4_22_08

April 22, 2008

Greetings,

Our new tractor is here! Spring planting has started. Thank you Titan Machinery for supplying the top of the line MX305 with RTK Trimble Auto Pilot. What a dream machine! Titan also updated our RTK Tower and added a repeater to allow signal reception in the local Forman area. This is on a trial basis for the time being, but if you are interested in the RTK signal, give Titan a call.

The frost still remains in many spots of the fields, but tractors are rolling here and there. Fertilizer is being spread for corn and beans. I was able to get all but one plot of spring wheat seeded this last weekend. Condition were very good, except the one plot that goes into a low spot. Flax is on the schedule for tomorrow, the 23.

I'll share one of my weather websites with you. You can read the details on their home page, but I think this is a straight computer generated forecast. If they show very high rainfall amounts for the area, past experience has shown them to be fairly accurate. As of today, they are predicting high rainfall to the east and south of us, but the rest of the forecasters do not seem to be calling for much. Time will tell.

< http://wxmaps.org/pix/prec1.html>

It seems my big lesson on corn from the winter is that you do not want to plant if you expect heavy and or cold rain, that is below 50 degrees. In some of the past years the early planted corn has looked pretty sick when the cold heavy rains come. I guess it depends on the acres and the machinery you have and how much you can delay. I am hoping to start corn next Monday. The strip till is looking very good. With the 2nd year of RTK, the strips are all nicely in-between the corn rows, some I am hoping to avoid the problems we hade last year of planting straight row across the old crooked rows.

Good luck Planting!

Kelly Cooper- farm manager