Getting That Cold Wet Spring I Had Wished For

It looks pretty likely that my last post will get a pretty good test for the spring of 2013.  Our farms early last week were ready to plant but we held back from putting seed in the ground as we were afraid of a cold snap and maybe a few inches of snow that were forecast.  Well the forecast was wrong and we got nearly a foot of snow in Winnebago County between May 1-May 2nd.  As I type this morning we still have roughly 4-6" of snow to melt off the fields before we can start drying out and working towards getting back in the field.  I was very close to pulling the trigger and planting last Sunday and Monday as our strips we're in great shape but am really glad we were conservative and didn't roll.  With the very poor cold germ scores of the seed corn this year, I'm glad it's still in the bag and not in the wet ground this morning at 38 degrees.  It will be really interesting to see how the corn that did get planted in my neighborhood will emerge through this stress.

Instead of planting last weekend, we took time to take the planter out and test out the systems to make sure the new additions to the planter along with the existing systems were working well so that when we do go the field we can hit the ground running.  We've added new Yetter Floating Shark Tooth row cleaners as well as 0x2 placement tubes for applying 28% and ATS behind our closing wheels and drag chains to level the furrow and cover our liquid product.

I'm glad we tested things because we had issues with about every system.  Our RTK system wasn't working, our trash whippers were plowing way too much dirt, our starter pump wasn't pumping and our Raven controller that controls our 28% wasn't functioning either.  Thankfully as we went through each problem there was a relatively easy fix for each of them and by late in the afternoon we pretty much we're ready to plant corn.  That's one of the downfalls of what we're doing is that there is a lot of systems on one pass across the field to manage and keep operating well.  You have to have patience and be able to adapt when you get thrown a monkey wrench.

Here's some pictures of our activities from last Sunday.

I'm excited for the challenge that is going to come in the next few weeks trying to get the 2013 crop in and putting our strip till to the test in a wet season.  From what I saw of the condition of our strips last weekend and how well they were drying out, I'm encouraged.  Hopefully by next weekend the weather will have straightened out and we can get some things done.  It's not panic time yet but seeing a picture like this on May 2nd at your house makes a guy a little bit itchy.  

If you're looking for some interesting videos to watch while the snow melts, here's some good ones that I've enjoyed from Clay Mitchell, Ray Archuletta and Matt Helmers at Iowa State that talk about the benefits of reducing tillage and paying attention to soil health.

Clay Mitchell lecture at ISU

Clay Mitchell at Chicago Ideas Week

Matt Helmers ISU Rainfall Simulator

Ray Archuletta Slake Test on Soil