Weekly Update

Field day is July 9, 2009

Public Tours start at 4:00 PM

Steak Supper will be from 5:30-8:00

The Conservation Cropping Systems Project will host it's 8th annual field Thursday, July 9. The Theme this year will be "Windows of Opportunity" and our discussions will focus on our plot work. We will have one special speaker, Lee Briese, a consultant who works for Centrol and who is working with saline soils do a soil pit discussion on soil salinity and what can be done to manage this ""growing" problem. (No pun intended)

Our tours will include discussions on our rotations, weed control issues, machinery, strip till, varieties, crops, using gps, cover crops and more led by myself and CCSP board members. Titan machinery and Amity technology will sponsor a steak supper that will be served from 5:30-8:00. Our Envirothon team won the North Dakota state championship again this year and will be doing a fundraiser selling root beer floats. We hope to have on hand members of the industry that contribute to our project and will also be able to visit with you about their products and performance. Every one is welcome to come and learn, visit and share their stories of yet another unusual year that aitn't over yet!

June 21, 2009

Greetings,

It's been a rainy week in North Dakota. Luckily we did not get hurricane down pours as some of our other residents did. CCSP ended up the week with only 1.87. It was still enough to screw up spraying beans, wheat fungicide, and bean rolling. If I wasn't old and wise enough to shake it off, this year would be enough to put me in a straight jacket. In spite of the delays, false starts, and lack of early heat, the crops don't look too bad.

Looking at the Oakes Ndawn data, it appears that with my average plant date on corn being May 15, I am about 180 heat units behind a normal year with a plant date of May 1. That is 621 being a normal accumulation from May 1. This year since May 15 we have accumulated 439. We are few degrees beter than last year thanks to last week. Before that we were behind last year. Our average normal heat units per day is about 17 right now. So that means we have to make up 10 days.

I have noticed what I am pretty sure is wheat streak in some of our winter wheat plots. The lay out of our plots should almost guarantee that we have some and so far we have been quite lucky to avoid it. The worst looking plots is one that was seeded into soybean stubble. This was done the same day the beans were taken off so this rotation was not "sanitized" with a pre-roundup treatment. Also, right next to this plot was a spring wheat plot that had a lot of volunteer come up and I think that was the main source of infection. The late warm fall which gave us a corn crop also meant that there was a lot of green leaves around to harbor the wheat streak carrying mites.

I did something a little scary to the soybeans last weekend that most people don't like to do, roll them after they are up. Eric Delahoyde our local pioneer rep was kind enough to dig up some work that pioneer had done on rolling beans after emergence. The study indicated that at the unifoiliate stage, in the heat of the day, damage would be nill. So, the conditions were met and out I went. With the no-till and lot's of residue, the roller naturally rode a little higher than it would on conventional ground, so that helped. The only damage we really saw was where the bean plant was pushed over corn cobs and squeezed by the roller. We had some later planted beans that were just about to come up, that I chickened out on. Those beans did come up the next day, and where I did roll over a few it appeared there was no damage. I was worried there because the ground was fairly crusty and the beans were just starting to lift the crust and I thought pushing that crust back down on them might break some stems. By the way the beans were in 30 inch rows.

Have a good week.

Kelly Cooper- farm manager