Virgin making quick work of planting
Give a farmer just a small window of opportunity and it’s amazing what they can do. Montgomery County farmer David Virgin has the proof in a HAT Field Update. A 7-day window for planting opened a week ago and that was all they needed to get the corn in the ground and get the beans to the verge of completion.
“We finished just a bit ago with our last test plot. We had a huge week, a 7 day run for us. We missed some of those rains and I personally knocked out about 1,700 acres of corn this week and our bean planter did about a thousand. So we should be done with beans Tuesday, weather permitting.”
Prior to the window Virgin had spent very little time in the fields.
“I got about a 2 day run and then another little 2 day run. Of course the first day out it’s slow going fixing everything or finding out what’s wrong, and really the conditions weren’t that great. It was very sticky and tough, but we were just trying to get going. I didn’t panic looking at the calendar. The weather didn’t present anything and the corn we put in the ground a week ago is already coming out. So when the conditions are right corn will take off and go. I’m not worried about the calendar.”
Next up is preparing to spray in a couple of weeks.
“My next plan of attack is to park the planter tractor in the shed for a week or two and get around to check emerging crops and make sure I planted correctly and then get the anhydrous bar ready to go,” Virgin said. “We side dress everything so I’ve got about 2,500 acres of corn to get over and side dress so I’ve got to get ready for that.”
Farmer friends to the south in Putnam County have struggled this spring with rain and overflowing rivers. Virgin talks about that in the full update:David Virgin May 20 update