08 Aug Jada: Vomitoxin affects Faulkton and Gettysburg spring wheat

Hoffman Harvesting is still split up but with the wet wheat  in Bowdle, two of our combines moved to Faulkton to cut. The other two are still in  Gettysburg. We received a little sprinkle in the morning but it cleared up and we were able to start cutting at noon.

Again, farmers are disappointed by the yield of their spring wheat  crop. The wheat looks beautiful at a quick glance but the rain has created disease instead of a  high yield. While not all fields are affected, most fields in the Faulkton and Gettysburg areas have vomitoxin also known as scab.  Yields are ranging from the upper 20’s to 30’s while the test weight is 50 to 52. Here are some photos of us cutting in Faulkton.

Leon and our farmer Mark chat after fueling up the combines. There was no need to rush this morning as we received a little sprinkle that prevented us from cutting until noon.

The clouds no longer look like rain clouds so a day of harvesting looks more promising.

Oak takes a break from trucking to run combine in Faulkton.

Johan dumps Leon on the go.

Leon gets a flat on his combine header tire which allows his header to float. In order to fix it, Johan applies pressure to the tire so Leon can find the tire valve stem and fill the tire up without the air escaping.

Water setting in Faulkton fields is not an uncommon sight. Last year the area received floods and this years rains added to the already saturated area. Our farmer has lost around 500 acres to new areas of setting water in fields. He says 40 acres doesn’t seem like much in one field but it adds up.

Jada can be reached at jada@allaboardharvest.com. All Aboard 2011 is sponsored by High Plains Journal and DuPont Crop Protection.