Photoblog Entries by Ryan Cramer, Yetter salesman

Project Summary

Bill and Tyler Carson's farming operation, based in West-Central Illinois, uses strip- and no-till management practices. The Carsons use a 16-row John Deere 1770NT CCS planter with John Deere coulters (photo 1). The Carsons equipped the planter with floating row cleaners to fit their coulters. The Yetter 2967-042-ST-FW residue manager with SharkTooth® and floater wheels are the units we recommend using for the Carsons' operation.

Entry 1 - March 25, 2009

Installation day at the Carsons' shop. Bill and Tyler worked with Jim Lascelles and me to install the 16 residue managers.

The 2967-042-ST-FW attachments (photos 2-6) were mounted on the John Deere coulters in about 4 hours. These residue managers can either be set to float and follow the soil or be pinned in a ridged position. The -042's have a pin-adjust component on the arm to set a down stop or pin the residue manager in place. The residue managers, as shown below, are equipped with Yetter SharkTooth® and floater wheels.

Entry 2 - May 11, 2009

Finally--corn planting! We've had plenty of rain here this spring. We'd normally be planting by April 15.

The first field the Carsons went into with the -042s was strip-tilled last fall. It was corn acres last year, and it will be again this year. Even with the strip tillage last year, plenty of residue was blown into the strips over the winter (photo 7) and so there was work to do. Photos 9 and 10 show the residue managers working in the strip-till corn, planting along the strips made last fall.

Entry 3 - May 12, 2009

Good weather again today gave the Carsons a chance to get into another field. This one was planted to soybeans last year. This field was also strip-tilled last fall.

Both yesterday and today, the residue managers were set in floating position (photo 13).

Entry 4 - May 22, 2009

More rain meant more delays, but the Carsons hit a third field today, and more soybean residue was dealt with using the -042s. Operation for the Carsons was smooth, other than adjusting the down stop to match the soil conditions in each of the 3 fields, which is always recommended to get the best results from any row-unit attachment.

Entry 5 - June 6, 2009

Today, the Carsons finished planting after a very late and wet spring. I will be posting pictures throughout the rest of the growing season of crop emergence, the plants at the V3 stage, tasseling, and all the way through to harvest.

Entry 6 - June 6

We're about one week after emergence in the Carsons' strip-tilled field--V1 stage [photo 18]. These young plants emerged well from the strips cleared in the bean stubble by the 2967-042-ST-FW residue management attachment. Considering the pounding rains we have had, the plants look good. The rains during the planting season even led many growers to pull rotary hoes out, which doesn't happen all that much in this area.

The second Carson field we're tracking, which is corn-on-corn, also displayed very successful emergence. It was planted 3 days before the field referenced above. These plants have progressed to V3 stage [Photo 19].

Entry 7 - July 14

The corn-on-corn field is tasseled out--VT stage [Photo 20]. Silking should occur in a few days. The corn is a little uneven from the wet spring, which also has continued into a wet and cooler-than-normal summer.

Entry 8 - August 13

The field that was strip-tilled, corn-into-bean stubble is now at the milking stage. The silks are browning [Photo 21] and the kernels formed are uniform [Photo 22]. The field looks pretty good considering the weather is still unseasonably cool and wet for this time of year. [Photo 23] Rain has continued to fall almost weekly and temperatures have been in 70s and 80s during the day.

Entry 9 - Nov. 25, 2009

The Carsons were finally able to get into the fields today to harvest their corn crop.

The field below, which was beans last season, was strip-tilled for corn this year. Yetter 2967-042-ST-FW residue managers with SharkTooth® and floater wheels (see entry 1) were used to help prepare the seedbed.

The crop was yielding an average of 226, and moisture content came in at 17%, a number the extremely wet fall certainly contributed to.

It's been a late, wet harvest-some Illinois farmers have only 70% of the corn crop out. But the numbers for many, including the Carsons, are looking pretty good.

Entry 10 - Nov. 28, 2009

The Carsons finished harvest late last night. But work is not done-even with all the crops out of the fields, the Carsons still have a lot of transferring and drying of corn to tackle.