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A Spokane Symphony of Spuds.
Not all men were
created to raise seed potatoes.
1
A
five year rotation with Spring Canola, Dark Northern Spring Wheat,
Alfalfa, and Winter wheat. Charles Gross hops out for a talk.
2
Big Water for
Spuds, 3,000 gallons per minute.
- Reinke
center pivots are popular in Washington State.
- A potato
production pivot may only raise two crops of seed potatoes before
it is removed.
- A good
place to buy a 10 year old pivot is at the SHB.
- Big water
and high quality pivots are required for seed potatoes.
https://www.reinke.com/
- No
shortcuts with this crop.
- Jordan
Hofer loads and Charles Gross watches the loading.
- Charles is
the field boss in the tractor cab.
- Charles is
a technology guy.
3
That is a big
loader and yet delicate with the cut and treated seed.
4
47°36'58.51" N 117°33'39.65" W
5
A variety change
is coming in the red truck. A new sheet of music. The Spokane
Symphony of Spuds.
6
Loading the
specialized hopper extension with a bottom outlet
7
The seed was just
cut at the storehouse.
- The
foundation seed source is from around North America by truck or
rail.
- This seed
came from Manhattan, Montana about 6 hours away, Foundation seed
from a very specialized producer.
- From March
to May, Interstate 90 is the foundation and certified potato seed
corridor between Bozeman, Spokane and the Columbia Basin.
8
Here comes the
BNSF Transcontinental Railroad from Seattle or Portland.
- Three
engines pulling at 80 mph and one is pushing at the tail.
- That is 110
cars of something and headed to Chicago over Marias Pass at
Whitefish, Montana and on the south edge Glacier Park.
9
Man was that
train moving fast.
Another story
about Spokane is the Railroads, UP, NP, GN, SI or CP/UP and just to
the south 30 miles is the Milwaukee Road.
Spokane is deep rooted with Timber, Mining and Agriculture plus
power generation of the Snake and the Columbia River dams.
10
That is
Thio-sul®, 12-0-0-26S in the big white tank and 32-0-0 in the blue
tank.
The nutrients
are ready to be pivot applied using petiole samples to study plant
efficiency.
11
Paul Walters and
his son Isaiah load the planter with Jordan Hofer on the Loader.
12
That is a good
loader linkage.
- The Case
921C loader has some good engineering.
- Case is
famous for good hydraulic systems.
13
Just about
loaded. Bottom outlet gate allows the delicate release of the seed
pieces.
14
Tons and Tons of
Seed Potatoes for the Columbia Basin 2019 crop must be generated
with highest quality.
- Seed
potatoes ( up to 12 different varieties) going in the ground from
2 to 3 previous increases from the greenhouse.
- Field and
storage inspections are constant to help take away some of the
difficult odds or raising 80,000 lbs. to the acre.
- Your
reputation is on the line….the high risk dice roll is forming in
this field for the 2019 Symphony of Spuds.
15
An end tow
planter. Built in Belgium, 8 row design, 32 inch rows. Miedema is a
cup type metering planter.
http://www.dewulfgroup.com/en/planting-487.htm
- The planter
is being fine-tuned by the SHB. They like it.
- The planter
steers with its own RTK receiver beacon.
- The tractor
is steering and holding the mark at its programed position on the
planet.
- There are
two receiver beacons with one GPS beacon on the tractor roof top
which is not visible.
- The Miedema
planter finds its own spot on the planet.
- The wheels
on the back of the planter automatically steer based on the
planter GPS beacon.
- This means
highest levels of uniformity and efficiency at 32 inches apart
from each row with allowance for roll, pitch and yaw in rolling
pivots.
16
A Harriston,
8 row, pic type planter, similar to the old Lockwood of the 80’s.
http://harriston-mayo.com/harriston/index.php
GPS guidance
with a steer axle allows the planter to maintain the guidance with
the tractor.
http://www.trimble.com/agriculture/index.aspx
Trimble is the
leader in guidance.
17
The Case Half
-track works very well at planting and harvest. On rolling pivots it
really shines. Exactrix owners report good results with the Case
Magnum 340 and 380.
18
The Harriston is
a pic or tine type planter. The seed pieces are stabbed with a pic
and the cam action rotates the seed piece into the soil slot.
19
When the harvest
starts we will come back and take a look.
- The planter
has actually steered very straight in a relationship to the
adjoining planter.
- The wobble
in the line is irregularities of roll pitch and yaw.
- That is a
practical straight line if you compare each row at 32 inches apart
with sub one inch accuracy.
20
Potato Dirt.
21
Reverse No-till….the next few crops will be No-till when
possible and most likely Winter Wheat will lead to protect the land
through the winter . The SHB are also very good at
No-till. They are the pioneers of No-till in the Pacific Northwest.
Here is a video of Tim Gross.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVfwqL_bXKw&feature=youtu.be
22
The most powerful tool in
dryland production….and irrigated.
23
The Spokane
Huetterian Brethren or the SHB are the Pioneers of No-till.
Over 35 years
they have operated with contrasting tillage systems that match the
soils and long term needs of the land and colony profitability. http://exactrix.com/Broadcast_05_03_2018.html
Yes Sir…No Tillers here is more information about
their long term practices.
24
Back to the
Mother Ship. Need more diminishing payload.
25
It takes two to
Tango.
- Tango
Foxtrot with the Reinke Center pivots in the
background.
- The two
tractors talk to each other.
- Each
tractor automatically knows what the other tractor is up to.
- They leave
a pass typically for the other planter so they do not get too
pushy on each other.
- It is good
to run two planters since the efforts are actually more than
doubled by reducing the learning curve and watching out for your
brother.
- It is a
Symphony.
26
At the Western
Slope of the Rocky Mountains in Washington State.
The Spokane Huetterian Brethren. May. 12, 18.
Just starting
seed production for the 2019 Columbia Basin Potato crop
.
We will be back for the harvest scene in late September and October.
Your Great
Plains Reporter,
Guy J Swanson.
HISTORY TODAY
Idaho, is Shoshone
country reaching from Billings, Montana to Spokane Washington.
- Lewis and
Clark’s Expedition of Discovery, Missouri River guide was
Sacajawea. She was Shoshone and met her brother at the Lemhi Pass,
close to Dillion, Montana and the Big Hole in 1805. A
serendipitous event for brother and sister and no idea of the luck
of the draw.
- If you
leave Walla Walla, Washington and go east to Pocatello, Idaho and
on to the Wind River Range and Lander, Wyoming you are in Idaho
and you will need an airplane.
-
Today this aerial only vector is roadless back country of
the Frank Church Wilderness and the River of No Return, The Salmon
River.
- You must
cross Idaho twice to go to Salt Lake City from Spokane. Mainly
because of the wilderness that cannot be crossed.
- Idaho has
tremendous gold deposits but it is economically impossible to mine
it unless delivered as a placer deposit by river flooding.
- Idaho
is….An Indian Guidance Term.
- Mountain
Men of the 1820 to1840 period discovered that Idaho had the best
rivers and streams for Beaver.
- Geographic
Locations of Idaho for good fur trapping are “Jackson Hole,” “The
Big Hole”, Ross’ Hole and “ Fort Hall Bottoms”
- Fort Hall
Bottoms is a lower elevation (4,384 feet) flood plain of the Snake
river at Fort Hall, Idaho and the famous Rendezvous of the
trapping era.
- The Grand
Tetons is French for Beautiful Breasts indicating a fur trappers
view of beauty and reproduction.
- Big names
from this Mountain Man era, Hugh Glass, Jim Bridger, John Coulter,
Sublette Brothers, Jedediah Strong Smith ran trap lines in Idaho.
- These
locations were high mountain valleys of 6,000 feet surround by
mountain ranges to 13,500 feet.
- An area of
short growing season and thus only valued for fur and fishing and
not for farming.
- “A Hole” is
a term for a mountain valley and also normally associated with the
continental divide and drainage to the Pacific Ocean along the
Snake.
- In Idaho
country, Glacier Park, the continental divide splits water three
ways to Hudson’s Bay, The Gulf of Mexico at New Orleans, LA and
the Pacific Ocean at Portland, OR.
“You are in Idaho
when the
sun rises and sets over the mountains.”
27
Winter
Canola is the wonder crop for the Great Plains.
Only 15 miles
from here is the navigable Snake River with really good fishing.
Farmers here conserve water and soil with No-tillage techniques.
The lowest point in Idaho is 785 feet at Lewiston, Idaho with 4,200
feet of elevation change.
The elevation at this Genesee location is 2,800 feet to 5,000 feet
at the top of Moscow mountain on the horizon.
Quick changes in elevation make for big game like Elk, Moose and
Grizzly Bear in Idaho country.
In this case Winter Canola is the bright yellow, or
sun-like floral bloom under the mountains of
Idaho.
An economic wonder at the U of I test plot at Genesee, Idaho,
May. 11, 18.
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