What's Happening

Planting Update

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Thu, 31 May 2012 16:37:00 +0000

We have finally finished planting efficacy trials. Most of our plots look very good with corn growth stage ranging from V4-V8 and our soybeans from VC-V2.

We were able to get our side dress applied last week. We are able to see the effects manifested as green corn.

It has been extremely dry here with very little rain for the past 3-4 weeks. We are seeing some emergence problems with corn planted in the past two weeks. A pop up thunder shower that dropped 0.8 inches on 5/25/12 has helped crops here near the shop. The rest of our research sites still remain dry and could use a timely rain.

A Blast From The Past

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:54:00 +0000

We're "running with the big boys" now that we have a high boy.
This unit is set up for N applications primarily for side dress. In this case we're using it for pre plant N application.
Don't count on us doing custom work anytime soon.

How to use a 5 gallon bucket.

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:17:00 +0000

You've heard of 101 ways to use a 5 gallon bucket? Here's one!
We needed a solution to let us apply both an in-furrow and 2x2 starter simultaneously. Since our planter has only one tank we needed a second one for this application.

Corn Germination

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:25:00 +0000

Here is a picture of the corn we planted on March 16th. If you look closely you can see the coleoptiles starting to emerge.
We had over an inch of rain last Friday (3/23/12) which was very timely since it saw starting to get dry. It's in the low 50's today with a freeze warning issued for tonight.
It will be interesting to see how this corn emerges and grows this week with cool temps.

Corn planting

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:57:00 +0000

We planted our first corn today (3/16/12). I suspect we were the first in Central Indiana to do so. We planted a whopping 8 rows by 50 feet. Just in case you are wondering, this is for intern training in May. Does anybody care to guess when it will reach VT?

2x2 Starter Fertilizer Attachments

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:07:00 +0000

We have had some requests for 2x2 fertilizer applications at planting. Our planter is capable of in-furrow starter applications but not 2x2. We found these 2x2 fertilizer disks online and decided to give them a try. They are installed on our four row White planter.

We hope to keep the units on all season and remove and fertilizer discs when not in use.

February Update

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:39:00 +0000

We received some rain here this week. Temps have been in the upper 30s to low 40s.

We are continuing to get equipment ready to go. All the tractors have been serviced as well as the lawn mowers. It's had to believe that we're thinking about cutting the grass.

The rest of the week will be spent painting in the office and in training.

Something Worth Cheering For

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:16:00 +0000

Since the Colts had such a poor season with no chance at the Super Bowl we figured we needed something blue to cheer for! Go blue (New Holland)!

Winter Work

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:16:00 +0000

It actually looks like winter here today. We are using this opportunity to work on equipment. We are finally replacing the seat in the JD 4630 much to everyone's posterior relief and upgrading one of our planter monitors to a Precision Planting 20/20.

1st Spray App

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:51:00 +0000

It's official. Our 1st spray app of 2011. Its what we like the call "17 seconds of glory"

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:44:00 +0000

We are trying to beat the long lines at the elevators by planting early this year. We returned from our holiday break on January 3rd and decided we might as well get started. With only one short mechanical malfunction we had soybeans in the ground.

Dry weather, variable yields, rapid harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:40:00 +0000

Dry weather since early August has resulted in rapid dry down and stressed late planted crops. Yields are variable with early wet areas having lowest yield. The lack of late rain has resulted in seed abortion in upper soybean pods which has resulted in lower yields. Late insect pressure included ECB and heavy corn earworm on late planted sweet corn. Even Bt sweet corn had corn earworm damage. Harvest is moving quickly with the dry conditions.

Busy time

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:10:00 +0000

We have been very busy that last few weeks. With corn pollination, fungicide applications, root digs, wheat harvest and normal data collection. We planted our last soybean plots on July 2. This is very late but the very wet June kept delaying planting. Winter wheat had lower than normal yields. Yields were in the mid 50 bushel/A range. Our rootworm pressure has been intense with many of our checks having 3's on the Iowa State scale (3 nodes eaten by the rootworms). The heavy rains may have decreased late feeding. Gray leaf spot is very common with infestations moving to the ear leaf in many cases. Overall crop condition is good with corn and soybean moving to R-3 in many cases. The rain keeps coming combined with warm conditions to excelerate the maturity of the crop.

Heavy rain, rapid growth and rootworm beetles

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:21:00 +0000

A good crop year turned marginal after a 5 inch rain on June 22. We have received over 10 inches of rain in the last 12 days. Nitrogen deficiency and poor growth is evident in poorly drained areas. Where drainage is good, corn and beans are growing rapidly. We are starting to see some disease (gray leaf spot). The corn rootworm larva have been busy feeding in our trap crop area. The untreated corn in the trap crop is barely standing due to heavy feeding. I did find several adult rootworm beetles.

It keeps on getting wetter- crops look good

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 20:07:00 +0000

The wet weather keeps on coming. We have had over 3 inches in the last 4 days. Corn is looking good and growing fast. Most is now approaching the V-8 stage. There is some minor water damage on some beans. The hardest part about the wet weather is getting field work done in such wet conditions. Soybeans are near the V-3 stage. Wheat is rapidly turning color.

It is raining again

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:42:00 +0000

We had a good week last week which allowed us to get the majority of our regulated trials planted. Rain is really coming down this morning combined with the rain we had over the weekend to really slow progress. The wet weather combined with the warm temperatures has really turned on the growth and development of crops. Corn put on about two leaves in 4-5 days. Night temperatures have been impressive which really helps to quickly develop the crop. We need some dry conditions to get into the field to spray some post corn herbicides. Soybeans and corn that were planted last week came out of the ground in about 6 days. Overall weed growth is good and we are looking for the first lightning bugs which is a good indicator of corn rootworm hatch.

cool wet weather slows progress

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:41:00 +0000

Cool and rainy conditions have slowed crop development and planting progress. Most commercial corn looks good and is stuck at the V-1 to V-2 stage. Corn that we planted on 4/12/10 is at V-3 stage. Early planted soybeans have emerged but are moving slowly. We have planted our processing tomato trials. A major temperature increase is predicted for next week. This morning we decided that it was still too wet just to do stand counts.

A wet period begins

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Tue, 11 May 2010 14:53:00 +0000

After four good weeks of planting, our weather has turned wet. This past weekend we had a moderate frost with cool temps slowing crop growth. We have put in most of our efficacy corn and soybeans. The early planted corn looks very good. Weed growth is starting to pick up. Some minor cut worm damage has been detected.

Third week of corn planting- good progress

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Mon, 03 May 2010 18:33:00 +0000

We completed our third week of corn planting. Overall progress was good and a half inch of rain over the weekend helped. Early reports called for 2-4 inches but it never happened. April 12-19 planted corn has now emerged and is looking good. A moderate frost on 4/25 had little impact on the emerged corn. The warm rain over the weekend really is helping weed emergence.

Another good week, but we could use some rain

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:29:00 +0000

We had another good week of corn planting. Temperatures were more normal with highs in the 60s and low 70's. The corn we planted on April 12 has still not emerged. Weed emergence is low, since we had several light frosts early in the week. Weeds are also slow to emerge due to the dry conditions. Commercial corn is really going into the ground with many farmers completed their corn planting and moving to soybeans. Some are have almost finished with beans. The bean planting is very early. We could still catch an early May frost that would be very tough on soybeans. We used our new Almaco plot planter for the first time this week and it worked well.

Thanks

Fritz

A good first week of corn planting

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:30:00 +0000

We have been blessed with a really good first week of corn planting. It has been a very unsual year with spring temps being about 10-20 degrees above normal. Soil temps were in the 60 F range, which is not normal. Last year our first corn was planted on April 26 and then got 6 inches of rain on it. We planted most of our 09 corn at the end of May. We feel that early planting with these warm conditions, is not very risky. I would guess emergence will happen with 12-14 days of planting. We could use 0.5 inches of rain to get some soil applied herbicide mobolized. Our new crumbler that we are using behind our field cultivator also worked very well.

Thanks Fritz

Clean Equipment

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:25:00 +0000

Thanks to Michael, who spent the morning with a power washer, we now have clean equipment. We are nearly ready to go. Everything has been serviced and we are working on finishing touches.

"Planting" 1st Research Trial of 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:01:00 +0000

Spring has finally arrived and we were able to "plant" our 1st research trial of the 2010 season. These are micro-plots where the crop is grown in a small containers, in this case 24in x 3 ft vertical field tile. We buried the tile on Good Friday and plan on letting the soil settle a couple of weeks before planting.

Planter Update

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:22:00 +0000

We have now joined the ranks of those who own plot planters. We have added a 4 row, mounted planter with all the "bells and whistles". We hope this purchase will make us more efficient as well as give us another option for bulk planting. This unit is equipped with belted cones and Kinzie seed box units that can be interchanged as needed.
Now all we need to do is figure out how to run it. We noticed that the buddy seats came with seat belt, but have not figured out the air bags.

AG Services Technology Update

noreply@blogger.com (Ag Services) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:53:00 +0000

We are now using technology from the web in new ways to benefit our web presence. Look for frequent updates to our website from this page and the latest news on crop conditions, etc.

Jared Alsdorf