Saturday, April 7, 2018

The calendar says “run the planter”, but the fields say “wait”.  The chilly, often frosty (and even with a little snow) April days and nights have us wondering when spring will finally arrive.  We are fully prepared (well, at least as we can foresee that we are) for going to the fields to apply nitrogen, and to begin spraying.  Soon after, the planters will roll.  But the soils are just too wet and chilly.  The forecast does not have much warmth in it for at least another week, and those are temps in the 60s, not 70s.

Another concern is the flood crest level predicted for White River.  We can contain a 25-to 26-foot river pretty well, but above that, the levee is in danger of being topped.

Here is today’s White River forecast for Edwardsport, Indiana. The crest levels have been creeping up for the past few days, going from 22 to 23 to now almost 25 feet!

We can see some progress on our grain leg replacement project.  The ‘innards’ of the old leg have been removed, and the electrician has been installing many of the new runs of conduit for the wiring.  We hope the old downspouts and leg are dismantled soon.   It’s good to see some action on this project, for if you think about it, it’s not very many weeks until June 10… when we would expect to begin to harvest wheat.  We will need this new leg fully operational by then!

One shiny new conduit descends from over the pit driveway, and stops near the new plywood wall where new control boxes will be placed to operate the new leg. Other runs of conduit are being installed to complete the project.

As we anticipate the commencement of spring field operations, it will be a high-demand time.  Many tasks are just at hand.  There will be anhydrous ammonia to apply (our nitrogen source for the corn crop), burn-down herbicides to apply to soybean and corn fields, and a herbicide application to the wheat crop (the recent cold temperatures still have not damaged that beautiful crop).   The planters will run as soon as possible after that, with simultaneous planting of corn and soybeans.

We are believers in early-planting, but we must not allow our impatience to move us into field conditions that are not proper.  It’s ‘way too early to think about ‘mudding it in’.   So, we monitor the conditions closely.

Service tech Kyle from Hutson, Inc. came by yesterday to install a PIP (Product Improvement Program)  update on our John Deere S680 combine.  This modification had something to do with the operation of the brakes.  Kyle was able to work on it where it sits in the back of the big storage building.  He also did some kind of software update on our 9360R tractor.  These types of service calls are on John Deere’s dime, so we are grateful for their attentiveness to our machines.

I’ve been under the weather this week, a late-hitting ‘man-cold’ has caught me.  I got to the doctor early on, with a shot and 3 sets of pills.  But this one is hanging on longer than I expected.   On my 5th day now, the congestion is just uncomfortable.  I typically get one of these ailments during February, but this  year I sailed right through the first 3 months of 2018 healthy as can be.  But this late-arriving cold still has me in its grip.  I’ll endure and hopefully by next week, I’ll be a bit more energetic and mobile.

All the planting and nitrogen prescriptions that we can anticipate needing have been written, and have been loaded into the appropriate control systems in the tractors.  It is always interesting to watch those things work, and understand how they are enhancing the efficiency and productivity of our fields.  Below is one example.

Here is the soil type map for the main field at the Burke farm. We use this as the basis for writing seeding prescriptions. Each soil is assigned a population count for seeding rate.

This is the resulting seeding rate prescription map for the same field. In it, you see low, medium, and high seeding rates that will match population of seeds to the corresponding soil type.  It’s pretty neat to watch the adjustments happen on-the-go as you are planting.

We hope you had a very happy Easter Sunday last weekend.