This edition of Farm Week in Pictures brings us some major dry out time and higher temps than we’ve been having. We aren’t quite ready for planting yet, but next week looks pretty promising if rain holds off this weekend. The forecast for rain keeps cutting back so that’s good. But even though we aren’t in the field yet we’ve had a busy week!
Weed Control
You may recognize this picture from my last post on weed management. In it I describe several ways in which farmers can battle yield-robbing weeds.
Helping Hand
I had some fine help with the grass clippings this week!
Be Gone!
Goodbye, weeds! Finally is was (mostly) dry enough to put early spring weeds to rest.
Mechanical Control
You might remember we demoed a vertical tillage tool last fall. Well we ended up buying that same tool and pulled it out of the shed this week for a shakedown. This tool is meant to run 7-10mph, but our 7920 only has the power to manage just over 5mph. The big 9320 is hooked onto the field cultivator at the moment, but it shouldn’t have a problem getting up to speed when the time comes.
Sinking Feeling
A small sinkhole about 4″ around above a drainage line. These aren’t uncommon to find after heavy rains.
Dig It
Here we’re about to find out how deep our winter cereal rye cover crop roots burrowed. When this cover dies the root channels will help water infiltrate the soil, provide a path for worms to travel, and offer a path of least resistance to water and nutrients for the soybean crop we’ll be planting.
How Deep?
Well we found the water table just about 4′ below the surface. It’s still pretty high because the soil is still draining away all the heavy rain of April. How far did the cereal rye go? This rye was planted September 19th, and here in early May I found live roots down 40″!! If not for the water we would have dug deeper to look for even more roots. I think this is awesome for our first cover crop!
Grass is Greener
Annual ryegrass is another cover crop. It didn’t handle the winter as well as the cereal rye, but look at all those nice roots!
Oh, Deer!
While inspecting fields to see what is dry and what is not we came across this high traffic area for deer moving from one wooded area to another.
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Looks like you had a lot going on the farm this week Brian.
How do those sink holes occur?
Sometimes a small hole in a drain tile can suck dirt right through. If a tile has major damage is can cause a major hole. One year I was harvesting into the sunset, dust everywhere so poor visibility, and nearly drove the combine into a hole about 10′ wide and 6′ deep.
Man that is scary. I can’t imagine how expensive the repair would have been.
Thanks for the information Brian
The 8420 is the tractor to pull the 2623 VT with
Except it will be planting or pulling a grain cart whenever it’s time to run the VT.