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.  


 


John Cory
Security West Financial

Call your new banker, John Cory, Security West Financial.
http://swfinco.com/contact.html   (509) 994-8555 You can go off the balance sheet and work with the best using the strength of Farm Credit and others.

John will help you spend about $40,000 annually to make $150,000 more annually by spending only $60 per acre in irrigated production for fertilizer. John understands the cycles of agriculture and how to keep your balance sheet looking good.

At the end of five years you will own a powerful machine that continue to produce good returns having already been paid for at the end of the first year.  You can even apply for your neighbors with a Mustang Tool Bar.

At 1,000 acres of corn, An internal bottom line savings of $750,000 over five years on 5,000 acres of corn.  

An Exactrix Mustang Tool Bar capable of producing $550,000 of internally available funds in five years.   


  See Video 

Top yields, best margin and the new leader in VRT-Site Specific, Small Grains Expert. Eric Odberg at Genesee, Idaho breaking winter wheat yield records. Exactrix TAPPS at Catholic Canyon using 4 management zones. Exactrix Site-Specific, Variable Rate
EO.htm

"Paul Gangwish, Drone Video"
Track Machines improve production 200%.
Application time cut in half at 1 acre per minute.
Up to $150 more net income per acre.

The 2017 Agronomy Review.
http://www.exactrix.com/Broadcast_12_29_2016.html

Meeting your formulation needs. www.exactrix.com/TF.htm  

Picking your metering systems. www.exactrix.com/epm.htm  

Need more information on advanced crop production.   www.exactrix.com/EWAC.htm

 

For More Information:
 
509.254 6854