When I was a single gal living in town, I had big plans to have the nicest, greenest yard on the block one summer. We won’t focus on how it turned out–especially since it barely rained that summer and I depended solely on rain to water my yard.
Regardless, that spring I went out and bought a decent sized bag of fertilizer and a handheld spreader.
I cranked, and cranked, and cranked, and cranked while I spread the fertilizer all over my yard.
I thought my arm was going to fall off, but I felt accomplished because I could tell where I had applied that fertilizer.
You could actually see the little white granules covering the ground.
Fast forward to 2015 and Adam has been pretty much doing the same thing except at a much, much larger scale.
He’s been busy spreading urea (dry nitrogen fertilizer) to some of the wheat fields during this first week of 2015.
Generally the guys like to apply urea to the fields in December, BUT it was too wet this year.
So January it is!
I had a little boy refusing to take a nap yesterday, so I strapped him in his carseat and set off to see what Adam was up to.
I couldn’t help but imagine how muscular my arms would be if I used that handheld spreader to broadcast the urea on the area Adam was covering.
No, wait. That’s crazy talk!
Adam was using a spreader that holds five tons of fertilizer.
FIVE TONS!
It has all kinds of interesting functions that I don’t fully understand but gets farmers really excited.
And it requires none of my muscles, which makes me excited!
One of the functions that I do understand is that it has a variable rate dry spreader.
Basically, you can punch in some numbers which will increase or decrease the amount of urea that is spread over an area based on soil tests.
So, the areas that need more urea get more, and the areas that need less get less.
Isn’t technology wonderful?!?
You can also punch in a number and the spreader will apply a blanket application.
That’s what’s being done here.
So while Adam cruised up and down this wheat field at 10 mph, the amount of urea was evenly applied.
Take a look at the aerial footage of how this all works…
We’re hoping it’ll now snow so the urea will get wet, dissolve, and work its way into the soil.
Once it’s in the soil, this will get to the roots of the wheat plants that are just hanging out in the fields during this time of the year.
When the wheat comes out of dormancy and starts greening up in March, the fertilizer is in the root zone, and the wheat can grow big and strong.
The variable is that we need moisture to make all of that magic happen.
And if we’re going to get moisture, it might as well be snow.
And if it’s going to snow, it might as well REALLY snow!
Here’s to a lot of snow this next week!
For the sole sake of the soil and wheat, of course 🙂
Alive & Well in Kansas 
I’m hoping for snow too! Love all your farm pictures. I’m a farm girl too:) Visiting you from #ArkansasWomenBloggers.
Thanks for stopping by the blog! I love taking photos and sharing them here. Here’s to some snow 🙂
Those are great pictures! Did you get the snow you wanted?
Kim! I found you! Amy’s been my teacher with all the techy stuff. You look and sound terrific! What a great website. It’s beautiful. And I’m so with you re: snow. (Snow days at school, remember??) God bless you and fam!
Hi Dawn! I’m glad you stopped by 🙂 Thanks for your kinds words. Hope all is well!!
This is one serious farm. The machinery..attention to details. Cant wait to see the pictures of the wheat farm when the wheat is all green. It will be a wonderful landscape.