Saturday, April 18, 2015

This afternoon, we were able to get across a few fields to put down some preplant soybean herbicide.  John worked at Downen, Holscher, Burke, and VanVleet.  Over 400 acres went down this afternoon.  With the soybean “burndown” application going down recently, I can visualize the bean planter running late next week!   (weather permitting, of course)  We use no-till planting exclusively, and this first pass of herbicide will make an excellent seedbed once the soil surface dries appropriately.

John works in the back of the water trailer, mixing his recipe of herbicides and wetting agents into a funnel-shaped inductor… then the blend is pumped into the JD 4730 sprayer with the water. One ingredient is Roundup, another is Sharpen, which goes on the field at the rate of 1 oz./acre.

Although we were not able today to do any work that ‘engages the ground’, if it does not rain tomorrow (as predicted), we will be able to begin applying preplant nitrogen for corn acres on Monday.

Today was a beautiful, beautiful day.  79ºF (26C).