Harvest is underway in many areas, and will rapidly pick up speed in the next few weeks.  I see other signs of fall as I travel these days.  The leaves are changing, the air has freshened, and fall application of fertilizer is underway. 

My fall checklist includes:

1. Winterize all equipment
2. Finish maintenance/pre-season inspections
3. Review application lists & field maps
4. Order SuperCal 98G & SO4

I anticipate a busy fall season for lime application, and have been encouraging dealers to bring in product as soon as they are able to do so.  I fully expect the fall movement to increase significantly in 1-2 weeks, just when the availability of trucks decreases.  Getting product in now allows for flexibility in inventory management, greater control over supply, and less chance of logistical challenges (i.e. less stress)!

Please be safe this fall.  Take a little extra time to remind others to be safe also.

I learned on Sunday that Dr. Norman Borlaug had died after a long battle with cancer.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/business/energy-environment/14borlaug.html

Dr. Borlaug, who was widely credited with saving hundreds of millions of people from starvation, upended conventional wisdom among scientists of his era both by the way he created super strains of wheat that have since spread across much of the developing world, and by proving that the world’s harvests can grow faster than the human population. His breeding techniques are now routinely embraced by the world’s biggest seed companies and by some estimates have created billions of dollars of crop value. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.

Growing up as an Iowa farm boy, there were several people that I used as example, including Roswell Garst, Henry Wallace & Norman Borlaug.  All were great people, but Dr. Borlaug did it on a huge scale & taught me that perseverance will overcome. 

Our world continues to need all the food we can grow, and to use it all efficiently.  Dr. Borlaug taught me that production efficiency and environmental quality go hand in hand. 

Thank you, Dr. Borlaug.

12-17-09 UPDATE: Just spoke to Howard, the corn on this plot avg 214 bu. at 16 moisture! Way to go Howard!

On Monday I attended the Verity Farms Field Day. Howard is doing is really doing some tremendous things to and for his soil. The field that the following video was taken in is Corn on Alfalfa ground. Notice all the earth worm casting, worms, and worm holes. It has been a long time since I have seen a shovel able to be put into the soil its full depth. 

Fertilizer Applications:
 

What's really stunning is these results were acheived with so little applied fertilizer, no fungicide. Notice how green and blemish free the stalk is. There was absolutly no stalk rots to be found any where in this field! Expected yield is 200+ bushels.

We were very excited to be a part of the field day and see the dramatic changes that Howard's program and SuperCal 98G have achieved.  Please contact us or Verity Farms to find out how to return your soil to the soft fertile sponge it was ment to be!

*Pretty exciting that Howard will net close to $400 per acre this year ($3 corn*200 - $200 inputs).

In a past blog, on treating manure with SuperCal SO4 , I made some assumptions and statements on heating air with high rates of ammonia that were not quite accurate.

Bill Walker with CPS, pointed this out to me a number of months ago. Dan Gabig wrote me recently with similar comments: "Now as to the increase in propane usage associated with the higher specific heat of ammonia gas versus ambient air.  Craig forgets to factor in that his example barn had 125 PARTS PER MILLION of ammonia.  Hence one would only have a mixed specific heat of 1.55 times the ammonia content of only 125 divided by 1,000,000 and .885 times 999,875 [1,000,000 - 125] for the remainder of the barn air.  So the increase in propane usage as a result of the higher specific heat associated with the tiny percentage of ammonia instead of lower specific heat for the non-ammonical air (e.g. nitrogen and oxygen) is incredibly little!!!!!  Definitely not a economic consideration for litter treatments."

I admit Bill and Dan are right. It is not that your heating the ammonia in the air that is the big savings. However there is big cost savings associated with exhaust fans not running as much, not venting heated air and reheating fresh air. Add that to the fact the increase in bird health, rate of gain and lower death loss from less ammonia in the air, and the costs and savings start adding up.

I was also wrong the the cost of PLT, it $398 per ton not per 50 lb bag. Even at that price SuperCal SO4 cost less than half of what PLT does! Still a huge savings.

I will stand by SuperCal SO4 as a great, inexpensive poultry litter treatment. We currently have it in laboratory testing and the tests are backing us up. I look forward to publishing that information latter this fall. If your a farmer and want to test it for yourself, give us a call, we would love your feedback.

Again, I just didn't have it quite right, and I appreciate Bill and Dan's attention to detail and willingness to let me know that. Thanks for setting me strait!