Planting time 2011

Spring has finally arrived.  I can tell because I see tractor lights rolling across fields all across Iowa well into the night.  Occasionally, I join them in this springtime ritual.  Weather is a fickle thing.  There were a few warm, dry days around the 10th of April, but then the weather turned cold and damp.  It is hard on the nerves waiting for Mother Nature to cooperate and provide enough war, dry weather that the ground can be prepared and planted. 
This year in Iowa, the weather finally improved in late April.  I was able to start planting corn on April 30th.  I purchased a "new to me" used planter this year.  It is an 8-row, John Deere 7100 semi-mounted, integral style.  It is set up for no-till and has row cleaners, something that my previous planter did not have.  I set the planter for about 30,500 seeds per acre for corn.  It worked well.  In fact, with some of my land going into the Conservation Reserve Program this year, I was able to plant all of my corn in a single, long day.  After some planter-preparations, we started about 11 am and finished planting 67 acres of corn about 11 pm that day.  We probably would have finished a bit earlier, but I had to stop planting for a couple hours to clean out a clogged fuel line on the tractor that Brent was using to pull a field cultivator.  And we had to run into town to get some diesel fuel. I really like the results we got using this planter this year.  The corn has emerged and the stand is very even and very nicely spaced.
I did not go down to the farm on Sunday -- spent the day at church and with the family.  But on Monday, May 2, I switched the planter over to soybeans -- I have a set of seedboxes for the planter with soybean meters -- so I removed the corn seedboxes and mounted the ones with soybean meters.  In addition, the planter drive gears for the planter need to be reset for soybeans.  I got all this done, and then started to plant soybeans.  My goal is to plant about 140,000 soybean seeds per acre.  I set the planter according to the operator's manual recommendations, but that was planting only about 110,000 seeds per acre.  Each time I refilled the planter -- about every 15 acres, I increased the drive speed of the planter.  By the time I got down planting, I think I finally had the planter putting in the desired population.  Even with these issues, it appears that the soybeans have germinated well and I have a pretty good stand of soybeans.
I enjoy planting time.  I like it when the weather warms up.  I like it when it is greening up and the world seems to return to life after a long winter.  Spring is about new hopes and optimism.  I like the feeling of accomplishment that is associated with moving across a field.  Yes, it can seem slow and repetitive, but each pass across the field moves one closer to the finish line.  Most of life is like that.  Not a big rush, or a flurry of activity -- but slow, steady progress.  I finished planting soybeans on May 4th this year.  I have about 150 acres of land to seed to grass. But that is another story for another day.