Spring field work

[Mick Dougherty]

We have had all our corn in the ground since the 5th of May. We got the last little bit in before some of the rains. We will have a little bit of replanting to do in some of our low lying areas. We struggled with our planter quite a few days this spring. Nothing major but we had one Tru-Count unit that kept breaking the housing. "The smaller the bag from the implement dealership usually means a bigger price tag." We had 2 units that the GPS wouldnt shut off so the fields look kind of goofy in places. I had one field where the automatic row shut off didnt work at all. I should only have about 10 acres to replant. All in all i have a pretty good stand. Dad on the other hand my have closer to 50 or 60 acres. We are hoping to get done with the bean planting this afternoon if all goes well. We have also been working on seeding down some new and existing waterways after the rains of last summer. It is unbelievable what damage the water can do on hill sides. I spent yesterday after work putting in food plots for deer, pheasant, and turkeys on a couple of our farms. After that I headed to the field to take over for Dad so I could get a start on my last and only field of beans this year. I left about 20 acres for Dad to finish up this morning and then he should have been on to his last 80 acres. Chance of rain tonight through next tuesday.

[Mick Dougherty]

We had particular problems with one unit in genereral it broke twice. It was on one of the inner units so there was little chance the shut off could have been damaged from getting too close to a tree in a fence line. We had to make sure to keep them all lubricated as the manufacturer said that is the number one cause of failure. The only fail safe they have is that they continously plant if the Green Star isnt hooked up or if something breaks. We plan to take all of the shut offs this winter and tear them down and inspect them. Or corn has been tasseling since the week after the 4th of July except for the 5 acres on top of a hill that I forgot one night. We should have a tremendous corn crop if the weather pattern holds. We were fortunate we got everything planted in good fashion. Down fall of having a day job right now i have to do most all of my work on the weekends and evenings. The beans are coming along nicely i am going to start scouting for Aphids in the beans. I found them in time last year but it was 10 days before the plane could spray them and i lost quite a bit of yield. Crop insurance helped make up the difference. We had seen a few planes out spraying last week and thought it was a little early for the aphids as they were only in the second generation and the 3rd is where we see all the damage. Come to find out they were spraying corn for Grey Leaf spot. We dont seem to have any but did notice black spots at the bases of alot of leaves. Local chemical company rep. told us it was all the little rains we had been getting and not much in the way of heat units is allowing the rain and dew to site and that nook and them we are getting a mold. They said not much we can do for that though. We are trying to deliver the last of the corn so we can get the bins prepped for harvest. The combine is in for its annual inspection. We have a lot of preventative maintenance to get done before the fall work.

[John Walter]

Interesting report, Mick. Did you ever get the row shut-off fixed, or did you just have to muddle through to the end with it that way. Guess I didn't know that device could be so kind of problematic. Good luck with the growing season. Look forward to more updates. -- John Walter