Watching the farmers work the fields

Today will be a stay-at-home day with a few errands worked in.

Mrs ERJ has appointments in both the morning and afternoon. Consequently, Quicksilver and I will be spending a lot of quality time together.

Farming 

The farmers are racing to take advantage of our current dry-spell. They are in the fields doing all of the mysterious things farmers do. Many of them are three-weeks behind.

My friend who is a Nebraska farmer told me that one of the reasons for the astronomical growth in corn yields is that the seed goes into the ground to a very tight time-table. The seeds are treated with fungicides so they can go into cold, wet soil but the fungicide is not magic, it has limits.

By planting early, the emerging corn plant will have "canopied over" before the longest day of the year. More sun captured by the leaves, the more carbohydrates it can pack into the seeds. Planting late means that your corn will be trying to pack those seeds during the shortening days of August and September...and then you end up getting docked at the elevator because your corn is low-weight or high moisture...or both.

Video of a John Deere 72 row planter 

Seeder technology has come a long way. The individual heads can float with the soil contour so each seed is planted at an optimal depth, i.e. where there is enough moisture to start germination. The new planters can accurately place 48 rows of seeds at 5.5 mph rather than grandpa's four-row planter that started chattering if you went faster than walking-speed. 

Hummingbirds

 

Hummingbird Central interactive map. Some of the local sightings were from April 23. Time to put out the feeders