Planting season...

We started planting corn on April 12th and by the 20th we were finished with only a day or two out on account of rains.The weather turned colder on the weekend of the 22nd, but we started one of the soybean planters and as of today we are about 65% complete with our bean planting. The majority of our corn has emerged or is very close to breaking the soil line. Temperatures eclipsed 80 degrees during most of our planting season which really helped to get the seeds started off on the right foot. The forecast for us this weekend is for another 3-4" of rain in addition to the inch of rain we received Thursday night. Only time will tell what our crops will look like after this weekend. Be safe everyone. 

Our early corn has emerged nicely.

Our row clutches working perfectly at planting speeds up to 10 mph.

Corn seedling pushing through a slight crust.

Drone picture of Bob planting no-till soybeans on the Yatesville farm outside Prentice.

Prairieland FS getting the nonGMO soybean pre-emerge herbicides on right ahead of an on coming rain.

It's not all roses as we do have break downs which require repairs outside our expertise.

Getting the corn planted in a hurry with the high-speed planter.

Planting soybeans into our rye cover crop.

A little closer aerial view of planting no-till soybeans on some hills outside Ashland.

Spring is here....

Planting season is nearly upon us. In fact, there are a few acres to our South that have already been planted. We have been busy getting equipment ready to go as well as taking delivery of more of our spring inputs such as seed corn, seed beans, insecticide, herbicides, and some additives for our starter fertilizer. Recently we have been on a rain delay due to much needed rains. We have been severely dry since the later half of last fall and those conditions continued through winter. The three inches of rain in the last week have given us a better outlook for the 2017 crop. Now if we could just get the commodity prices to cooperate a little better... The kids have wrapped up their basketball seasons and are now on to baseball. You can tell spring is here as the yard mowing season has also commenced. Hopefully the next time I post I will have pictures of our planting operations. Be safe this spring!

Working on the planter inside our shop. With today's machinery, we've quickly out-grown our shop built in 1979.

The guys from Yetter Manufacturing helping convert our Track-till system from pneumatic to hydraulic.

Burning an old hog building one our farm outside Ashland. It had not been used for many, many years and was literally in the middle of a field so it was time to go.

Working ground down ahead of the rains. When we work ground and it gets a rain on it, we usually won't re-work it before the planter arrives. We call this a "stale" seedbed. This typically works good to seal in the moisture for the corn seedling.

Loading hay headed for the relief efforts for the Oklahoma & Kansas wildfire victims.