Back on the blog

I thought I would dust this off again and see if I can keep motivated to do this. I have a better idea on what I want to do and how to promote it through social media.

This past year has been interesting. Our wheat crop was average to a little above and we took advantage of marketing opportunities last year. The fall crops this year are fantastic, the sunflowers passed the yield goals, the non irrigated corn was good where it didn't drown out, the irrigated corn is meeting or exceeding yield goals, the grain sorghum and late sunflowers look awesome. Our weather conditions were idea most of the summer, in late July/early August the crops experienced some heat stress. Our crops showed less stress damage than some neighbors. Part of this is due to our long term no-till cropping system and proper fertilization and plant health.

No-till is a cropping system that relies on herbicides and crop rotation to control weeds. Our rotation is two winter wheat crops, sometimes with a double crop of sunflowers or soybeans, grain sorghum, and then soybeans or sunflowers. We have a fairly diverse crop rotation that allows us to use different herbicides with different modes of action to help control weed without creating resistance. This cropping method reduces the carbon emitted from the soil, greatly reduces topsoil erosion from wind and water, builds soil health and organic matter. We also use far less fuel than when we were tilling the soil and have a tremendous labor savings, I'm not in a tractor 14 hours a day 6 to 7 days a week from the first of July to the middle of October.