Weekly Update

Greetings,

Here we are, enjoying another beautiful winter day in North Dakota. Temperature is in the mid 30's, above zero that is. No snow on the ground. We are officially in a low grade drought. No serious precipitation in the forecast, even in the 7-14 day page I watch.

So, what are we going to have next year?? Has the pendulum swung the other way? It has become very clear to me that when it comes to predicting the weather, I am usually wrong. I have an irrigator sitting on a 1/4 of land pretty much unused for 12 years. If that irrigator would have been there in 1970, it would have been worn out by 1990. It looks like the only sure deal is to have an irrigator with tile drainage. One thing is sure, if we do go into a drought next year, we have plenty of water to pump out of all aquifers!

One of our first considerations if it does stay dry, is how we will handle all the wet ground that has not been very productive the last 18 years. Soil testing will certainly be a start. In some cases fertility will be high, especially if the land was fertilized fully and little crop came off. Nitrogen will be a wild card. If the land was submerged, I would expect little N would be left. Another wild card is biology of the soil. When normal soil is flooded, any critter that needs oxygen dies. The first thing that comes to mind is fallow syndrome. Make sure you band some phosphate. Then of course we have the salinity issue. I would love to see a before and after the wet period Veris map. The salinity will go back down where it came from, but remember it takes rain to do that. In other words, it won't go away as fast as it came. No till will be very important to resolve the salinity issue. One does not want any moisture evaporating from the surface. You also want as little ponding as possible. No till may not be the easiest thing to do, since some of this wet ground has been deeply rutted and will have to be smoothed out. Wind erosion can quickly become an issue. With many tree belts gone, there is little protection to bare soil.

I have posted the 2011 yields . Nothing to brag about, wind and hail were no friend.

If you want to read Leon Osborne's predictions for the weather this winter and next spring and summer click below.

http://www.agweek.com/event/article/id/223426/publisher_ID/40/

Happy Holidays!

Kelly Cooper- farm manager