Tuesday, April 23, 2013

We found some fields to be nearly dry enough to work on Monday morning.  It was okay for the sprayer, and mostly good for the NH3 application.  By working late last night, Ross and John were able to get on all the NH3 except, of course, the Commer farm in the White River flood plain.  We are experiencing some flooding this week.  Also, working late, I was able to almost ‘catch’ them with the sprayer… I did catch up to them this morning.  Immediately after, I was also able to get the sprayer tank and boom rinsed out and ready to spray soybean herbicides.

So, today, Ross hooked up his corn planter and went up to the Cresy farm, about 1.5 miles away, just across IN #550.  We found this one field dry enough for planting, about 32 acres.  He was able to get that corn in the ground… but it was raining lightly as he folded up to leave the field, and raining hard before he returned home.  He said it was working well, and he planted the seed very shallow, 1.25″.  Here was our view of Ross as he returned to the main farm in the rain.

Ross returns to the main farm, after the rain started as he was finishing the first field of corn planted in 2013.  This planter is a Case-IH model 1250 with 24 rows.

At least we got a start!  One field down, many more to go!

Since the corn field pre-plant spraying is ‘caught up’, John will now begin to do the pre-plant spraying for soybeans, as soon as the conditions allow.  The forecast does not look very favorable for tonight and tomorrow.

Ross has the corn planter parked inside, but it still remains ‘hooked up’, ready to go.

More of the fleet of machines ready for the next dry day.

John has become more confident about the operation of the Capstan N-Ject system on the JD 2510H NH3 applicator.  He has been very diligent to calibrate and monitor the operation of the system.  All seems to be working quite well now.  Here’s what it looks like from John’s point of view in the JD 9360R tractor when he is applying NH3.

The 2510H was working well here at the Huey farm. Photo taken on April 10.

Here was my view in the JD 4730 sprayer this morning, as I was applying a pre-plant application of Roundup and Harness Extra.  The stripes you see on the soil are from last night’s application of NH3.

Working at the Steen Hill farm, Tuesday morning, April 23.

We won’t be working late tonight!