahoma is experiencing terrible drought.  In fact it has not rained in 180 days in some places.  So not a good environment for growing winter wheat as we see here.  In fact we saw no wheat in the area that looked like it would be able to be harvested.  The plan now is to spray down this wheat and hope for some rain and plant cotton.  Hopefully that happens and it won't be a total loss.  Oklahoma has been blessed with three straight years of good cotton.  But this is dry country and folks are nervous about the streak continuing.

 Remember former SAM Jacob?  He farms over near McLoud, about 30 miles East of Oklahoma City.  Well they have had some rain and the wheat looks decent. But drought isn't the main concern in growing corn this spring.  How about frost?  There were several nights of temperatures in the teens recently which froze off the emerged leaves.  But the below-ground growing point enabled re-growth.  But in one field the re-growth was frozen again.  I had not seen that in Michigan, much less Oklahoma.  But corn is strong and pushes on.  Ever the agronomist, Jacob likes to leave off the fertilizer pump for a bit to check fertilizer performance.  Jay digs some samples.

 No fertilizer on the left and Pro-Germinator + Micro 500 on the right show that in-furrow fertilization will help the corn grow out of the frost damage quicker and make a better crop.  Well it still has a ways to go, but look at the bigger roots and taller plant with AgroLiquid.

By the following weekend the whole state got at least 1.5 inches of rain, and an all day rain at that.  So that should help in a lot of ways.  It wasn't a drought buster, but it helped.  We will see.

Look for additional news from this trip in the future as there is always more to tell.

At Last

So at the NCRS, we are like most of the country frustrated by the spring weather keeping us out of the field.  A week ago it snowed twice.  But at last here we are finally doing some field work.  I don't recall topdressing wheat this late on the calendar, but are on track with growing degree days.  Here we see Tim and Quinten applying a nitrogen treatment on a Farm 3 winter wheat experiment. 

I have seen no area growers out in the field working ground yet.  The ground is still pretty cold and wet.  But Ron was out working some lighter ground on Farm 3 today.  Much more to follow in the days and weeks ahead.

But it's good to get started.

By the way, next Monday tune in to Ag PhD Radio on Sirius-XM's Rural Radio for a very exciting topic and featured guest.  You know you will.

The "O" Word in CA

So sorry for the lapse in regular blog posts....but I've been busy.  Now who is in the mood for one last blast from my visit to CA earlier this month?  Good.  We visited a different kind of field this day.  Below we see Chris, Dylan and Keston from Retail Partner LA Hearne in a field of celery near Watsonville.  What's different?  Well it's Organic celery.  It seems that there are a fair amount of acres of organic vegetable production in this area.

LA Hearne not only sells organic fertilizer, but also is in the custom application business.  In this case it is 1200 lb/A of chicken litter pellets.  You can see the application bands that are partly uncovered in the middle and also on the right where the side of the bed has fallen away.  Now that is a lot of material, but it seems to work. 

 You've heard that "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."  AgroLiquid does have one certified organic product in C-Tech.  But Chris assures us that organic products that have nutrients in addition to microbes are not too far off.  In fact we are testing organic P and K experimental products at the NCRS this year.  So AgroLiquid should have an organic product line someday.  We will see if the sun is blotted out from the sky as I never would have thought that would happen.  But Chris has told me that It's the best Jerry! The best!  Indeed.  

 In addition to plot and field visitation, Chris and I were also in CA as speakers at a CCA Seminar in Exeter, near Visalia.  There were a variety of speakers providing information on different production ag topics for continuing education credits for Certified Crop Advisers.  Below we see Chris speaking about how crop nutrition can help ward off insect pests.  Did you know that?  I lead off the session with a riveting rendition of Improving Soil Vitality and the effects on crop nutrition.  Now I had titled my presentation to be about Soil Health, which is all the rage these days.  But it seems that you can't say Soil Health in California as that is not an acceptable term there.  Kind of like the name Pro-Germinator.  So fortunately I had some time to make the change on my title slide, as I did not want to be in violation of pc statutes.  They are rough there in California.

But it was a good presentation.  In fact they told me: It's the best, Jerry!  The best!

Feeding the Hungry Almonds in California

So are you ready for some more almond updates?  Let me answer "Heck Yes" for you.  So I was back in CA last week and here is how the trees look now.  The blossoms are all gone. 

The bees did their job as we see  loads of almonds growing now where there were flowers before.  And we did not see any obvious frost damage which was a big concern on an earlier visit.

 Remember when Dylan held a small almond blossom pistil in his hand a few weeks ago?  Well now he's holding the developing almond nut.  That almond is going to need some added nutrition to make it to harvest in the fall.  And that is where AgroLiquid comes in.

 Almond watchers SAM's Dylan and Armando, plus Chemist Chris discuss all things almonds with the ranch manager and researcher.  Now AgroLiquid fertilizers are used in a number of commercial operations, but we wanted to design an experiment to prove the value of AgroLiquid's different nutrient options.  Well that is the objective anyway.  I'm confident.  It's time for some plot fertilizer application.

This tractor is applying liquid fertilizer treatments to a plot of almond trees.  Several replicated treatments are applied in this long row of trees.  

Fertilizers are normally applied in the irrigation water, through that small sprinkler there coming out of the black water line.  To simulate fertilizer application, the fertilizer treatments are sprayed on the ground with the nozzles.  The nozzles are positioned to apply over the irrigated area.  To be realistic, the nozzles ran some earlier to wet the ground.  Then the sprayer applies the fertilizers in a high application volume of 200 gallons per acre.  This is to evenly spread the fertilizers over the zone.  Then after application,  the water is turned on again to thoroughly incorporate the treatments.  I'm convinced that this is as realistic as you can get for treatment application.  It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny.  And no wind.

It helps that AgroLiquid fertilizers are all compatible with each other and can easily be applied all at once instead of in separate applications as is necessary with some fertilizers.  The researcher was impressed with AgroLiquid's product compatibility.  There are a number of applications left, but that should hold them for now.  It takes well planned applications of a complete nutrient package to get best response.  So we will be following progress, and I plan to re-visit the test to keep you all posted.  There were some other interesting sights seen during the week, so stay tuned.

How Far We've Come

So back in May of 2010 I got it in my head a desire to share in some the happening things going on at the North Central Research Station, and decided to start a blog.  In the beginning it was called Live From the NCRS and mainly featured research plot establishment and crop development, giving  proof of performance for AgroLiquid's crop nutrition.  But after a while, it expanded to include AgroLiquid use in growing healthy crops all across this great land which we call the Land of Liquid.  It also includes features like Retail Partners, growers, different crops, scenery, landmarks, and probably lots of other stuff as well.

I never imagined that it would someday reach episode #700, but here we are.  And fortunately my contract has been renewed for many more to follow.  So keep reading and tell your friends.  That's the blog that keeps on giving the whole year!

Just a Few More Pics from CA Last Month

So I've been showing quite a few pics from my trip to CA in March, and here it is April already.  But bear with me for a couple more, as they are worth it.  So who doesn't like raisins?  Well they are grown on grape vines, but they are usually picked after they have dried down some.  Some raisin growers construct an apparatus like this to have the vines grow over the space between two rows.  That way the vines hang down making it easier for the pickers to grab the dried bunches.  Cool idea, right?

 But there are no vines on the next space between the next rows over.  Well new vines will grow over the wires this year to be the vines for the 2019 crop.  They will be trained by the vineyard workers.  This was where the 2017 crop was, so they alternate.  Farmers are so innovative. 

So what happens to old vineyards?  Well a lot of them become almond orchards as I've shown.  Always something growing here in California.

 Well what on earth is going on here?  Putting trees in storage?  Covering them for nearby painting?  Protection from sunburn?  Wrong on all guesses.  Now when you eat a Mandarin orange, you don't want to bite into a seed, right?  Well this particular variety is covered to prevent bees from pollinating the flowers with pollen that could produce seeds.  But most growers now have varieties that don't produce seeds.  And NO, these are not GMO plants, as some people without anything better to do have said.  They were naturally bred to be that way.  But covering these must be a lot of work.  But Mandarins are so good it's worth it!

So as I often say in conclusion,  that was interesting.  Especially for this corn and soybean farmer.  I am learning more about the challenges of growing these California crops.  But one thing is still true, it's better with AgroLiquid.

Happy Anniversary Ag PhD TV Show

So this past week marked the 20th anniversary of the wildly popular TV show Ag PhD.  On the show they took a look back to the beginning of their TV career  that started with their father.  It was interesting to see how the format and show formation  had grown since then.  Look at those young fresh faced agronomists.  That is how they have always thought as themselves, as agronomists, with the goal of educating the farmer.  If you are a regular watcher, and I hope you are, think how much they have done over the years to teach farmers and non-farmers about what it takes to  grow our nation's (and the world's) food.  Basically they are teaching these people so that they can better make decisions without learning the hard way or getting harmed by bad advice.  Learn about weeds, seed, fertilizers, soil tests, chemicals,  equipment, etc, and put that knowledge to work in your favor. 

Of course we are happy for the many times they have visited and spoken at AgroLiquid events as well.  Take a look at the segment from the show.  (But first enjoy an informative ad from our favorite fertilizer.)

http://watch.agphd.com/detail/videos/farm-basics/video/5763783981001/farm-basics-1043-ag-phd-20-year-anniversary-air-date-4-1-18?autoStart=true

Snow Week (check the calendar)

So if I were to talk about all of the snow we had here in mid-Michigan this week, I wouldn't get much sympathy since it seems most of the country was getting some snow.  Particularly out East.  We had two snow days.  Here is a view out of someones house window South of the NCRS on Wednesday morning..

Here is a pic of Farm 5 on Wednesday afternoon.  There had been melting by then.

And here is a view out of a jet window on Thursday over Minnesota.  Brrr.

And finally, here is a view out of the NCRS office window yesterday (Friday) afternoon.

That Mother Nature is a maaad scientist!