9_19_2006

September 19, 2006

I probably need to change this to a rainy day update instead of a weekly update! Yes, a little more rain, total is 0.32. Joe Breker, one of our board members was over to help me get going on the winter wheat sunday. Joe has a lot of experience with Concorde air drills so was happy to get some tips. We tweaked a few things such as air flow, seed tubes and coulter depth. In preparation for strip tilling, Titan put the duals back on and added an updated trimble autopilot in our MX245. After Joe confirmed that the seeding depth was looking good, I started planting the winter wheat. We are planting a new winter wheat variety this year called CDC Buteo. Our CDC Falcon has performed very well for us, but I thought we should shift to planting some new varieties. I think we have shown that wheat is a good agronomic decision. This year it has also been pretty good financially with the usual qualifications such as planting date. Having new varieties will serve as a showcase, good or bad, for how they will perform in no-till. We are in the planning stages of having a no-till corn and soybean variety trial on the south side of the farm. I am looking forward to seeing that done.

Walt tells me the Albus Strip till machine is ready! Walt and I will be cooperating on some strip till work this fall. Walt, our former farm manager, is currently managing the Oakes Irrigation Field trials. With the current interest in strip till and seeing how well it is working for CCSP, Walt is doing some strip till in irrigated corn.

As far a crop progress, the soybeans, NK S06L6, and corn, 4295 DeKalb, look like they have hit maturity. Both the corn and beans got in late do to the wet spring. The growing season provided plenty of heat, so frost, as predicted for tonight, will not hurt anything.

I see the temperature is up to 56, the radar is clear, the concorde is set and ready to go......

have a good week.

Kelly Cooper- farm manager