Newman Field Winter Wheat planting

After waiting the entire summer for good planting conditions, a single day in late September finally presented itself.  The high areas of the field on Newman Road were in very good condition and worked up very nicely.  I only needed 2 acres so I could pick and choose.

The Vavilov plot measures 354.5' x 45.5' and is on the West side.  I drilled in 46 lb 2.8 oz, or about .77 bushels.  It worked out to 2 bushels per acre, which is right on target.

Immediately to the East I put in the Wisconsin No. 2.  This measured 354.5' x 88.5' and it used up 107 lbs of seed, or 1.8 bushels.  It worked out to 2.4 bushels/acre.  I don't know why it ended up so much more per acre than the VTR.  There is no good explanation for the discrepancy, since all the settings were the same.  

I put this year's winter test plot out in the Newman field, since it was the only good soil I had available.  It's in a ten-foot wide strip to the East of the WN2.  I decided to continue growing out the Krymka, Goldcoin, and Red May.  At the South end of this strip I put in single strips of all my Turkey Red strains, so I can see them growing together.  From North to South (photo is facing North), they are:

• Stephens Turkey Red
• Ehmke Turkey Red
• Vavilov Turkey Red
• Wisconsin No 2
• Nebraska No 6
• Montana No 36

To protect the test plot I filled up the hopper with ordinary Ehmke Turkey Red and planted a protective strip around everything.

In the background is the Marquis field from this Spring, which has been planted to oats and peas plus red clover. This was all planted way too late to be much benefit, but there was no possibility of planting it sooner due to the rain.  Basically, I spent the entire summer waiting for the field to be dry enough to work up and plant.  Many fields in our area were not planted this year due to the excessive rain.

I went over the field carefully with the spike tooth harrow to work in the seed and increase soil contact.  I kept it pretty light so as not to contaminate the plantings.

The next day I realized that I really want to see that Early Noe again.  So at the Northeast corner of the entire plot I drilled in about a tiny test planting.  This photo is facing South.