This a reconstruct of a 2019 post that I lost in an attempt to update after I recently noticed that the videos would not run. This is four years out of sync with the post, (below), titled " STRIPPER HEADER -- YES/NO", August 6, 2023.
Because of CANOLA we upgraded our combine from a 1985 Gleaner N7 to a 2013 Gleaner S77. The N series did not have enough room in the threshing area to allow canola stems to pass through blocking the area leading to the accelerator rolls. The S series has an enormous amount of room allowing free flow. S77 came with a 30' AGCO 8200 flex header with a Crary Air Reel. The auger has exceptionally deep flighting and retractable fingers the full length of the auger. It is very aggressive in moving bulky crop material to the feeder house of the combine.FARMING THE PALOUSE
Monday, August 7, 2023
SHELBOURNE CVS32 vs AGCO 8200 Header
Sunday, August 6, 2023
STRIPPER HEADER --YES/NO
Harvest is upon us and we have had two inquiries about our Shelbourne Stripper Head, so I'm making a post about it. For more head detail visit the following link. Stripper Header
Does a stripper head have a future in your operation? That will depend on what you want to accomplish.
PRO's: --tall stubble is great for snow catch. Tall stubble will hold yours in place and catch some of your neighbors passing by. --tall stubble reduces air velocity across the soil surface for potential moisture savings by reducing the replacement frequency of the surface boundary layer. --there is a significant reduction of material that the combine has to process resulting in less overall machine wear. --there is a significant reduction in dust at the throat of the feeder house resulting in better operator vision in the evenings with calm conditions. --generally there is an increased speed of harvesting. --generally, heavy single disc drills work better because there is less residue laying on the soil surface. --if you intend to remove the straw, stripper headed stubble is great for swathing and baling.
Sunday, June 18, 2023
2023 WSU Dryland Research Station (Lind, WA)
WSU's Dry Land Research Station at Lind, Wa. is recognized as having the lowest annual precipitation of all the State and Federal dryland research facilities in the US. It has a 105 year existence. The 101 year average is 9.61" per year. The lowest annual rainfall was 4.36 in 1977, and the highest annual rainfall was 22.71" in 1948. The 2023 crop year (Sept--May) total is 7.42". The take home points for me this year (June 15th) are the following:
--Staff: The Lind Station has a new Director, Dr. Surendra Singh, a new scientist, Dr. Shikha Singh, and a new Technician, Steven Jaurez.
--Winter Peas: There is an attempt expand the normal rotation of (winter wheat - fallow), by introducing winter peas into the rotation. Current research has shown: -- providing inoculant increases the yield an average of 6.6%, --discovery of a bacterium that surpasses diseases in peas, -- discovered a bacterium that develop super sized nodules on pea roots, -- pea pod weevil are present with no past history of growing peas in the area. As a result research is ongoing to find resistant varieties to the pest, -- the plots were very short on residue. The researcher stated that even a small amount of residue in row with the pea made a significant improvement in winter survivability, -- the microbial community was different for different pea varieties, -- all variety trials were moment seeded in late October.
-- Endangered Species Act (ESA): New forms of regulation are being foisted on farming activities in the state. Some of them may effect agriculture in our area. I'm including two pic's of a brochure handed out offering some explanation. It includes a website that we need to become familiar.
-- Russian Thistles: are a major pest in low precipitation growing areas. Currently all control applications of Spartan, Charge, Fierce, and Metribuzin on the plots looked good. Researchers will be looking for control differences when rain arrives.
2023 McGregor Research Tour
I always find this to be an interesting tour. Cat and her crew do a good job. Take home points for me this year (June 13th) are the following:
--Canola: A large trial plot with a number of different cultivar from different companies. The plots all looked good, well into flowering. The plots, visually, looked significantly better than the canola field that bordered the plots. The field was streaky with, generally, thinner stand with fewer flowers, and the streaks being shorter and flowers turned white, and I didn't notice pods developing. The cooperator prepared the field and plot area the same, applying 80ppa N, 10ppa S. The field was seeded at 5ppa of canola seed. The plot was seeded a week later and had an additional 5gpa of Kickstart for fertility, and was seeded at 6ppa of seed. That is a lot of seed. My preliminary information indicates that the Kickstart was the only difference, other than the type of drill used. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of Kickstart showing that much difference, but it was obvious right to the border that encircled the plot site. Maybe waiting a week later helped the plot site. Foliar feeding has shown some potential benefit, with the best timing being early rosette stage before rapid biomass increase. [ Earlier, I conversed with Brian Caldbeck, of Caldbeck Consulting. A couple of useful comments were: --1) he likes 6-7 established plants/sf, and not to count emerged plants because some will not survive. --2) space the seed out. When seed clumps together only one or two seeds will germinate. The others just sit there doing nothing. --3) hybrids tend to divide out as tall with slender branch spread and shorter with wider branch spread. He prefers tall/slender on 7"-10" spacing and short/wide on 10"-15" row spacing.
--Wireworm: They infest a lot of crop acreage and can do damage to yield. Wireworms are the larva form of the Click Beetle. They emit a clicking sound, and are highly attracted to the color of white. An easy check is to park a white pickup in/by the field you are scouting, --if they are there, they will be all over the pickup. Wireworms prefer soil temperatures in the 55-75ºF range with moisture. They dive deep when soil temperature reaches ≥ 80ºF. McGregor has found that a lot of perceived chemical damage is actually wireworm damage. Wireworms are more widely spread then we realize. Click Beetles survive in grasslands and crop residue. Natural predators are: rodents, birds, bats, frogs, lizards, predatory beetles, predatory wasps, predatory mites, Lacewings, spiders, and preying mantises. Seed treat with Terassa is quite effective for control.
--Seed Treats: Terassa seems effective for wireworm control. Systiva seems effective for Rhizoctonia. Relenya seems effective for Bunt Smut. The Guardian Blend controls 20 diseases, but not wireworm.
--Fertility: Zinc is best applied to seed compared to in row, side band, broadcast. Zinc is the #1 limiting micronutrient in Pacific Northwest. Nitrogen applied at Tillering stage is best timing; however, stabilized N applied at time of seeding has given best yield. Use foliar feed for needed elements found through SAP testing at flag leaf stage.
--Wheat: Early-Late seeding. Best yields appear to develop when seeding early with a late maturing cultivar, and when seeding late, choose an early maturing cultivar. Winter wheats: Shine is highly susceptible to dryland foot rot while Blackjack is tolerant to dryland foot rot. M-Pire has high tolerance to grassy herbides. --with an awned wheat, awnes indicate developing kernel. A stubby(short) awn is questionable for development. An exercise Cat had us do related to early-medium-late seeding of winter wheat. Seeding dates for the same cultivar was Sept. 15th, Oct. 15th, Nov. 15th. In all cases the heads were very similar in development. The main difference was the number of tillers. The lesson here was, plant higher seed rate as you go farther into late fall to compensate for lack of ability to tiller.
--Herbicide treatments: This trial consisted of some common herbicides with different mixes and sprayed across several cultivar types to see the crop reaction. Effectiveness of the treatments varied. It was pointed out that Clethodim, Paraquat, and Glyphosate needed water conditioning to improve effectiveness.
--RO Water: Like last year, I think Cat used distilled water in 2023 and called it RO (reverse osmosis) water, but it's not! McGregor's interest in RO water came about because of the buzz around a few operations using processed water and cutting chemical rates. The trials looked poor and their warnings about escapements and potential for developing resistance are valid. In 2023, there are 9 active water processing units serving ~ 14 farm/ranch operations in eastern Washington and northern Idaho. Since 2020 a group of us have been looking into the Pursanova Water System. This system first filters the water, then run it through a reverse osmosis (RO) unit, and then on through "structure" tubes containing beads of specific types of ores. These are not random rocks. For more information about water see my posts on "Pursanova -- RO/S Water" by clicking on the "water" label. There is a lot more to water than we generally recognize.
Friday, June 9, 2023
DWAYNE BECK - CROP DIVERSITY & INTENSITY
THESE SHOULD BE VIEWED SEVERAL TIMES FOR AN UNDERSTANDING
Click on the URL for topics of NEW AG! ----> D. BECK 55:34 Presentation
No-Till Guru (Dwayne Beck) 55:34min presentation at the 2019 National No-Till Conference is a great audio/video on making new agriculture practices profitable. I brought this up from a December 2020 post. Everything said in this presentation is current today, June, 2023, and more meaningful for some of us who are trying to follow the principles for successfully regenerating our soils and maintaining yields. The first ~ 18 minutes are about South Dakota, and the Pierre Research Farm.
Click on URL for, "Cover Crop Estabishment and Grazing". ---> D. BECK 48:08 Presentation
No-Till Guru (Dwayne Beck) 2017 presentation talks about Cover Crops and factors to consider when raising them like purpose, and cultivar selection. Some repeated information in different words. If I would have found this earlier, I would probably have done better, and be farther along with cover cropping.
Thursday, June 8, 2023
6/6/23 WHEAT COLLEGE
Sunday, January 15, 2023
PURSANOVA - RO/S (part 2)
The information here describes the equipment purchased, and our experience one year later. Some of the following information will be familiar from the earlier post.
Why did we purchase the Pursanova system? The short answer, --reading, listening, experience, and seeing the potential for taking a big step toward Regenerative Agriculture on the land we steward. In February 2020, our bio group was introduced to the technology, and although outlandish, it intrigued me. 2020, I read a couple of books on water, and talked to growers back east who have used this equipment for a number of years. Most of my contacts started out with just the (reverse osmosis) RO unit, but all gravitated to the Pursanova Disc's and Structure Tubes over time. No one said they would quit using it. No one could give me research data showing it's value. Everyone had a lot of antidotal evidence supporting their use of the Pursanova water. Most use the water year around on the farm and in the house. Vatche' has some big fruit grower accounts, but they are secretive about it's use. Our first experience using the Pursanova water technology, the fall of 2021, was good enough that we wanted to continue, but was concerned about getting the (Spokane Conservation District) SCD's unit when we needed it, so chose to purchase our own. The "water structure" technology is separate from the RO equipment. There are a lot of RO equipment outlets. They each have their sales pitch, and it can be confusing. We decided to stay with Vatche, and purchased his complete setup, except for the water softener equipment. We chose a descaler by US Water Systems in place of the bulky water softening equipment. The pic below is our unit mounted in an insulated 6x6x12' box trailer, consisting (ccw) of a 300gal supply tank, a Pursanova disc and bank of three big blue filters mounted on the wall, a 60g Pursanova water holding tank (not shown), the four tube RO unit, the 15gal tank holding the descaler mixture, an electrical panel, a recirculating pump, another Pursanova disc, and two Pursanova 40" structure tubes mounted on the trailer wall. The RO unit is very sensitive, needing water immediately when called for. A float controlled supply tank is preferred over a direct connection to a hose bib. There are a total of four large blue filters, each with a different function. The users I contacted, stated that when leaving the unit idle for lengthy periods of time, they ran Pursanova water through the system and left it full. They found leaving the unit idle with the treated water lengthened the life of the RO membranes. Our unit requires ≥10gpm water supply and 220V electrical service. This size unit produces ~4-5gpm of Pursanova water and wastes ~3-4gpm for a daily total of around 5500-7000 gal/day of treated water. The RO unit has a water recycling capability that brings the efficiency up to about 65-75%, to lower waste, but we found the feature quickly fouled the RO membranes. Sufficient supply of Pursanova water will probably require additional storage tanks. Minimize Pursanova water contact with metal. Store in plastic. Stainless steel is not as bad as iron. How long you can store "structured" water without providing some circulation is a moving number. Two years ago we were told 2 weeks, then 2 months, and I recently heard that the "structure" could be maintained for 5 months, and maybe indefinitely. Stay tuned!