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!