Here are some photos that I snapped with my phone throughout the year in 2015. I'm clearly not a professional photographer, so apologies for the lack of quality on some of them. Definitely was not planning on putting them on a blog when they were taken. Enjoy!
March 12: Swapping wheels to the big floaters on the 4930 sprayer. The skinny tires fit between the rows for in-crop spraying, but the big floaters cause less compaction and are critical to minimize soil damage in the spring.
March 12: 4930 Sprayer wheel swap. Not exactly an easy task to maneuver those massive wheels
March 17: Cereal Rye starting to green up in the spring. This rye was flown on with an airplane prior to corn harvest in 2014.
April 7: Planting season preparations. John Deere 8430 pulling a Great Plains YP2425 twin row planter. This planter covers a 60 foot swath, planting 24 sets of "twin rows" spaced every 30 inches with each pass across the field. We use it to plant soybeans.
April 7: Looking out over the Home Farm on a gloomy day. This field has been continuously no-tilled since the early 90's.
April 14: Planting season preparations. John Deere 8225R pulling a Kinze 3600 planter. This planter covers a 40 foot swath, planting 16 single rows spaced every 30 inches with each pass across the field. This planter is equipped to apply fertilizer in the seed furrow, as well as on top of the ground behind the closing wheels. We use it to plant corn.
April 14: Dad and Grandpa getting everything hooked up. Not exactly a simple task. "Where does this one go again...?"
Spring 2015 - Corn Planting
April 16: The planter is rolling! Planting our first corn of the season.
April 21: Houston, we have germination.
April 23: The Cereal Rye is up and running, ready to enter it's rapid growth stage.
April 27: Fixing a broken drainage tile. Don't want any holes in your rubber boots on a day like this.
April 27: Driving the International 1066 home from fixing the tile. Sometimes you just gotta set it at half throttle and enjoy the ride.
April 30: Planting corn on the Home Farm. Can still see the manure injection knife streaks from the previous fall running on an angle.
April 30: The earthworms gobble up soybean residue in a hurry on a long term no-till field like this. Things are going to look much different (greener) planting this field in 2017. Cereal rye cover crop was precision drilled in October 2016.
April 30: Planting season is a sprint. When conditions are fit, you have to make hay while the sun (and moon) shines.
May 1: Doing some landscaping work in my backyard.
May 2: No-Till Corn on Corn planting.
May 4: The Home Farm after planting, but before corn emergence.
May 6: This is the corn that was planted April 16.
Spring 2015: Soybean Planting
May 13: Things don't always go as planned.
May 13: When it rains, it pours. May 13 was just one of those days...
May 15: No-Tilling soybeans into green cereal rye.
May 15: No-Tilling soybeans into green cereal rye.
May 18: Even though some days are worse than others, it is hard to complain when this is the view out your office window.
Thanks for reading!
Check out Part 2 HERE.
-Michael
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