Rain, Rain, and More Rain!

The past couple of weeks have been crazy and hectic ones in Henderson and Daviess Counties.  I along with Brad Hagan, the intern from Daviess County, have been busy busy busy with our irrigation project! So far this summer, we have set out rain gauges and tensiometers, taken observations such as temperature, humidity, and wind speed at each location, taken soil and tissue samples at V5-V6 stage, and applied a nitrogen rich strip in the fields after taking the samples.  We have been checking all of the gauges once a week and have been keeping a close eye on the corn’s progression.

During the past few weeks, irrigation has not been a big necessity in the western Kentucky area because Mother Nature has been taking good care of the farmers.  Over the past four weeks, Henderson and Daviess Counties have had an average of 5 to 6 inches! Although there has been zero irrigation happening in the area we have still been checking all farms and their progressions because we feel that the data we are receiving without the use of irrigation is a good base data to be used to compare with for future years.  Ultimately, farmers want irrigation to create what Mother Nature has provided this year in years that they are not fortunate to have the abundant rainfall we have received this year. 

This past week, we received the V5-V6 soil and tissue sample results back from the lab and have been compiling all of the information we received.  We also put together a letter to send out to the farmers with their results that gave the farmer a summary of their results and what we plan to do in the next couple of weeks. After checking the progression of the corn for the past several weeks, the corn has quickly tasseled and we are now in the next step of our project.  This past week we have taken soil and tissue samples inside the nitrogen rich area and outside of the nitrogen rich area. 

     

 

We will also be giving farmers their results back from these tests as well.  We also plan on using the next results we get back to compare with the first set of tests results.  We are looking forward to seeing how many differences the nitrogen made in and outside of the strip. Both Brad and I want to make sure that the farmers get as much information as possible back from this project. Like said before in other blog posts, we would like to be able to put together an irrigation guidebook for farmers all across the state from this project, but we also want to be able to help local farmers in this area and be able to be a big help during their growing season and give them as much useful and helpful information as possible.  Extension has showed me and has given me the opportunity to realize that helping people is one of the most rewarding things to do.  Extension is all about helping people and making the agricultural world and industry a great thing to be a part of!