2023 crop pics

[poor farmer/logger]

Well still no more rain today which is a first for a while lol. Got the sprayer all rinsed out and parked on the concrete wash pad now so it can be washed up. Got pretty muddy today redoing that last bit. Following a lot of my same tracks from the other day and they only got deeper with the extra water laying in them from the rain. Going to be some pretty big ruts to look out for come fall.  
 

Canola should be getting pretty yellow in a day or two now I think. 

[DT Fan]

Saw a lot of corn that is tasseled in Missouri on the Reds Power trip. Beans are looking great there too, except where there is flooding. Corn is looking good in these parts and beans are improving. Mine got sprayed in a timely fashion, think that helped a bunch!

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

23 hours ago, poor farmer/logger said:

Officially done in crop herbicide now. Redid my screw up this morning and then I had a half a jug of lontrel from a few years back I decided to try on some trouble spots in that same field. White cockle coming and the liberty isn’t doing much. We had picked up enough before to do the whole field but our dealer said after she didn’t think it would do much. Guess we’ll see.  Clouds are circling around us almost like a hurricane. We seem to be in the clear so far though they just keep wrapping around us in a big circle. 

Liberty is pretty finicky around here. Sometimes it just works better than others with no real rhyme or reason why. I am really surprised at your application rates. Here, you’re wasting your time even trying to apply Liberty at less than 20 gal/acre. I can’t get by with less than 10 gal/ac on Roundup anymore. The Enlist herbicide trait has slashed the amount of Liberty applied in this area. It was the only type of beans we raised before Enlist came out. 

[poor farmer/logger]

2 hours ago, Dirt_Floor_Poor said:

Liberty is pretty finicky around here. Sometimes it just works better than others with no real rhyme or reason why. I am really surprised at your application rates. Here, you’re wasting your time even trying to apply Liberty at less than 20 gal/acre. I can’t get by with less than 10 gal/ac on Roundup anymore. The Enlist herbicide trait has slashed the amount of Liberty applied in this area. It was the only type of beans we raised before Enlist came out. 

They really push for 10 gallons an acre minimum here. Lots of guys cut back on that though. We’ve been at 7 for years and this year I went up to 8. Hot and humid seems to be the key for a good kill. I never rely on liberty alone for a grassy weed killer. Most years I try to avoid 2 applications but it doesn’t always work out. This year was worse for second growth after the rains. A few guys didn’t do a second app and I think they might be wishing they had. At least with a grassy weed killer.  Still some guys trying to get there first application on yet too. 

[Big Bud guy]

10 minutes ago, poor farmer/logger said:

They really push for 10 gallons an acre minimum here. Lots of guys cut back on that though. We’ve been at 7 for years and this year I went up to 8. Hot and humid seems to be the key for a good kill. I never rely on liberty alone for a grassy weed killer. Most years I try to avoid 2 applications but it doesn’t always work out. This year was worse for second growth after the rains. A few guys didn’t do a second app and I think they might be wishing they had. At least with a grassy weed killer.  Still some guys trying to get there first application on yet too. 

Last time I sprayed Liberty on canola I had a bad section of a field so I doubled the rate.  Didn’t hurt the canola one bit and smoked the weeds. 

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

32 oz is the rate we use for Liberty. It is not very effective on grass without also tank mixing something else here either. It’s the reason we could never get Liberty Link corn to work. There’s no good way to kill grass in corn other than roundup. RR corn was great and grass was easy to kill in LL beans. Back when I used to occasionally spray Gramoxone (Paraquat), the supplier said in really bad situations 50 gal/ac might be necessary. The only time I ever used it was in bad situations, but I never applied that much water. It was amazing what Gramoxone would do on a burndown pass. 

[ray54]

Gramoxone /Praraquat is contact only action. If the whole plant is not wet the dry parts are undamaged. So you need a much bigger amount of water.

Most other weed killers are systemic, get it inside the plant and the plant moves it around inside. So the amount of water used is not near as important. 

[nepoweshiekfarmalls]

I am nearly finished sidedressing nitrogen on the corn. Getting too tall, starting to snap a few stalks.  May go out tonight and hit a side hill where it is smaller.  Going to have the neighbor come over with his highboy sprayer with Y drops finish the last 8 acres I can't drive over.  The 1206 runs great with the rebuilt injection pump!!   Coop sprayed the soybeans a second time,  weeds are dying.   The rain this past week has made everything look so much better. 

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

15 hours ago, ray54 said:

Gramoxone /Praraquat is contact only action. If the whole plant is not wet the dry parts are undamaged. So you need a much bigger amount of water.

Most other weed killers are systemic, get it inside the plant and the plant moves it around inside. So the amount of water used is not near as important. 

Yes, paraquat is a contact herbicide, but liberty is as well. That’s why here it requires a large application rate. 

[poor farmer/logger]

Well looks like my break from the sprayer was short lived. Looked at the wheat and I think it’s probably time for fungicide. Girl I buy from is bringing out some generic stuff tonight on her way home. Not sure if I’ll do it tomorrow or gamble that the weather holds and do it Wed. There’s some spots in the field where another day or two probably wouldn’t hurt but then there’s spots where it might be to late. I’d say 80-90% of the field looks like this pic now. 

[Loadstar]

22 hours ago, poor farmer/logger said:

Well looks like my break from the sprayer was short lived. Looked at the wheat and I think it’s probably time for fungicide. Girl I buy from is bringing out some generic stuff tonight on her way home. Not sure if I’ll do it tomorrow or gamble that the weather holds and do it Wed. There’s some spots in the field where another day or two probably wouldn’t hurt but then there’s spots where it might be to late. I’d say 80-90% of the field looks like this pic now. 

 

Lots of heads showing there. I just started seeing a few heads on my earliest wheat yesterday. Planted May 7. 

[dale560]

Here is picture of our soybeans this year. Seeded with flexicoil airseeder and if you look real hard you can see our sprayer outfit in one pic.

[poor farmer/logger]

Sprayed it for better or worse. It maybe could’ve waited a day or two more but there is a chance of rain in the forecast again. It’s so hard to know what to do this year. Crops are at different stages in the same field and the weather is a total crap shoot it seems. Magic 8 ball ain’t working like it used to lol.  It’s not all completely headed out but the stuff that is completely headed out is starting to flower so you’re kind of damned if you do damned if you don’t either way it seems. 

[wheatking]

nice looking crops there gents 

 

things are progressing here fairly well peas just starting to flower, canola is bolting / flowering looks ok and earlier durum is starting to head out aswell,

wheat is abit behind but hopefully making more bushels as some earlier seeded than mine fields I've driven by the foliage looks tremendous but look at the heads there smaller than usual

 

quite warm here today plus 27 finished crop spraying the barley after supper its all over the map from flag leaf to 2-3 leaf stage but clean 

[DT Fan]

No pictures but I saw a lot of tassels shooting out today on my trips to town, not mine. Pretty good for this part of I A on the second of July. My sweetcorn should be ready in a week or less.

[poor farmer/logger]

Got a tank sprayed out on the canola to try this year. Picked the best field to try it on so we’ll see if there’s any visible difference. Left a couple hundred foot check strip out in the middle of the field.was able to mostly follow my spray tracks from a week or so ago. Been on the same line all summer now pretty much.  2 passes of insecticide 2 passes of herbicide and now a fungicide. One more to desiccate in another 6 weeks or so probably.  

[Big Bud guy]

1 hour ago, poor farmer/logger said:

Got a tank sprayed out on the canola to try this year. Picked the best field to try it on so we’ll see if there’s any visible difference. Left a couple hundred foot check strip out in the middle of the field.was able to mostly follow my spray tracks from a week or so ago. Been on the same line all summer now pretty much.  2 passes of insecticide 2 passes of herbicide and now a fungicide. One more to desiccate in another 6 weeks or so probably.  

 

I'll be honest I'v never heard of that many passes being made in canola. You must get really good yields to throw that much money it.  Most I've made it two.  A pre and post.  Guys to the north of me who grow lots of canola every year do have to make an insecticide but not all the time.  

[poor farmer/logger]

31 minutes ago, Big Bud guy said:

I'll be honest I'v never heard of that many passes being made in canola. You must get really good yields to throw that much money it.  Most I've made it two.  A pre and post.  Guys to the north of me who grow lots of canola every year do have to make an insecticide but not all the time.  

On a normal year it’s a lot less. This year I was trying hard to protect yield on this field as it was my best one. The flea beetles made a couple passes at it so I had to do it twice. With as dry as it was to begin with a lot of the weeds/volunteer grains didn’t come till later on so I had to make another pass again. The fungicide is a bit of a new thing for us this year. Trying some to see how it does. With how humid it’s been and the heat waves we’ve had it’s kind of a perfect incubator for disease. One thing that’s helped is chem prices are down a lot using the generic stuff. To the point where you can almost cover it twice for the same cost.  An average yield for us has been around 45-50 with as high as 60-65.

[dale560]

28 minutes ago, poor farmer/logger said:

On a normal year it’s a lot less. This year I was trying hard to protect yield on this field as it was my best one. The flea beetles made a couple passes at it so I had to do it twice. With as dry as it was to begin with a lot of the weeds/volunteer grains didn’t come till later on so I had to make another pass again. The fungicide is a bit of a new thing for us this year. Trying some to see how it does. With how humid it’s been and the heat waves we’ve had it’s kind of a perfect incubator for disease. One thing that’s helped is chem prices are down a lot using the generic stuff. To the point where you can almost cover it twice for the same cost.  An average yield for us has been around 45-50 with as high as 60-65.

That has become the norm here 5 to six sprayer passes a year on any crop.  Like you said on canola the yield and price some years is attractive. So anything you can do to save or protect yield is a good thing. 
even on wheat you should do multi passes. A premerge burn down, you should split apply fertilizer, a weed control pass with generic fungicide, a flag leave pass with a name brand multifunction fungicide and insecticide if needed. A fungicide at flowering and if high yield wheat or durum this should be 2 passes early and late. Then some people do fertilizer to increase protein then a pre harvest burn down then a fall burn down. So on a wheat crop you could have 8 or more sprayer passes on field in one year. The split fertilizer should be more applied at the 4 or 5 leaf stage also just to be sure crop has enough. This all depends on moisture also.

corn and soybeans and all other crops are multi pass with sprayer also. 
Gone are the days of spraying just lv4 on wheat and the hoping for the best. The sad thing is for the last 50 or 60 years potato and sugar beet farmers 100 miles east of us were used to this spray regiment. Us grain farmers were to dumb to catch on.

[Loadstar]

On 7/5/2025 at 7:34 PM, Big Bud guy said:

I'll be honest I'v never heard of that many passes being made in canola. You must get really good yields to throw that much money it.  Most I've made it two.  A pre and post.  Guys to the north of me who grow lots of canola every year do have to make an insecticide but not all the time.  

Its true the sprayers are never finished here. And if they are then its planes and helicopters. I'm a little off the mainstream methods as usual and I only spray post emergence once. Never have sprayed insecticides or fungicides and can't say it has hurt my crops much. I go for lower inputs. I can't justify the cost of a high clearance sprayer on the acres I farm so I make do with my 30 year old pull type. 

[Loadstar]

Some crop views over my farm on July 6th. Must be close to peak bloom on my earliest canola field. Looking good except for operator errors leaving a few gaps. 

 

[Big Bud guy]

1 hour ago, Loadstar said:

Its true the sprayers are never finished here. And if they are then its planes and helicopters. I'm a little off the mainstream methods as usual and I only spray post emergence once. Never have sprayed insecticides or fungicides and can't say it has hurt my crops much. I go for lower inputs

Thats kinda how I farm.  There is also such thing as law of diminishing returns. For example for about 5 years I custom spread for a farm that grew wheat and barley.  They would have me put down up to 350 lbs of urea on winter wheat because their target was 70 BPA and the soil tests/fertilizer formula called for that much fertilizer.  My gut feeling and experience told me maybe they could get by with 60 BPA wheat or 70 BPA wheat with low protein on half that fertilizer.  I've had some flee beatles in my canola but they were so few it didn't pay to spray.  One thing I have noticed around here is I tend to have fewer problems than some of the neighbors because they always have 1/4 of their place in pulse crops, 1/4 in canola, and the rest recrop barley/wheat.  My Canadian relatives don't even scout for ascochyta in their chickpeas.  They just go out there and spray for it every 2 weeks because they know it's just there.  I've never sprayed for it because my chickpeas go on a different field every year and I've been seeding them for 10 years.  Even the crop insurance companies are requiring you to have at least 3 years between the same crop.  Might even by 4 by now I can't remember.  

[Loadstar]

16 minutes ago, Big Bud guy said:

  Even the crop insurance companies are requiring you to have at least 3 years between the same crop.  Might even by 4 by now I can't remember.  

Sounds similar to the recommendations they used to have for canola here. Don't plant it on the same field more than once in four years. Now it seems most are down to a canola/wheat rotation continuous and it seems to be working. Maybe due to all the fungicides they spray. I've even heard talk of a "canola/snow/canola" rotation. Seriously. 

[poor farmer/logger]

Took the afternoon off yesterday and went for a drive. I was mainly curious to see if the old sketchy bridge we used to cross survived the fire. Unfortunately it did not. It was doomed either way but for the mean time it was at least a way across albeit an iffy one. Center supports were sinking in the mud and the deck was nearly falling off on either side of them.  Only put about 50 km on the quad. Loaded up and kept heading north with the truck to almost the north east corner of the fire. Didn’t burn quite as hot in there but you could see black on the hillsides throughout. Stopped back in at the one warm up shelter that burnt and it was crazy how hot it got in there. Burnt right down to the sand. Nothing for green showing up in there yet. It’s a wonder the outhouse survived really.  Out 400 kms on the truck by the time I got so it was a nice little drive/break anyways. 

[poor farmer/logger]

Couple pics from tonight. Canola is tall enough now to hide the deer. I was replying to a friend on snap chat and all of a sudden I heard this noise not far from me. Here it was a medium sized whitetail deer. All I could see was the tip of its heading sticking up above the canola. Was jumping through the crop to get around. Took a video but no pics.  The tallest spots are up to my chest now. Still seems to be stretching out. Lots of pods forming so hopefully they all fill.