There isn’t a lot of new stuff to report on this week. The soybean planter is out and the grain facility crew has moved on. This was pretty much an odds and ends type of week.

We postponed the corn planter and brought in the field cultivator. Matt greased it, checked tires, changed the shovels, and gave it a good once over. We paired the field cultivator with the 550 quadtrac as it needed service as well. We greased it, ended up changing air filters, and did an inspection. We found about half a dozen bogey wheel seals that had begun leaking and replaced them. We also decided to rotate the front tracks from side to side as they are wearing down more on the insides. We hope we can get an extra year or two before they will have to have new lugs installed on the tracks.

I’ve also been working through an irrigation power panel upgrade. In December, dad tore down a panel that had been up since 1996. Though we usually get a longer life, the posts have rotted and the panel bottom was rusting out. We also added a ‘helper’ well to the setup, so it was just time for a complete redo. I think all the parts are ordered and should be here soon. A sketch of the interior box layout is laying on the office table. Dad says he is going to assemble the box one of the days that I’m gone with the kids for sports. We will then take it to the field and make all the external wiring connections after we install it onto a new H frame.

We did receive our first round of corn seed test results back. For the most part, results were good. It’s always a bit ironic when the one hybrid you reject is oversold and the seed company is glad to have more units to pass out. We’ve also got another hybrid that is marginal on saturated cold test, but that is the case every year. It’s a hard one to produce, we’ll just be mindful of the forecast when we plant that one. All the pericarp damage results were in the low range. It must have been a good year to produce seed!