We saw every kind of field imaginable, fall tilled to spring tilled to no-tilled to strip tilled. Most had weeds, some had been burned down, but a lot had been tilled last fall or this spring or both. We saw Mother Nature's cover crops to them being burned down to man's cover crops and those being burned downed. My overall opinion is that most farmers think it is still too cool and too damp to work ground or plant it, even though it is May 5.
We did get to visit with Scott Apple near Portage, Ohio. I saw his new water tower inside his barn and most of his equipment. He is structuring and reversing osmosis for water for sprays. He is an innovator with his broadcast soybean seeder that sits on the front of his Cat track tractor and gets covered with a soil finisher. It was dark in his barn and I didn't even try to get any pictures but maybe I can link some here.
We talked about these new ideas of handling spray water, chemicals and fertilizers. Lots of these ideas can be found on the FHR Farms website. We have both seen good results and now more farmers want to learn what we are doing.
He and I are planting Dr. Richard Cooper's Apex soybeans that Dr. Cooper bred 40 years ago. Dr. Cooper called us both up this week to give us his opinion how to handle them. Scott and I agreed they didn't know how to feed them then and now thanks to Keith and FHR Farms and others we make that semi-dwarf bean a whole different bean.
You have seen this picture before. I keep showing it over and over again. It is worth staring at. It's the reason I drove 3 hours to Scott's house today. We have got to share this message with each other.
I had to kill 2 hours with the Mrs. since she was good enough to come along with me at a nice antique mall and shops at Findlay. Someone made a Heritage Collection Shops out of an old farmstead right along I-75. They did a really good job.
That's about it for today, it was a good day. I hope yours was also.
Ed Winkle
We grew some of Dr. Cooper's semi-dwarf soybeans on a couple of occasions. Once in th late 90's with the variety Stout and again a couple of years ago with Apex. They are very good when they are good but our Kansas summer can mess them up with heat at the wrong time. Even under irrigation they could end up overly small. Ive thought since then that they needed to be pushed early to get more size as once they switch to reproduction vegitive growth is done as they are determinate. Keep us informed
ReplyDeleteDavid Seck
I've raised them before too, but didn't know how to foliar feed them. Jeff and Keith have learned how to really make them produce. I didn't have near enough calcium or sulfur or nitrate in my soil to make the big leaves and tall plants Keith raises. I am getting closer. There are several hundred units of them scattered across Ohio this year so we should learn something. I thought they might be better suited for Ohio soils and climate but Keith proved to me they can be raised to a high yield in Iowa, Minnesota and west.
ReplyDeleteI found the video of Scott's seeder and linked it above now.
Ed
The Ripley bean back in the 80's had similar potential, probably need fed foliar as well an ohio certified semi dwarf 70 bu back then you wondered where they were coming from.
ReplyDeleteYes Neil, I have had Ripley's do over 70, always good above 40 bu in those days and usually 50 plus. There were are a lot of really good genetics in those Ohio Public soybeans.
ReplyDeleteStressland was their latest Ripley type release and is the background in Jacob from Steritz which I have had very good success with and now Coup in Illinois has had, too.
Ed