I took off for the evening and went to the NTPA Spring Nationals just up the road at Wlimington, Ohio last evening. It was perfect weather for a pull after a week of rain and heat.

My old friend SnoFarmer was third place in the mods. Young Blood won the new 8300 diesel, Esdon was second, not as much power and the track gave a lot of guys fits. Young Blood had the best pull of the night, very smooth straight and powerful.

He said they were only half done planting beans and the crop is not very good but theirs was as good as an or at least they were satisfied with what they have done given the weather. I talked to one of my former students most of the evening and just caught the jist of the pull.

I talked to Hans Boxler of Varysburg, NY on SR-20A. They fall under the corn is knee high by the fourth of July rule and said they met that rule this year although NY has had difficult growing conditions, too. I always think of Hans when we head east out of East Aurora to LuAnn's mom's house. They run a huge dairy farm in southwest NY.

I didn't get to talk to Esdon Lane, another former dairy farmer from Minnesota. Esdon was always a class act to talk to as far as I am concerned and has done as well in tractor pulling as anyone I have watched the last 40 years.

Every farmer there from whatever part of the country said about the same thing. They all have some good fields but lots of fields have problems. There are sure plenty of holes and poor crops around here. It is still early on the calendar but it may not be for crops not knowing the weather the rest of the year.

Weeds in soybeans is the big issue now. Anyone who doesn't spray their own fields is at the mercy of the custom operators and they are swamped.

It's good to talk about past years until you realize how fast they went and what you have to do right now.

Ed