The Cubicle Farm Refugee: 2016 In Photos

This is Part 1 of 2016 in Photos. Be sure to check out Part 2 when you are done!

2016 was a great year for growing crops in Washington Co., IA. We had a full profile of soil moisture heading into the season, great planting conditions in early/mid-April, nice rains in May to get things started, plenty of heat in June to get the roots digging, and plenty of rain in July & August to take us home...sounds like a recipe for a bin buster. Enjoy.

Winter...BRRR!

January 9: I wasn't a big fan of 2016 when we first met...the month of January was exceptionally cold and windy. January 9 was a Saturday, and we had a major cold front blowing in that weekend. The day started out with temps in the 30's, but by midnight it was down to 2 degrees F...and still dropping, eventually bottoming out at -4 degrees Sunday morning. The wind was howling with average speeds in the 20 mph range, with gusts up to 35+ mph. Not exactly a good time to have just loaded up a couple hog buildings out on the prairie with feeder pigs, but we got through it. This was also around the time I found (and dove into) the never ending rabbit hole that is soil health/cover crops/regenerative ag/etc...so things weren't all bad.

February 13: Ol' Quackers didn't seem to mind the cold...it was about 5 degrees F when this photo was taken. Perfect weather for a swim!

Spring...because winter can't last forever...

April 1: This is one of my favorite views on our farm. This field is essentially located in my backyard, so I frequently take my dog (Throttle) here on scouting trips. This field was seeded down as CRP for much of my childhood, and was only brought back into production in the last 10 years or so...and it has never been tilled since before the CRP days. The earthworm activity in this field is phenomenal.

This was our first year putting a cover crop on this field, and it was also our first experience using a drill to seed cereal rye. The primary reason for seeding rye on this field was for erosion control purposes, but we also observed excellent water infiltration and soil tilth/aggregation in 2016. Little did I know that being able to keep such a close eye on this field, and observing the rye progress through the winter & into the spring would be such a catalyst in my search for knowledge/trip down the rabbit hole. The foreground of this photo is where one of the interseeding plots would go later in the year.

April 12: Dad getting things in motion by spraying our soybean pre-emerge & burndown on the Home Farm. It doesn't take long to cover some acres when you have a 120' stick!

April 12: Spending some quality time with the 750 drill. We removed the harrow from the back of the drill, and reconfigured the row units to twin rows for interseeding cover crops into standing corn.

April 12: Wyatt came out to help us work on equipment...he is good at showing us who's really in charge.

Planting Season & Early Summer

Once again, my phone decided it had seen enough of this life...so I lost most of my photos between here and harvest.

April 13 (Wednesday): The corn planter is rolling! We only got a few acres in the ground on the evening of the 13th, but we were primed and ready to roll the next morning. Soil temps were good, forecast was warm & dry for 10 days, time to drop the hammer.

April 16 (Saturday): We are 2/3 done planting corn by the end of the day...Not a bad 3 day stretch...

April 23: 100% of our corn is in the ground...just in time for a few days of cool, wet weather coming in on the 26/27th.

April 27: Eye spy a corn plant spiking through the surface.

May 7: I dug up this guy thinking it was a double planted seed from our planter, but turns out it was a freak of nature. 2 plants, 1 seed.

May 20: Corn is up, time to get the sidedress rig rolling.

May 20: More sidedress action.

May 21: Getting ready to plant our last field of soybeans...this is one of the perks of having a field right across the road from the seed dealership.

May 27: Twin row soybeans.

May 27: Off with the floaters, on with the pizza cutters. Check out my sweet farmer's tan.

May 27: Storms rolling into the neighborhood.

June 2: View from my backyard. The field on the other side of the creek is where the cereal rye photo was taken on April 1 (shown above).

Summer & Interseeding Cover Crops

June 3: Interseeder 750. I think we can get a corn row through there...

June 3: No turning back now...interseeded covers are going in! Check out Interseeding Video 1 and Interseeding Video 2.

June 3: Interseeding.

June 10: Wyatt helping me check the interseeding plot.

June 10: The little guys are off and running. Unfortunately, the weather turned hot and dry around this time...highs consistently in the upper 80's & often into the 90's for the next 2.5 weeks.

June 12: The sweet corn tassles making an appearance.

June 14: Getting the last of 2015's corn out of the bin.

June 15: Early planted soybeans = early flowering soybeans.

June 17: Applying fungicide with the 4930 sprayer.

June 17: Interseeded covers are thirsty & reaching for sunlight, but hanging in there.

July 9: Interseeded covers looking better after some rain & cooler temps, but still not quite where they need to be. Notice how the insects seem to be fans of the brassica foliage. We also see some Gray Leaf Spot showing up on the lower corn leaves.