I-74 Crop Planting Tour

I made a run to Stockton, Iowa to make sure the hybrids I plant get tested the way Keith farms.  I want to see how my picks perform in his environment.  His method of farming will reveal the potential and flaws of any hybrid or soybean variety in his locale.  That gives me something to shoot for.

I have never seen fields look so homogenous, so unplanted the entire route of Interstate 74 in the month of May in my life.  I felt like none of my typing on here has made much impact.  I saw no cover crops, only some fields from Mother Nature.  Most fields in the 500 mile stretch have been tilled last fall or this spring or both.  They remain unplanted.  That 12% planting report sure doesn't reflect that stretch of highway.

The untouched corn stalk fields will go to notill soybeans most likely but I don't know what percentage they are.  I would guess 20% but it could be higher, not over 40% I am sure.

I was kind of disgusted with American Agriculture.  Maybe everyone else likes it looking all the same but look where the yield trends lie, down for corn and soybeans.  I think we are missing all of those good little farmers that really took care of their land.  Who owns all the land by Interstate?  It looks like the government does!

When you farm 5,000 or 10,000 or who knows how many acres, how can you really take care of it?  I guess someone can but I just didn't see it.  It looked all alike, just like you would call factory farming or farming for the landlord.  I didn't see any specialization or special care.  I saw a lot of erosion and the soil not covered.

I did see a lot of farm machinery on the Interstate, loaded on trucks.  You can tell the agricultural economy has been strong by the amount of new machinery being hauled.  It was a massive amount, maybe half the trucks most of the way.

My trip looked just about like the trip to Bowling Green Sunday.  America's 2013 seed sits in the bag.

Ed Winkle