Flats Farms Test Plot HARVESTED

The beans were cut on Tuesday of this week up at the Hemingford test plot on Flats.  Dave went up to help Flats and UNL harvest the plot yesterday.  Overall, they were very pleased with the yields, especially the La Paz and the 6203 Sinaloa Pinto varieties.  Flats had 2 combines running at the same time which helped it go faster.  Check back for the results later this fall.  (Photos courtesy of Dave Dietrich, 2011).

Hemingford Test Plot Tour

Today, we were all up in Hemingford for our first test plot tour.  We had around 15 people gather to look at the fields.  It was very informational and helped add to my knowledge base.  We got to see all these different pinto varieties all in one place and got to compare the disease resistance and look at the different growth types:  semi-upright vs. lower and vining.  If you didn't get up there and still want to, we left the variety signs up.

Directions:  From Hemingford, travel West on Highway 2 for 9 miles, turn North on CR 79, the plot is 1 mile North on the East side of the road.

Following the tour, we all went to the Legion for lunch.  I just want to thank the crew there who prepared a really nice meal for us.  We had an informational meeting where John talked about where the bean industry is as a whole as far as current production and how the markets relate to that situation.  Thank you to Flats Farms for doing the test plot!

After lunch, I headed further up North into the Hay Springs area again with Roger to meet one of our growers/landlords.  It was a great trip because I got to meet another member and introduce myself.  He bought more shares in our company because he likes what we are doing and where we are going.

I was on my way back to drop Roger off at his truck and thank him for a great day, and this is what we saw in the parking lot where he had left his truck.....  

We decided to stop and talk to this man to find out what his story was.  As we talked, we found out about his interesting contraption that he was driving.  A lawn mower with a hut on the back, pulling a welding trailer.  When we met up with him, he was working on the transmission of the lawn mower so that he could make it to Taco John's tonight to plug in.  He has his bed and a 17" flat screen t.v. in the hut and an air conditioner unit on top that someone had given him.  He was a happy man who wanted to share his show with us.  He got his dog, cat, and rat out of the hut and put on leather harnesses (that he made himself) on the dog and the cat.  Then, he proceeded to place the cat on top of the dog and the rat on top of the cat.  They just all hung out there together, happy as could be.  He travels up to Sturgis every year for the Rally.  What a happy guy!  Roger donated some money to help him with gas.  We wished him the best!  :)

Then, while we were stopped here, several other people stopped to see what was going on.  Roger and I ended up talking with this wonderful couple from California who were just passing through.  We got to share some facts about our bean industry here in Nebraska.  It was such a neat experience!

Only in Nebraska!

My Experiences So Far

On Monday June 6^th, 2011 I went out to help put in my first dry edible bean test plot.  We worked with Carlos, John, and Fred from the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research Station at Flats Farms.  Their farm is up in the Hay Springs area.  It was a great first experience because we had a really nice day and nice people to work with.  Currently, we are testing 10 different pinto varieties in 4 different replications. 

Jay was driving the tractor with a 12 row planter, running around 6.6 m.p.h.  We would load Jay’s planter up with seed and he would go out and plant 4 replications using his GPS.  When he got back to the pickup and trailer, we would carefully vacuum out each and every seed box to be sure that we did not mix the seeds, for more accurate results.  While a couple of us were doing this, the others were opening up the seed bags and spreading them evenly over all the boxes.  With the good weather and teamwork, we were finished in around 4 ½ hours.