Saturday's trip was to Meredosia and Chambersburg. It seems like I have lots of blog ideas right now, but I am sticking with the crop progress reporting. I left around 6:30 AM after looking at radar and precipitation maps to go to Meredosia. With rain in the forecast I went where it was out of the forecast. I was sprinkled on all the way to Springfield, but as I turned west, I could see clear sky. Going along I-72 there was plenty o f machinery in the fields. It looked like lots of corn was already planted. I know that some were already starting on soybeans judging by a few drills working.
Someone was taking a drill across the bridge at Meredosia. It is an interesting 2 person job. One goes across the bridge to stop oncoming traffic and the other drives the machinery across. I saw that last year too. The bridge is very narrow. Just 2 12 foot lanes and that is it.
The farm I worked on was completely finished with planting corn and soybeans. He was using a rotary hoe to break up a crust. Soybean planting had just been finished. Lots in a stale seedbed. The ground was neither wet nor dry. Just right as Goldilocks would say. I was surprised to see that many field tile were not running at all and some were barely dripping. Soil was as dry as I have seen since last fall. It was maybe as dry as it has been since 2007 in this area. in 2009 we missed sampling this farm altogether because of wetness.
My tweeps will already know that I tried out a Sony Toughbook as my field computer instead of my handheld Archer. It worked well. I had some time to mess around today waiting for my fellow consultant to get to the field, so I mounted up the Toughbook and gave it a field trial. It worked very well once I got it set up right. Turning off the aerials and thickening the lines on the map made it very visible. Once again I ran it with the Wintec receiver and Global Mapper. It seems Global Mappper does not pick up the receiver until I move. Not really a problem, just a quirk. I used it on battery only and it goes off about every 5 minutes. That is good because it conserved the battery. When I get near the edge I turned it on and then let it go off somewhere in the next zone. Running it that way, I sampled from 9:30 to 2:30 with no problem. 35% of power was still left. I have an inverter for it, but that is really too bulky for the 4 wheeler. I need to get a lighter cord. I was very pleased. I also need a screen protector to keep the dust from scratching the screen.
It was pretty stable on some pretty rough ground, although not sure I would use it on chiseled ground. It did tend to sag a bit after a while, but I will pad the front rack and let it rest on the pad. Should not be a problem.
Pretty impressive and a cheaper model from ebay like Kelly Robertson got would make it a bargain.
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