As you would imagine, Winter on the farm is pretty "blah"as far as field work and looking at crops. The wheat crop is sleeping so that it can vernalize. The weeds are pretending to be sleeping but some are still growing. There is just not a lot to look at.
Here is a picture of some wheat that Trooper and I checked yesterday afternoon.
Here is one of those sneaky little weeds that you miss if you are in a hurry.
This is henbit - another common weed found in wheat. This picture just happens to be in my yard :)
We are very busy with topdressing the wheat with fertilizer. We apply nitrogen this time of year to help the crops grow when they do come out of dormancy. We also apply some sulfur in some areas to help with green up and crop health. The nitrogen is commonly applied in one of two forms, either dry granules or liquid spray or stream.
If there are no weed concerns, or the producer is wanting to put on heavier amounts of actual Nitrogen per acre, the dry granules are the way to go. It is currently less expensive per unit of N, and can be applied over frozen ground. The granules fall to the ground and sit there until the next rain or snow event. When they get wet, the granules melt into the soil and move into the root zone to be taken up by the plant.
If there are weeds present, the producer is more likely to choose a liquid form of Nitrogen. This prevents multiple trips across the field, which saves money and time. There is also the option of streaming on higher volumes of liquid fertilizer if no herbicide is necessary and the producer wants to use liquid instead of dry form. The liquid forms will also move into the soil with some moisture and be ready for root uptake from there.
Most herbicides used this time of year provide a contact kill effect on the plants and also provide soil activity to prevent new weeds from emerging. The wheat is able to metabolize the herbicides so they do no damage to the crop. This metabolizing process is what makes the herbicides safe to use on wheat that could be used later for human consumption. If it is not safe for animals or humans to use the wheat after harvest, then it would not be applied.
My duties this time of year include scouting the wheat for weed pressure issues and plant health. I also turn in fields to be sprayed or topdressed.
Some ranchers in the area are in full swing of calving season. Most cows and heifers can calve successfully on their own, but occasionally it takes the helpful hands of the rancher to get the baby on the ground safely. Therefore, most will check their cattle several times throughout the day and also throughout the very cold nights in order to make sure everything is going well. This usually means sleeping for and hour or 2 (maybe) between getting up and driving around the check on things. While this isn't always fun, it is necessary and ranchers happily do it, not only because of the huge investment they have made in that cow or heifer, but because they don't want to see an animal suffer or see a calf freeze to death before they have a chance to dry out.
It won't be long now and we will be in planting season! Until then, keep checking in!
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