Like most farmers around the country, we battled Mother Nature this Spring in order to get our crops in the ground during the most ideal conditions. While our planting is complete for now, there are still a few areas that will likely need to be replanted. The soil was dry, but cool, for much of the Spring. When I say cool, I mean cold – we had two frosts and a snowfall in April, which is almost unheard of in my area. These soil conditions have led to slow and erratic emergence of the beans, but the good news is that the beans are coming up.
Prior to planting, we applied fertilizer in a variable rate, which consisted of MAP and potash. We do this every year, and base the variable rates on the prior year so we can replace the exact nutrients we took off. We also top dressed our trial field with AMS during the last week of May. I am looking forward to seeing the results of that treatment this fall.
Overall, our planting season went smoothly. I had very few equipment breakdowns, and our brand new starter system ran almost flawlessly. I am really looking forward to seeing which starter and starter rates worked best once harvest comes around.
