Friday, April 25, 2025

We are rained out of the fields again today.  It hasn’t rained lot (.32″  or 8mm) but any amount was more than enough to stop us.

Brandon had a good Wednesday and Thursday in the corn planter.  His machine was working well, and he covered several acres at the Dunn and VanVleet farms and fields near Wheatland.  He feels pretty good about what he has done so far… it wasn’t perfect, but should be okay.

John took advantage of the low winds, and got all the corn acres sprayed with herbicide… that is, all the corn acres that were out of the White River flood zone, and had the NH3 applied.  He even cleaned out the sprayer and made more progress on spraying soybean fields with burndown herbicide.

There were planters running all over the neighborhood yesterday, and almost everyone had their sprayer going too.

I was held down by a “man-cold” on Wednesday, so I went to the doctor and got some good medicine– and an afternoon of rest.  Yesterday, I took the 9R540 and the air drill and got started planting soybeans.  I planted the Ross, Cresy, and Roberson farms…238 acres in total.  Not a bad ‘first day’.  I did have to have support from Brandon D, who came to the Cresy farm and I helped him change out some of the 1″ seed-air hoses.  That took about a half-hour and I was on my way again.

Here are some scenes from my Thursday planting soybeans.

As I started Thursday morning, I did a quick walk-around the check the machine out.

From the driver’s seat…operating the air drill.

Brandon D captured this picture after he got me repaired.

We were able to reload the air cart this morning before the rain set in.

Looks like the rain will let up a bit over the noon hour, and return this afternoon.  The wheat is looking really nice for late April, and will need one more pass of fungicide as soon as the heads pop out.

We are really grateful to have some crop in the ground, and that we are started with #plant25.  I know, I know…it’s just one day, but it’s a start!

Have a lovely weekend.