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| Spring 2007 - Fairfax, Iowa | ||||||
| 2007-6-28 Spraying soybeans is a high priority right now. In case you're wondering why the wheels are turned and the booms up, he ran out of chemical and went to the edge of the field to get filled up. In these pictures he is just getting back out in the field and is looking for the right tracks to pick up where he left off.   2007-6-25 In the past few days we've gotten around 3 inches of rain. The ground is soaked up pretty good right now. Looks like more hot humid weather in the forecast for this week, which the corn just loves. I walked into a corn field last night and it is about 7 feet tall in places. The soybeans are looking nice too. 2007-6-21 Another storm rolled through today, creating another awesome sunset. Oh, and the raspberries are ripe too.     2007-6-19 The kids decided to try some sledding today. Of course there wasn't any snow, but with enough HP, that's not an issue. The plastic sleds do get hot on the bottom, so they added a piece of wood to help insulate the seat.    2007-6-18 It rained here today, which is good, since we were starting to get pretty dry. The crops still look pretty good, except for a few sandy spots where the corn is rolling up. The soybeans haven't grown much in the past week, probably due to the hot weather and minimal moisture.     2007-6-10        2007-6-9 The pictures of the soybeans here are the last soybeans we planted. They're about 3-4 inches tall right now. The panorama pictures is what it looks like out my kitchen window tonight. It hasn't rained in a few days, so the sprayer has been running pretty steady, and should finish up spraying corn tomorrow.      2007-6-4  2007-6-3 The crops here still look great. It did rain a little more the past couple days, so spraying has been a challenge this past week. The forecast is for some dry weather this week though, which will be a nice change.     2007-6-1 I think we're off to a darn good start this year. After we finished planting, we had about two weeks of hot, sunny, windy days. That stressed the crops some, especially the corn which is already up a ways. However, that forced the plants to put down some deeper roots, which should help us out later in the season if it turns dry. We have gotten a couple inches of rain in the past few days, so we are in pretty good shape right now. Some of the corn is over a foot tall, and I think all of the soybeans are now out of the ground too. 2007-5-19 Today we finished planting soybeans. There is a little sweet corn we'd like to plant yet, but aside from that and barring any need to replant anything, we're done. It's a feeling of relief to know that it can rain and we won't be too late on a field. At this point, we still don't want to see much rain for a while. There is enough moisture in the ground to germinate the seeds, and by being a little dry it will force the plants to put on some deep roots. Effectively that helps the crops survive if it were to turn dry later in the summer. A wet spring causes the root system to be lazy, and will damage a crop faster in the event of a drought. We have also seen just a little bit of crusting in a few fields. It isn't terrible, but is present. "Crusting" is when the top one inch of soil becomes hard and the germinated seeds can't break through it. In short, it is caused by a hard rain followed by heat, but only in certain soil types does it become a problem.                    
2007-5-18         2007-5-17     2007-5-16 Back into the fields this afternoon. Also hauling some grain today too. I was at my desk job pretty much all day today, so I didn't really get in on any of the action. I did happen to see an interesting train this morining though. I've never seen combines on a train before, other than in pictures. It appears to be a load of mostly 2577s and 2588s, with a few NH machines mixed in. I wasn't able to get close enough to see model numbers though. These were on the UP double main line in Fairfax, Iowa. They would be coming from Grand Island, NE, and are probably headed for the port of Baltimore for export if I was to guess a destination.     2007-5-15 We got about 30 acres done early this morning before the rain shut us down. It didn't really rain all that much though, so we should dry out quickly. 2007-5-14 We changed the planter back to corn this morning, planted the last two fields, and changed it back over to soybeans this afternoon. Still found a little mud, but not enough to get stuck. Mainly it just plugs up the press wheels on the planter. It was windy and hot today, with a high near 90 degrees. Looks like we'll see a storm come through tonight yet too.      
2007-5-13 More soybeans. Looks like we'll switch back to corn tomorrow and get that finished up. The A/C on big red is still broken, and the forecast for tomorrow is HOT, so running that tractor is really going to suck. We just can't shut it down right now, since we are trying to get as much done as possible before the rain that is forecast for tomorrow night. 2007-5-12 More soybeans today. I ended up running the 9180 (aka "Big Red") for a while, which proved to be interesting since the A/C compressor was dying, and then it quit completely. Even on a relatively cool day, that cab gets pretty warm. The field I was in didn't till up well last time, so the ride was pretty rough this time, plus there was still a lot of moisture just under the surface, so it was pulling really hard today.                    
2007-5-11 We were able to get back into the fields yesterday, but it was muddy in a few places. Today we switched the planter over to soybeans. We aren't done with corn, but the remain two fields are way too wet to do right now. Maybe a week from now they might work. Meanwhile, we'll get some soybeans in. Some full season beans will enjoy a long growing season, and some short season beans will allow us to get the combines going sooner this fall. Unfortunatly this corn-bean-corn-beans swap on the planter takes some time to swap back and fourth, but it also costs us time to clean the sprayer out an extra couple times.             2007-5-6 It's going to rain again today. We don't have any more fields dry enough to plant, so we wouldn't be able to run today anyway. 2007-5-5 We got back into the fields this afternoon. The pictures here are from emptying out the seed that was in the hoppers, so that the next field we go to is completely a different hybrid. We take the white hoppers off and dump them out, which is the first 4 pictures. The next 3 pictures show us putting seed into the hoppers. What we do is place the bags on top of the hoppers, then slice them open with a knife and shake the last few kernels out. That is why you see folded bags in a few of the hoppers. After that, we add some graphite (the black stuff) to the seed for lubrication of the pickup fingers that accurately meter the kernels when they get dropped into the ground. Put the lids back on and we're ready to go again. Scattered showers are in the forcast for the next few days. The remaining land we need to plant corn on is quite muddy yet, so it could be a while.           
2007-5-4 We had some light rain today, and it was just enough to shut us down. We're about 2/3 done planting corn so far. One sunny day would probably dry things up enough that we could get running again. On the plus side, this little bit of rain might help to germinate the corn that has already been planted. 2007-5-3       2007-5-2 News for today? Um? The 8950 was getting a little weak, so it got a new fuel filter. The 9180 is staying about 10 hours ahead of the planter, and then the sprayer is running right behind the planter. Well, when the planter leaves a field anyway. I'm going to guess we're about half done planting corn.             2007-5-1             2007-4-30 We finally got back into the fields today. We didn't get anything done for a full week. There is a little mud in the fields in spots, but we are able to get through it. 80 degrees, wind, and sun can dry up a mud hole pretty fast.                            
2007-4-25 The planter ran for a while on the 22nd, but it started raining here late that afternoon. We haven't been in the fields since. Yesterday we got some more rain, and we're soaked up pretty good right now. It will take us at least 4 days of nice weather before we can get moving again. 2007-4-21 We finished incorporating the treflan early this morning, and started tilling up some bean stubble to plant corn on. The planter got moving this afternoon. Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow though.             2007-4-20 We finished spraying treflan today. We've been thinking about planting tomorrow as the weather forecast is warm. It might rain too, but that might be alright just to help with germination.             2007-4-19 Today we started spraying treflan. For those of you unfamiliar with the product, it is a pre-emergent weed killer. It has to be worked into the soil to work. If it is just sprayed on top, the sun and air will neutralize it and it won't do any weed control. The sooner it can be tilled into the soil, the better. I think anything less than 24 hours of exposure is considered good enough. After we've made this pass, we won't be back to this ground until we are finished planting corn, since these will be soybean acres this season.     2007-4-10 Today we delivered some soybeans to the mill. Cleaning out a bin is relatively easy and fast with a grain vac, so that's what we use. If you check out the video, you'll notice how much the hose shakes as grain and air surge through the air system. You may also notice the idea of the month here: hang a pully from the roof with two ropes on the air hose. This keeps it suspended so you don't have to drag it through the grain. Some of the neighbors have been in the fields the last couple days. Mostly anhydrous, but a little tillage too. We haven't turned a wheel yet, and probably won't for another week. Rain/Snow is in the forcast for tomorrow, and again in a couple more days. As soon as it dries out, we'll be putting on treflan.        
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