2016 in Photos - Part 2

This is Part 2 of 2016 in Photos.  Be sure to check out Part 1 if you haven't already seen it!

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.

Fall/Harvest

Mid September:  I don't have an exact date on this photo of a radish from our sweetcorn patch, but it was probably sometime in mid-September.  This must have been shortly after a rain, because I simply pulled on the radish tuber and the whole 3' long taproot came out of the ground with it.  This cover crop mix was seeded around August 20, so all of that growth occurred in approximately 4 weeks (or less).

September 18: One thing I have learned about farming is that there is always something to work on.  We tested our dryer prior to harvest and everything was good to go, but we weren't so fortunate after getting the wet bin half full of 23% corn.  One of the fan motors (that we had just replaced in 2014) was not working properly, and needed replaced.

 September 18: Fortunately the motor was still under warranty, but replacing it was no small task.

September 18:  I used to be the engineer that guys would cuss...now I'm the guy cussing the engineers.  They just HAD to mount that motor at an angle that makes it very difficult to see & work on...while laying on top of 2" angle iron bracing in the tiny triangle shaped basement.  Woof.

September 19: Combine is running again now that the dryer is fixed.  Wyatt waiting patiently for his ride.

September 21: First cab corn in the Lexion.

September 27:  Corn harvest is officially on hold.  Cutting soybeans on the Home Farm.

September 29: Full steam ahead on the soybeans.

September 29: Lodged beans & tailwinds are the worst...and we had plenty of both.  Visibility was less than ideal making it tough to stay on the rows.

September 30: Just keep cutting...just keep cutting...

October 1:  IT'S ALIVE!!  I had essentially given up hope on this year's interseeded covers after they started disappearing back in late July/early August.  Every time I checked them they looked worse, so eventually I just stopped checking them.

I decided to go check the stalk quality in the field by my house and as I walked towards the interseeded area I could see quite a bit of green between the rows, even from a distance...finally, some good news!  I definitely wasn't expecting to find anything still alive, but was ecstatic when I did.

October 1:  The clovers, vetch, and ryegrass were nowhere to be found, but the brassicas (radish & rapeseed) were looking strong.  My theory is the brassica's taproots were able to do a better job of digging down to the moisture during the hot & dry period in late June.  This allowed them to better prepare themselves for the "dark time" in late July & early August.  The interseeded plants need to be able to survive solely on their root system during this time, until the corn plants start to dry & the canopy opens up.

We had 2 separate interseeding plots in 2016.  One of the plots only had legumes & ryegrass in the mix, while the other had legumes, ryegrass, and brassicas.  The plot with no brassicas did not have any plants survive the summer, but I have to believe the result would have been different if we had included brassicas in the mix.

This is a great example of the power of diversity.  If we provide nature with enough species, something will survive...even in very tough conditions like we had in June 2016.  We don't know what those species are until after the fact because every year is different...but it is our job to make sure they are growing in the field instead of sitting in a bag when it is their time to shine.

 October 1:  Not only did I find the interseeding plot in better shape than expected on this day, but we also got started drilling cereal rye on the Home Farm.

October 2: We left the drill's row units in the interseeding configuration while drilling cereal rye into soybean stubble.  This photo does a good job of showing how we had everything aligned.  If we were interseeding, the first corn row to the right of center would be in the middle of this photo (instead of twin row bean stubble).  The drill's gauge wheels were more or less centered in the 30" gap, with the seed boot side of the row unit closest to the corn row.

The plan is to plant corn in the ~20" gap between the twin row rye.  This should help reduce the carbon penalty from the root mass decomposition that is commonly seen when planting corn into solid stands of rye.

October 3:  Apparently I'm a slow/stubborn learner.  Note to self- When Dad asks if I re-torqued the lugs on the drill...make sure you go re-torque the lugs on the drill.

 October 4:  Our late planted, full season beans were finally dry enough to harvest and the end was in sight.  We were tired and ready to quit, but there was a big rain event forecast for the next morning and the breeze kept blowing all night...so we just kept cutting...

October 4:  This was the situation on the radar with about 2 hours to go...not looking good.

October 4:  Fortunately I only had to run the windshield wipers for a few minutes that night.  We were able to get finished up, and get everything home under a roof before it started raining.

October 7:  We ended up getting a little over 1" of rain on the 5th...perfect for getting the cereal rye up and running on the home farm.  This was 6 days after drilling.  Pretty impressive amount of growth in a short period of time, especially considering half of that time was spent in dry soil.

October 7:  This is what it looks like when a shield comes loose and shreds the primary drive belt for the combine's separator while harvesting at 5mph.  Not a fun repair to make.

October 10:  It is hard to beat those cool, crisp harvest mornings.

October 10:  Twins on Twins.

October 10:  We had around 0.5 lbs radishes mixed in with the first 2 drill hoppers of cereal rye.  They also popped out of the ground fairly quick.

 October 11:  No cab corn today...

October 11:  Hard to beat views like this...just have to remind yourself to actually look up at them from time to time instead of only focusing on the corn right in front of the header.

 October 11:  Wyatt and Dean show us how to find the positives in life.

 October 15: We did a terrace project on the Home Farm this fall.  This was Dad harrowing in the cereal rye we broadcast over the affected area.  Hopefully that is the last time this soil will see a piece of tillage equipment.

October 16:  Interseeded plants behave completely different than if they didn't have a dense canopy/heavy shading to deal with.  This radish does a good job of illustrating that.  (The New Glarus can does a good job of illustrating that I like beer...)

October 16:  This interseed radish went through it's fair share of leaves while waiting for the corn to be harvested.  Its a completely different ballgame under the canopy.

October 16:  Worm turds galore...they're a thing of beauty.  I believe this was right next to the radish in the previous photo.

October 16:  No shortage of activity in the dryer shed during harvest season.

 October 17:  This 2 week old cereal rye is greening up, and coming along nicely.

 October 17:  Finally time for this radish to move past the cotyledon stage and get the big leaves growing!

October 18: So many colors!

October 18: The 48 footer has reached the top.

 October 18: Perks of being the one that scoops corn in the bin...automatic foot massages.

 October 20: The corn in the field with our interseeding plot turned out to have the best stalk quality, so it was the last field harvested.  Here is a look at the covers a few minutes after the corn was taken off.

 October 21:  Radish leaves just keep on growing...

 October 28: Early morning chores have their benefits.

 November 5:  The cereal rye and radishes (and volunteer soybeans) enjoying the warm fall weather.

 November 5:  Pretty good size radish from the Oct 1 drill date.  I was happy with the amount of growth we got out of him.

 November 5: Now, compare the October 1 drilled radish with this guy that was interseeded on June 3...fully exposed in the next photo.

 November 5:  I like the looks of this guy a lot better than my October 1 radish, don't you?  Goes to show how much more potential interseeded covers have than their post-harvest seeded counterparts.  Imagine what this guy would look like if we had harvested the corn in mid-late September!

 November 5:  Cereal rye was drilled on the rest of the field on Oct 24, but we were rained out before we could get to the interseeded area...we were able to get it done though.

November 5:  Nothing like planting green in November.

 November 9:  We didn't have a perfect stand by any means, but I was definitely satisfied.  The combination of the combine tracks and tractor/drill tires was pretty hard on the covers, but there were some survivors in those areas.

 November 9:  My favorite post-harvest photo of the interseeded covers.

 November 9: Those big leaves did a good job of capturing our late season sunlight.

 November 9:  Again, not perfect...but certainly good enough to try it again!

 November 12:  The sweetcorn patch is finally getting a taste of frost.  I went a bit too heavy on the brassicas in this mix and they ended up overpowering the clovers & ryegrass.

November 12:  I was checking on the clovers & ryegrass under the brassica canopy and ended up finding what I believe is a mass of hyphae on the soil surface.  It had a crazy texture..I tried to grab a piece of it thinking it would behave like a spider web, but that wasn't the case. It was kind of wet & slimy, and just smeared when I touched it...definitely a weird deal.  I love how it essentially swallows up the plant residue on the surface...it won't take long for those nutrients to be cycled back into the soil.

 November 12:  Same hyphae web as the previous photo.

November 12:  More hyphae a few feet away from the other patch.

 November 13:  There was no shortage of moisture under the brassica canopy.  This resulted in some spectacular frost crystals.

 November 14:  Our October 24 cereal rye is looking about as good as can be expected.  We reconfigured the drill before we used it on corn stalks.  If we had left it in the twin row/interseeding configuration then we would have twin row rye right where we are going to be planting our twin row soybeans in 2017.  We didn't like that idea, so we moved the row units out closer to 15" rows in an attempt to make a gap for the bean planter row units to run in.  We'll see how it works this spring!

November 20:  The sweetcorn patch showing the affects of the frost...looking a bit droopy.

November 20:  I need to start selling radish pop sickles.  


November 21:  We did have a small area of our legume & ryegrass mix survive the summer.  It was about 30-40 feet wide and 50(ish) feet long, located right next to the end rows.  I'm not sure why it made it, but it is nice to see some life in there.  I believe everything that we had in the mix can be accounted for in this area.

November 21:  Another shot of the survivors. 

 November 25:  Got earthworms?

Thanks for reading!
-Michael