Happy Birthday...To Blog!!!

So can you believe it has been a year already since the launch of the wildly successful "Live From the NCRS" blog? Seems like it was only yesterday. A year ago I showed a picture of our new gps/autosteer equipment and also a picture of the frosted corn that took a hit (but fully recovered.) I have really enjoyed sharing pictures and descriptions of what we do here at the North Central Research Station as we progress through the growing season. Thanks for reading. In addition to the readership in North America, that being U.S., Canada and Mexico, the blog stats lists page views in Germany, China, Russia (zdravstvute ya'll, yep High School Russian really paid off), Netherlands, India, England and Indonesia. So wear a Liquid T-shirt the next time you are in Jakarta and you may find a friend! 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.

Taking Advantage of Good Planting Weather

So the planting weather has been ideal this week and much progress has been made. I hate to admit it, but a little rain shower would actually be nice right now as the warm weather and wind has really dried out the soil. It seems later in the week than only Wednesday since the days have been long with lot's of work by everyone. Below we see Doug on Monday planting corn on Farm 5. 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.

Don't Let This Happen to You!

So Doug and I came in today to get caught up on some tillage and planting of what we call "production corn". That is corn, and later soybeans, that are not part of an experiment, but are planted with the same love that we show the test plots. Doug planted awhile while I worked ground, and then we switched. I've told you how much I like the auto steer. But it shouldn't be an invitation to not watch where you are going and play with your cell phone. I was on some strips only about 900 feet long, and looking up something on my phone, when I felt myself curving out of control. The auto steer had kicked off for some reason! I said "Darn, that's unfortunate." (Or words to that effect in case my mom is reading this.) The picture below shows what happened. (Note: I was planting every other track for easier turning and then coming back after a few to fill in the gaps, as I was doing here.) 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!

Parade of Planting

So we were blessed with another nice day here at the NCRS, and all were busy. Brian has a new vegetable transplanter to use this year. This more accurately simulates real world vegetable growing, as compared to the old way of setting them one at a time by hand. This also applies "setter water" including fertilizer as the plants are set into the raised beds. Here we see Brian at the helm with Tim and Dan loading plants as the holder thing, or whatever it is called, comes around. This work is so exciting they are literally on the edges of their seats. 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.

Seed Meets Soil!

So planting finally got going yesterday at the NCRS. First priority was for sugarbeets. Sugarbeets are typically planted in early to mid-April, depending on conditions. But this cold and wet spring delayed it till yesterday. Here we see Stephanie transferring the liquid fertilizer treatment to Doug and the planter. 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.

Getting In On The Ground Floor

So there are actually two blog posts today as one blog could not contain all of the activities that happened today. We are getting the new fertilizer and chemical barn ready to pour the concrete floor. This floor is unlike the others at the farm in that it will be sloped inward to contain any accidental spills. Additionally, a liner will be placed on the ground under the concrete for additional environmental protection. Today we got a crew together to help put down the liner. First it was necessary to square up all of the dirt on the edges and flatten out any loose dirt. 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.

Field Work...Finally

So it was still cool and often cloudy, but no rain. And it was nice over the weekend, so there was some drying, and we took advantage of it. Remember the posting on April 16 showing topdressing of wheat plots? Well one of the variables in a test was timing of topdress application. We actually split a small field and topdressed half on April 13, and planned to do the other half later. Well today was later, and the wheat was in the Feekes 4 stage, with the small stems standing erect now. In the picture below you should be able to see that the previously topdressed wheat is considerably greener than the unsprayed wheat on the right of the flag.

Here is Phil applying the topdress treatment. The application is of a blend of 43% High NRG-N and 57% (volume basis) 28% UAN + eNhance. This is a blend that we are evaluating this year. It will be interesting to see if there is any foliage burn on this larger wheat. There was none with the previous application.

With that out of the way it was on to our sugarbeet test to get that ready for planting. As you know, we include conventional fertilizer treatments for comparison to the Liquid treatments, both regular and experimental fertilizers. Here is a picture of me on the dry fertilizer blower making an application of potash to the conventional plot. I think I have showed this before, but it is an air machine (built by Doug) for application of dry fertilizers to plots.

Next I incorporated the potash with a field cultivator pulled by Troy's 4020. It is a nice old tractor with plenty of horsepower. The wings are folded up to match the 15' plot width. (OK, this is a self portrait. I wanted a pic of me on this tractor. Hopefully no one was watching me sprint from the camera up onto the tractor several times till I was satisfied with the pic.)

With that done, we will plant it tomorrow. Next we have a strip till plot where we were comparing fall strip till fertilizer applications to those in spring. I showed the fall applications last October 30. This is a repeat of a test we ran last year with favorable results in that the fall Pro-Germinator and Sure-K applications were as good as those in the spring. Below we see Stephanie mixing a treatment on the "war wagon" while Ron and Phil observe.

Here is a picture taken by Stephanie looking out the back window. I probably should have moved the wiper, sorry. We call this Nutri-Till, because unlike strip-till, we have dual placement of nutrition: Pro-Germinator, Sure-K and Micro 500 in the seed zone, and nitrogen down 5 inches beneath the seed placement.

So we are set to actually plant some crops tomorrow. Only a few weeks late, but we are farmers: which means we are optimists.