We’re as done as we’re going to be for this year. We have fewer than 100 acres left and we’re too busy to figure out what we’ll do with those acres at this point.

My sprayer was down for nine days. After swapping three modules, the joystick, and a diode, technicians were finally able to determine the issue was actually a bad communication wire in the chassis harness. They by-passed it and I was able to spray all day and into the night on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday.

By the time it rained Wednesday I was pretty much caught up with what had to be done. As a bonus I even had rain-fast on some four-hour products I sprayed in the afternoon! (Rain-fast is the length of time after application the product needs to be absorbed by the plant in order for the product to work properly.)

And now, side dressing nitrogen

Corky and dad have been side dressing. We got across most of the early-planted corn. We also started on the 20-inch row corn. It is going to be interesting to watch this narrow-row corn this year. If we choose to do it again, we will have to do some more planning. But this year it was all about getting the crop in the ground.

Currently, the narrow-row corn looks like 80% of the crop in Indiana. It’s right at stage v2, not four inches tall. Because of the framework of the planter I couldn’t push the row units far enough apart to make a wider tram line tire path. With that being the case, we have tried spraying and side dressing across the rows and at an angle, to reduce damage to the crop. I think we’ll probably stick with an angle; it’s not as hard on the machine as crosswise.

We were able to get all of the 20-inch corn sprayed and two-thirds of it fertilized. The corn we ran down should pop back up. I’m hoping we can get the rest done before it gets too big. It’ll cost quite a bit more if I have to fly on the fertilizer.

On the home front, it has been quiet this week. The oldest two kids have been off at basketball camp, and the next two went to vacation bible school each evening. Unfortunately, the one night I was home at a reasonable time, Rachael still had coaching responsibilities -- no date night for us!

The opinions of the author are not necessarily those of Farm Futures or Farm Progress.