Diligence
Technologies Inc., West Tennessee
EVENTS FROM
THE PAST MONTH:
One of our
off-season projects was to construct some additional chemical storage. Jesse and Kevin did an excellent job building
the new shelves (as shown above). With a
little luck, maybe we can be keep our maintenance chemicals well organized and
secure this season.
As is
typical this time of year, we are beginning to schedule tours for late-May and
June. What makes it challenging is that
the tours are often to view trials that we have not even established yet. However, my guys always seem to rise to the
occasion. I expect no less in the coming
season.
Like most
farmers, one of our challenges this season will be keeping track of which
herbicide traits are in which field (or in our case, which trial). It is not usually an issue for the test
treatments, but it can be a real issue for maintenance sprays. Don’t be surprised to find multiple colored
flags in the corner of your trials as we try to keep everything straight.
CROPPING
SEASONS:
Burndown and
wheat weed controls trials are done or pretty close at this time. Another rating or two and they will be in the
books. Horseweed has been a bit lighter
than normal to date (meaning we actually had to look for these sites), while
things like henbit and chickweed have been available in abundance.
Wheat
fungicide and other yielded wheat trials are progressing well. We managed to miss any major freeze damage
this spring and the trials appear to be on track for an early harvest. Still have a ways to go to finish these off
in good shape.
All the
yielded corn trials are planted now except fungicide trials. We usually hold off on those until mid-May in
order to encourage disease development.
Corn weed control trials will be starting up soon.
We are in
the early stages of cotton planting. The
first trials of the season were planted this week, but most of the cotton work
is in front of us. Recent weather has
been wet and cool which does not make for a good start a cotton crop. However, the forecast for next week appears
to be much more favorable.
GREENHOUSE
ACTIVITIES:
As the days
get warmer and field work increases, we are bringing greenhouse operations to a
close for another winter. A few more
ratings on our latest trials should do it.
We do have little greenhouse maintenance to perform (thanks to a hail
storm around Christmas), and we will shut things down until next October. Thanks to all those that keep us busy during
the cold months.
WEATHER
INFO:
The word for
the past few weeks has been “wet”. Good
for seedling disease trials but not a lot else.
We have been blessed in that we have had a few windows where we could
plant in selected fields on selected days.
That has allowed us to get things started. However, we still have a lot of catching up
to do when the fields dry and the things warm up a bit.
As always,
please continue to let us know if you have additional research needs. We still have sites available and would be
more than happy to fill them up with your trials.
Proverbs 12:24
The hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be put to forced labor.
