Week ending April 2nd...

David leveling ground with the QuadTrac and Landsman

Winter seed production arriving from Wyffels

Trimming the treeline on the Chapin Farms

The tree trimming crew - (from left) Uncle Bob, Darin, David, & Dad in the tractor seat

Another trailer load of trees and tree roots from the Emerald Acres West 20

Another week closer to the kick-off of planting season. The soils have dried enough to allow us to begin working ground ahead of the planter. Originally, we thought we would not have to work our continuous corn ground because we leveled it last fall and hoped Old Man Winter would mellow it out. Unfortunately, the clods our deep tillage created last fall did not "melt" as good as we had hoped so on Monday this past week we began working the soil with our Krause Landsman. We also spread another 20# of nitrogen in the form of ammonium sulfate so it made sense to incorporate that into the soil profile as well. As the week progressed the soils dried out quickly and we are now hoping for a rain to recharge them. Later in the week we received another load of Wyffels seed corn which just five days ago was put on an airplane in Chile, South America and now is in our shed. Towards the end of the week we worked on trimming trees at the Chapin farm and then later in Greenfield as we picked up tree roots and worked on taking out the remaining fence. We hope to receive a rain tonight, but if not our planters may begin this week. I have not seen anyone planting around us, but we heard of a handful of farmers planting in Christian County.