More rain

Apr 302010
 

We got some more rain again last night. Even before the rain, there were a couple spots in the Blank Slate field that we couldn’t get into. We’re waiting until the whole field is ready to go before we do anything out there. Hopefully we’ll get some drainage tile approved for the field later this year.

We have about 200 acres yet to go with corn planting. Next week we’ll be able to finish up. The same can’t be said for other areas of the country. Here’s a picture from Great Falls, MT yesterday.

I think you can see that it’s a sign for our Hefty Seed Company store in Great Falls. One of the agronomists sent me this picture yesterday. He said he was in four-wheel drive at 30 MPH all the way to work and went sideways twice. Sounded like fun.

I guess the rain we’re getting here is not so bad. At least it’s easier to scoop than that white stuff!

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Small changes make a big difference

Apr 282010
 

I’ve been looking for an excuse to use this picture, so here it is. I guess it’s kind of a tribute to an old building that is no more. This is a barn that sat right across the fence from my 60 acre field I’m calling the “Blank Slate.” A couple weeks ago the Garretson Volunteer Fire Department burned what was left of the barn. For them, it was a training exercise. A project allowing them to get a little bit better. For me, that little change cleaned up an eyesore and probably increased the value of my land ever so slightly. Well, I can dream can’t I?


I understand the resistance to BIG changes, but why is there such a challenge to making little changes? I had a discussion yesterday with the 2010 ASA/DuPont Young Leader for SD about this same topic. Specifically why so many people do things a certain way just because “that’s how we’ve always done it.”

One of the things I’m changing with the way this farm is managed compared to some of our other fields is a total focus on the availability of nutrients for my crop. Rather than putting large amounts of nutrients out there that won’t make it into my crop this year just to make a soil test look more impressive, I’m putting out just what a great crop would use in a form that can easily be taken up. That’s a mouthful. Let me break it down.

The fertility program will be predominantly liquid used in-furrow or banded to the side of the row. Rather than a standard commercial liquid fertilizer, I’ll be using Pro Germinator for my Phosphorus source and Sure-K for my Potassium source. The difference with these products is the availability of the nutrients. I’ll actually be putting on less pounds of nutrients, but due to the low availability from competitive products like 0-0-60 and 11-52-0 I’ll have as many or more pound of nutrients that actually get into the plants. That sounds like Responsible Nutrient Management to me!

We’re trying several different rates this year. We’ll also be tissue sampling extensively to monitor the nutrient uptake and needs of the corn crop. It’s a lot of attention to pay to a 60 acre field, but it’s the best way to learn. Starting with a “Blank Slate” will also offer a great learning experience. It’s just one small change at a time that hopefully makes a big difference in this field and in our whole operation.

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More Blank Slate Info

Apr 272010
 


Thanks to everyone who is signing up for my blog. Please give me some feedback if there are things you’d like to learn more about.

I’ve had a few questions about the Blank Slate. Here’s a picture of the field. You can see that I’ve drawn the borders around the field. It’s actually 61.1 Acres. I included a couple of arrows showing the direction of water movement. As you’ll notice, the hilltops have a white appearance from the years of soil erosion that have taken place.

Speaking of the erosion my Grandpa Nils explained to me that they didn’t have the option of no-till or reduced tillage back when he was farming. Tillage served the purpose of seed bed preparation, weed control, insect control, disease control, and more. For the farmers in hilly ground it was either do tillage or leave it in pasture. Erosion is a big problem all around the world. Fixing and re-building the soil is a long-term and expensive project and one I’m ready to begin on this piece of land. It’s just Responsible Nutrient Management and the best thing to do. I’ll detail the plan in an upcoming blog.

One other piece of information I’m going to leave today is the soil test for this field. You can find it at the following link.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6472871/Blank%20Slate%20-%20Soil%20Test%20December%202009.xlsx

Special thanks to my cousin, Chad, today for getting me started on Dropbox. It’s the best way to move files from one computer to another plus it’s a free backup for your files. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll send you a Dropbox invitation so we both get extra storage space for free.

Anyway, take a look at the soil sample to see what we’re up against. These particular tests came from the big, white, eroded hilltop furthest to the left in the picture.

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Will early planting pay this year?

Apr 262010
 

Our first planted field of corn is now up. We’ve had an inch and a half of rain since Friday and there’s still a little more to come today. The weather is supposed to warm up later this week. What more could you ask for?

We have 3 good days of planting to go, which translates to about 400 acres or so. Quite a few trials still to put in and some smaller fields, so that last little bit always takes longer.

The question today is whether early planting is going to pay in 2010? My guess is that it will pay big. Here’s my thinking.
1. The seed only laid in the ground for 2 weeks.
2. The seedbed was nearly perfect.
3. The weather looks great. Plenty of moisture and average to above-average temperatures.
4. Our first planted corn is up and looking good. Most of the corn in our state is still in the bag. How could it not be a good thing?

We’ll learn the answer this fall, but for now I remain incurably optimistic about the early planted corn’s potential.

Each year I get more excited about the growing season than the past year. Each year the growing season seems to go by faster than the past year. 2010 is no exception.

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Field Prep

Apr 242010
 

On the Blank Slate, there were a number of field prep things we had to do. First, let’s set the stage. The field was cash rented, by my estimation, for close to 30 years. During that time, nutrients were mined from the soil leaving the field totally depleted of nearly every nutrient. Also, soil erosion has been a big long-term problem. Soil Compaction was a concern in areas, and basic field maintenance issues were not kept up with like they would be on a piece of ground you owned and cared about.
The picture here is kind of an ugly one, but it shows some work we did on the edges of the field. There are volunteer trees popping up in the ditch along the road and in the fenceline that needed to be removed. Also, the brome grass from the fenceline was creeping out into the field. We used a plow to reclaim the edge of the field. Yep, a plow. That’s one tool I wasn’t expecting to use on this farm ever. You can see in the upper left hand corner of the picture just how far that sod was out into the field. We’ll get things straightened around so, in the words of my dad, “it looks like someone’s home.”
We got somewhere between 0.5″ and 0.75″ of rain last night, and there’s a possibility of some more through tomorrow noon. Should be a beautiful seed bed by the middle of next week!

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