Out The Door Picture
Friday Picture
Well at least it is a dark green this week. Last week before the rain we were a greenish yellow wilted color. That color isn’t good for indicating plant health.
Out the back door picture(s) for this week showing the drought and heat stressed beans here behind the house. The cool weather of late has helped and the rain of a week ago has the beans blooming again. But those pods that are being set are only 2 bean pods. That ain’t good! We will see what the weekend brings as we have another slight chance of rain.
Out the Back Door
OK with the week all screwed up with jury duty and everything else that went on I decided to celebrate the good news of the “no surgery yet” verdict from the surgeon with some brats and onions on the grill.
We will return to regular AG and Firearms post next week………………I promise!
Out the back door picture
I woke up this morning to a half inch or rain. Wonderful! Would take some more but that is great. The double crop beans are progressing right along but still have a ways to go to top the wheat straw yet. I will post pictures of the double crop beans in the canola stubble in a few days.
Out the back door Friday
.75 inches of rain the last 36 hours. Not near the 2 inches they were yelling about but really nice for us. Some got much more and some got a little less but there is some severe weather potential this afternoon as the front passes through.
It has been a while sense I mentioned wheat so I took a picture of the wheat to show that I still have it and that it is in the process of filling the kernels. While final yield is a way off, I must say that even with the drown out spots this is the best looking wheat crop I have had in a long time. The stand is uniform in height, color and head size. The bonus is that I have no lodging at this point, subject to change with a big wind………..
Clouds but not much rain…
Its not Friday but here is an out the back door picture for you from Wednesday morning. This cloud formation was pretty different and impressive as it rolled, yes the clouds rolled along. I tried several different ways to photograph it but this was the best picture I could come up with, and it doesn’t do it justice.
I have seen a similar cloud formation, in 2008 near Wayne City. I took this picture while scouting corn that day…..
Friday out the back door picture…..
I am in the corn field, applying anhydrous. Or side-dressing anhydrous to be more technical. Fields are about 80% right, with the swags still wet. Wit the weather forecast they will get wetter, so its time to roll.
So slow posting until I am done.
Here is a bit of a teaser for the auto steer video. Guess where the auto steer was used and where it wasn’t………….
Choice A
Choice B
Friday Thoughts and Pictures, End of Week Catch Up!
I am exhausted, for some reason. Well, I know the reason(s): Fighting my computer again, trying to get all the important things off that “to do list” done before the monsoons hit tonight and trying to secure and put back all the equipment I took last weekend on the FTX (field training exercise).
I am really trying to get the video(s) done and the pictures posted but the darn media players etc. on this computer are just making my life so hard. So last night I deleted them all and reinstalled a few and things seem to be some what better, but not much yet. Hopefully this weekend…………
However I do have a corn update: This morning the Agrometer showed 138 GDUs since I planted the last field of corn on 19 April. So a look to see if the corn was up and YES, minus a few places where the seed was a little deeper or where water stood from the last rain. So I took the time to play with my camera after Tyler showed me some tricks with it and took this picture, its the best of the bunch, but I am learning a new game to play when taking pictures.
Wheat Update: I also noted that I have ignored the wheat crop in favor of the Canola with regular updates. So here is the status of the wheat crop. We are heading and looking pretty good right now…………but with wheat or “poverty grass” as Marty Richardson called it, all is subject to change with one rain.
U of Illinois research farm out of Dixon Springs also got their fertilizer strips on their research plots yesterday. Steve Ebelhar and the guys were putting out some different treatments and then they will come back and plant right over the treatments to see what gets the biggest bang for the buck. I have to admit, their small plot equipment is something to look at, I love their combine! Pictures of that later this year.
It has been a very good and productive week here on the farm. Ready for a restful weekend. However I got the feeling that we will be doing some storm spotting and chasing instead of resting much………….
Friday Picture
Rain last night late. Best I can tell about half an inch. I say best I can tell as the ground under the truck isn’t wet but the gauge showed one inch. Upon investigation by looking at various containers out in the yard, about half an inch. So……..stormy weather predicted for the next few days.
Friday Morning Picture
Well here it is…………looking a lot like spring! The canola in the background is flowering, hence the yellow!
Friday Update
First off THANK YOU to all my followers and Visitors!!!
What a great bunch of people you are! For the month of March we have exceeded 690 unique visitors and had over 1647 sites visits. That’s better than 53 visits a day with the highest on day visit of 93!
I was hoping to get to that level by the middle of this summer but the steady growth has been accelerated this month.
Again THANK YOU. Now go and tell you friends about it!
Picture out the back door…………if this would have been later in the day I might have had a picture with the applicator in it applying the N to the wheat or canola………..no such luck when I took this picture.
Friday Picture
This picture is deceiving. Yes the sun is shining, but it is cold, there is ice on top of the dogs water bucket and my rain gauge shows a good solid 3 inches from yesterday/last night. Water was running off the fields into the roads just before dark last night.
Side note, the canola in the background is about to catch up with the color of the wheat. Now for some dry weather to get that last shot of N on…….
Friday Picture
Here it is, Friday at 0755, that’s 7:55 am for you “civilians”.
For all you at Civil Air Patrol National Headquarters and on CAP TALK, Mickeys big hand is on the 11 and the little hand is almost on the 8. If you have a digital watch, its still flashing 12:00, so just take my word for it.
It is nice to see the sun!
First App of N to Canola and Wheat
What a long day. It started somewhat early while the frost was still on and seemed to drag on all day.
First off the sprayer would start this morning in the cold, then the pump on the tender truck wouldn’t work. After getting those problems going the guys had a solenoid that quit on the pump on the sprayer and they didn’t have a replacement, so they “made” one from another part off another sprayer.
Needless to say it was a long day for Tim and Nathan and everyone else. But the good news is that the first shot of N has been applied. 60 units with Agrotain.
One thing I like about Browns spraying for me is that Tim does a superb job. Very few if any skips, he drives at a moderate rate of speed that allows for good application and he doesn’t tear up the field getting it done. I cant say that for a lot of the other retailers in this area. Their applicators drive way to fast, drive all over the field and tear up way to much crop and they leave skips. So there is a quick endorsement for Browns Chemical out of Galatia, Illinois!
The second thing is that they use streamer tips for applying N. To my knowledge they are the only ones in this area that has them. A lot of other retail chemical dealers talk about precision or high management wheat but they don’t use the techniques, like stream bars to apply N. If your
going to talk the talk then you have to walk the walk as well and I like that about TC and the crew at Galatia. (another cheap plug).
And while all of this was going on, I was working on my JD 8770. The only green equipment on the farm and its a good thing. I think we spend more time on maintenance on the green tractor then we do on all the CIH tractors combined. It seems like there is always something that is in need of repair. First it was a flat tire, then two separate oil leaks, one of which is fixed the other I still cant find the exact spot where the oil is coming from and the top of the muffler broke off and needed to be re welded. That all happened in the last two days!
And there is still the air conditioning that needs to be fixed before spring.
Here is also my “out the back door” picture for today, the canola starting to break dormancy and green up.
And a close up of the crown.
Here are some shots from today and a video of various passes today with the applicator so you can see the canola and Tim in action. You might want to turn your sound down a bit when it starts up.
Observations in Agriculture
FloodingSeptember 4, 2010HyMark High Spots
ChiliSeptember 4, 2010Confessions of a Pioneer Woman | Ree Drummond
September SunriseSeptember 4, 2010AgWired
Know a California FarmerSeptember 4, 2010Macks Page
Annual ConferenceAugust 13, 2010