A First for Everything

So today was a first for me. It is the first time that I have scouted fields in February. Normally, we have about 3 feet of snow on the ground and I don't even think about going out there until at least the end of March. However, there's no snow to be found, the frost made it easy to walk over the fields and I needed to see if it is worth it to spread clover on the November planted wheat.

I started at the worst looking field and meandered my way to the best. Here is what I saw:



November 5th soft red wheat no tilled into soy stubble. Not bad, it's there. Did not find any tillers but they could still come with this weather. The only heaving was found in very wet areas. You'll notice in the picture below that not only the wheat heaved but so did what was left of the soy bean plant. The stubble will heave first as it's roots are dead and brittle but it is a good indicator to slow down and look at the wheat when you see this happening in the field.



Onto the next field: November 4th soft red wheat into a pulled bean field that was cultivated first and seeded a day later.



Wow! What a difference the cultivation made - one day to dry out and warm up the soil. Although there are no tillers yet, this field is looking good!

Next field: October 12 soft white wheat no tilled into pulled bean stubble. No major problems here other than the odd wet spot with a little bit of heaving.



And finally, here is it is. September 18th soft white wheat, notilled into pulled bean stubble. A rarity for this part of the province for sure.



I wish that there was more of these fields around here! No heaving found even in the very wet spots. The root system of the seedling is strong and big enough to keep it in the ground.

Anyways, it is February so what am I going to do with my findings? The first field is scheduled to get red clover will probably get it in the next few weeks if the ground stays bare. I think that all the wheat will continue to improve as long as we don't get a soaking rain and then a stretch of very cold weather. I've also got a good idea of what fields are good candidates for a split application of N but won't be doing anything on that for a bit yet. For those of you out there that are thinking of applying N on the wheat now - DON"T DO IT YET!. The wheat is only going to use the N if it is growing and we are not there yet, not even close.

Now I'm going to go put my feet on the heater and drink something hot, I'm glad that scouting doesn't happen every February 'cause it's cold out there!