Fall Field Work Underway

As Bill’s pinto bean harvest moves along swiftly, he’s prepping and planning for what’s next. “Combining pinto beans is going well, and we’ll follow that by soybean harvest and then corn harvest,” Bill said. “We’ll till this year’s wheat stubble so it’s ready for planting pinto beans next year. This year’s pinto field will be prepared for spring wheat.”

While he is not planting winter wheat this year, Bill looks forward to spring wheat planting and hopes for an early planting window – around April 10. “We don’t know how much snow we’ll have this winter, but last year, we planted very early in April,” Bill said. His neighbors who are planting and raising winter wheat are working to break the green bridge, though. “They don’t want any green material growing in the field for 14 days before planting because of the threat of wheat streak mosaic,” he explained.

Next up for Bill is wheat seed bed preparations. “Part of our spring wheat planting preparations include an application of anhydrous ammonia this fall. We’ll plan to do that some time before the first freeze up, around Nov. 1. We’ll then ridge the field with a chisel plow,” he explained. For spring wheat planting, Bill aims to plant a fair amount of SY Soren and looks to stay on top of other new AgriPro® brand wheat varieties. “We will treat the grain ourselves with a seed treatment before seeding.

Bill won’t be applying a burndown herbicide this season. “Because we’re picketing the beans using a special picket machine, there will be a rod weeder running across the field. Also, there was good weed control this season, so there’s no need for a burndown herbicide application,” Bill said. Nevertheless, there is still much to do before the first freeze. Stay tuned to hear tips and stories from Bill post-harvest.

Ongstad Seed

Recent News