Setting up the grid for the field in his computer.
Unloading the ATV
Probing about 8 inches deep.
It takes 5 probes around a GPS point to make up one “sample” bag for the lab to test.
Yes, he has a GPS bubble on his ATV. He finds the points on the grid that way. He samples every 2.5 acres.
GPS readout around a point.
Heading to the next point.
He sampled 680 acres in less than 12 hours.
I’ve been lax on giving you soybean updates. The road we normally use to get to the field has been closed since the beginning of July with a bridge out, so I don’t find myself going by very often. So, here is a picture of what the bean field looks like now. The leaves have been turning yellow and falling off the stems, so harvest is not far behind – probably less than two weeks.
The crew came in an mowed our fifth cutting of alfalfa the other day. They are merging and chopping this afternoon. My camera has a dead battery so you won’t see that for the last time this year!
To say the least, they’ve gotten tall. Here’s Richard standing next to them for scale.
The bean pods are filling out nicely.
Here’s the bean field after a few weeks. Filling in very nicely.
Some of the soybeans up close.
The corn is getting tall. It’s much more than “knee high by the 4th of July”.
Two weeks after being cut and chopped, the alfalfa is coming back nicely.
Our soybeans are getting a good start with the rain we’ve had. We are finally having some heat here (in the mid 80’s) and that combination is really making things grow.
Avalon Farms Ohio 