Tuesday, April 14, 2015

For the most part, as you travel around our fields today, you see that it is still too wet to be doing any field work.  But we did find 2 or 3 locations where it is possible to work the field cultivator and/or sprayer.

John is out this afternoon spraying some nearby fields with soybean “burndown’ herbicide.  I have been out to the Roberson farm and a couple other places to shape up or smooth down the areas that were disturbed last fall where new WASCoBs were built.  John will spray over the top of those few fields.  It is important to get the soybean herbicide down ASAP, for there is a waiting period (7-14 days) before the planter can run.   Because our experience has shown that our earliest-planted soybeans are almost always the highest-yielding, we are eager to get going and get some beans in the ground this month.

If I can get even a few hundred acres of April-planted soybeans, I’ll feel much better!  With the herbicide going down today, that may be possible!

Last fall, we had several new WASCoBs built here at the Roberson farm. Here, I’m using a field cultivator to smooth the construction areas. This will make the surface better on these areas to receive first the herbicide and then the soybean seed. Can you see the orange riser that captures the surface water from a big rain to take it out of the field?

Here, you can see that the field cultivator smooths the soil surface of the parallel terrace that forms the basin of the WASCoB.

John is spraying the preplant herbicide at the Pond farm. Last year’s corn stubble is visible in this picture. The next field operation here will be the soybean planter! Hopefully in a week-or-so. Sounds like we have some more cold/wet weather coming.

For corn acres:  We have yet to apply any preplant nitrogen, but it won’t be too many more days before we can begin to do that.  After the preplant nitrogen goes down, the sprayer comes next, just ahead of the corn planter.  We are still hopeful we can get our corn planted in  April.

In a wet spring like this one, we just have to nibble at the higher spots to get started.  Back in 2012 (drought year) the work began in late March, with no rain delays… and we finished planting on April 13!  Yes, it was easier when there was no muddy spots that spring, but the dry weather stayed all summer, too!  We got about 40% of  normal crop yields that year.  Ouch.