Week Ending April 16th We were able to get started planting corn and soybeans in Farmer City this week. Field conditions improved in that area this week as the rains started to hold off and temperatures rose into the 70's. We started spraying and field cultivating on Wednesday. Corn and soybean planting started on Thursday April 13th.
Both the corn and soybeans are getting a pre plant herbicide. The corn herbicide is Harness Extra and the soybean herbicide is Fierce. The corn herbicide is being applied with 32% liquid nitrogen, giving the crop its first of three shoots of nitrogen fertilizer for the year. We are again running a Hagie STS16 sprayer that has a 120ft boom and a 1600 gallon solution tank.
After the spraying pass, all of the ground gets worked with a field cultivator. The field cultivators are 60 feet wide and are pulled at about 10 mph with Challenger 875 and 865.The tillage tractors run on RTK GPS steering on our controlled traffic system. All of the machines run on preset guidance lines so that the wheel traffic is all in the same paths and the tracks are not where the crop rows will be.
We are planting with 2 Horsch 24 row/30 inch planters which are 60 feet wide. One planter typically stays in corn while the other stays in soybeans. The corn planter is putting down liquid starter fertilizer for the corn. Seeding rates for both crops are controlled by variable rate prescriptions that have been written based on soil types and historical yield levels. Corn seeding rates vary from 30,000 to 38,000 seeds per acre while soybean rates vary from 130,000 to 160,000.
We are using some new technology in the planters and sprayer this year. We are using AgLeader's Display Cast and AgFiniti service which allows data to be shared between the machines in real time. This allows us to share coverage maps, seeding prescriptions, and guidance lines. This has been useful so far when we have had multiple crops in one field with the need to keep track of where corn vs. soybean herbicide was applied and making sure the correct crop is planted in the correct area of the field.
We were able to get in over 1500 acres of corn and soybeans in late this week before rains moved in Saturday night.
Below are some pictures from this week's work.
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