Wheat Harvest

Wow, it has been a busy few weeks! Manhart, Thompson, and Sayles finished grazing this week, and wheat harvest is in full swing. We are getting ready for the post wheat planting of the cover crop and preparing experimental designs for the fields.

It's been a while since we made a post, so I've accumulated a lot of great photos and videos. We've also gotten a lot of great photos/videos from producers. Keep them coming! We really enjoy getting to see what things look like when we're not able to be there. My personal favorite is the video from Feikert showing the monitor during wheat harvest. It's so exciting!!!

This was at Manhart's about two weeks (middle of June) ago during our midpoint sampling.

This was also at Manhart's and was taken right around midpoint sampling. I think the pollinators are happy with the rapeseed.

This is Zip. He runs a data management business, and specializes in ‘fuzzy’ numbers.

This was from Sayles's field at the start of the experiment a couple weeks ago. He had a good amount of biomass, but the weather has been dry. He was only able to graze for a week before moving the cattle.

Here is an overview of the quadrat that we use to collect data on the transects and for biomass sampling. This is 0.5 square meters of cover crop. The residue cover is outstanding.

Thanks to this awesome group, we got the last set of forage samples done at Thompson's and Manhart's. They also took wheat samples from last years spring cover crop fields at Thompson's, Manhart's, and Neff's. Way to go team!!!!

Future agronomists in the making!

What do you mean I cant lay in the quadrat? That's where your hands are and hands are for petting.

Field season would not be complete without cute critters. This little guy was in Manhart's field.

The flax was in full bloom at Thompson's field. It was a beautiful day to stand still for a few moments.

Guss hopping through the forage!

Thompson's field has a small corner that has some volunteer rye. I had to go sit in the middle and take a picture. It's not often that one gets to sit in a field of rye (well, a corner of a field anyways).

Behind the scene at Feikert's...............

These sneaky ladies came to eat right out of my quadrat during our first set of forage samples at Feikert's. I think one of them is giving me the sly eye in this picture.

Feikert harvested the wheat from last year's spring planted field (2016). It's so exciting watching the yield monitor! 

I had to include this because it's such a neat photo.

Farnik's field when the cattle went on a couple weeks ago. Look at the beautiful sunflowers!!!