Farmers ask, will South Dakota snow be enough to save the wheat crop?

XtremeAg’s Lee Lubbers’ wheat crop gets much needed moisture from the first blizzard of the year, while Chad Henderson uses his new tile technology to drain his fields off.

LEE LUBBERS – GREGORY, SOUTH DAKOTA

Lee Lubbers of Gregory, South Dakota, grew up in the farming tradition, and remembers using leftover scholarship money as the down payment for his first tractor and rent for 200 acres. Today, he farms more than 17,000 acres of dryland soybeans, corn, and wheat. Lubbers says one of the most important things to him is to always be learning and challenging himself to build an operation and a legacy that the next generation can be proud of.

It's going to be a white Christmas in South Dakota this year. After basically four months of dryness, we got hit with a four-day storm this week. It's going to be a fun process digging out. We’ve got multiple yards and bin sites to clean. We are in the middle of finishing some contracts, so as soon as we get dug out this weekend the trucks will be running hot and heavy. This next week it looks like zero for the average temp, at best.

What do you do during a four-day blizzard? Paperwork, make s’mores with the kids, drink hot cocoa, and play with the pup in the snow. Make the best of the miserable weather. I’ve spent time analyzing a lot of data for XtremeAg and I’m very enthused about a few products that really showed out in an extremely tough year. We didn’t see a lot of positive results this season since we had very little rain, but we were impressed with the results we saw from our trial of SoundAg’s Source product. The corn was rolling up and hurting when we applied it at VT. We saw a significant increase in yield in the applied areas and it seemed to really give our corn a jolt when it needed it most. I am excited to see what it can do in a normal year. We will keep testing this one out.

We desperately need the moisture. Our winter wheat was in tough shape. We hope this moisture came in time to save it. Before this storm the ground wouldn’t even freeze because it was bone dry up to four-feet deep. Going to enjoy the Christmas season and be ready for a full shop schedule after the first of the year. Stay safe, stay warm, and merry Christmas everyone from South Dakota.

CHAD HENDERSON – MADISON, ALABAMA

Chad Henderson is part of a fifth-generation farming operation in Madison, Alabama. Henderson Farms operates over 8,000 acres of dryland and irrigated corn, dryland soybeans, wheat, and dryland and irrigated double-crop soybeans. When not farming, Chad can be found carrying on another proud family tradition as a drag racer for Henderson Racing.

December has brought several big rain events already. I know I talk a lot about our ADS tile and lift station system, but it really continues to amaze me just how well the wheat is holding together in our tiled fields. The low swags have not turned yellow this year, and the wheat looks great across the entire field. We are real-time graphing how much water the lift station is moving with an electronic flow meter. There is a weather station recording current weather data as well. It is all being compiled together to see the time of the weather event and how much water is moved out of the field. Our XtremeAg members should be on the lookout for some neat data that we will be sharing soon.

Green wheat growing in Alabama in December

It’s been a big week for many farmers with the NCGA yields coming out. Congratulations to all the farmers that have worked hard throughout the year and had great yields.

With Christmas coming, we have slowed down to spend time with family and friends. This week, a cold snap is coming. We are taking advantage of this time to spend with family and friends for Christmas. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

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