Monday, April 25, 2022

It’s raining again this morning, 1.1″ (28mm) since midnight.   #plant22 seems like a repeat of 2019.  If you go back and read the posts from April of ’19, you’ll find similar information about rain delays and short windows of field work.  But we must remember that even though planting was delayed that spring, the final result was still pretty much okay.

We did take advantage of one of those ‘windows of opportunity’ over the weekend.  Friday, Saturday, and yesterday were all warm days about 83ºF (28C).  I found a few ‘dry enough to spray’ fields and applied soybean burndown chemicals on Friday evening and Saturday morning.   The winds got very strong (>15 mph, gusts to 28) on Saturday causing me to stop the sprayer.  By Saturday afternoon,  Brandon was able to get into select fields to apply NH3.  John joined Brandon on a very windy Sunday afternoon to add to the weekend’s progress.  No, we’d prefer not to go to the field on a Sunday, but we felt compelled to use this opportunity to get some more work accomplished.   The rainy forecast lent a bit of urgency to the day’s work.   It was a productive afternoon and evening.   It kept Bill and me busy to deliver ammonia tanks to the field, and return the empties to Nutrien.  Brandon and John worked into the evening, and as they moved home Sunday night, the rain began to fall.

Brandon and John applying NH3

John is hooking up to the next pair of NH3 tanks.  This will cover 33-35 acres.

Good progress was also made at the new Leser farm location on Friday and Saturday.  Shepard Construction completed installing all the drainage tile, and building the 2 WASCoBs.   The field drainage system includes 2-8″ (20 cm) main trunk lines that go up the hill to the WASCoBs, with branches off these mains of 4″  (10 cm) tile spaced every 40 feet.   There remains just a tiny bit of work with the ‘root rake’, and the job will be complete.  The next operation there will be to spray to terminate the fescue growth.  Once that fescue begins to turn brown, I’ll run a disk over the field to smooth where the tile plow and dozers did their thing.  Then, Nutrien will apply the lime and fertilizer, and the planter will run!   Looking forward to working there with a tractor for the first time. It’s not quite ‘no-till farming’ there initially, but will be in subsequent years.

Here is a WASCoB under construction

Here, Tyler Shepard finishes off the final smoothing passes of a newly-built WASCoB

This is the final run of 4″ tile being connected to a previously-installed line, and then plowed into the soil

Shepards built this roadside surface drain. Not a ditch, but more of a waterway. I seeded it to fescue to protect it from water erosion, and plan to mow it to maintain it in the future.

A few planters have been running around our neighborhood.   Watching them really gives me the ‘itch’ to do likewise, especially for soybeans.  But, the forecast is again for some nights in the 30s, so I’m okay with waiting a few days longer.  The goal is to get all the NH3 applied, and then begin with the planters.  Hopefully we can do that before May arrives.

Today, I’ll work in the office.  The property tax bills came, and they must be entered into the computer.  For several years now, the assessed valuation of farmland and the accompanying bill has been decreasing.  But with just a passing glance at the bills, it is apparent that the A/V is up and the bill is going to increase this year.  After I get the information into an Excel sheet, I’ll know exactly what those increases are.  The bill is due at the County Treasurer’s office on May 10.

We begin the last week of April with a rainy day.  More than May flowers, we are eager to see the crops begin to grow!  Planting is such an important operation, some say it is the most significant pass through the field every year.   We will do our best to give the corn and soybean crops their best chance to thrive.   After that, we trust our Maker to help them be all they can be.

Have a great week.