Rugby Farmers Union Oil Company

This past summer I spent working in an internship position at the Farmers Union Oil Company in Rugby, North Dakota. Since the agricultural program at NDSCS gets out in April I was working up in Rugby as soon as possible. Duties that I was in charge of was delivering seed and chemical out to local producers. They also trained me on how to operate a floater used to spread fertilizer. I then got to spread fertilizer on fields in the area for about two weeks. The company also has a station in Wolford, North Dakota so I was in charge of shuttling product from Rugby to Wolford. The Rugby station offers to treat soybeans. During soybean planting season time was spent using the treater to put inoculant and seed treatment on the seed. During the spraying season time was spent unloading chemical from Winfield solutions trucks to be stored in the warehouse. We also had to load and unload bulk and mini bulk shuttles of chemical for local producers. Time was spent filling them with products such as Roundup and Class act.

In the spring of the year the agronomy center in Rugby offers custom application of dry fertilizer such as urea, potash, AMS, and MAP. As seen in the next two pictures. For around two weeks I ran a floater well Harvey ran the other one. The floater has an outback light bar in them and sixty foot booms. Once you had your fertilizer in the floater you would have to take a density and then set your monitor to the proper rate.

I also was in charge of putting the company’s three seed plots in. We put in a grain corn plot which you see in the next two pictures. In the above picture we are putting in the fertility side of the plot. All trials where treated with Nachurs 6-24-6-S with Zinc as a starter fertilizer. We also did some trials with Stamina, Ascend and Headline fungicides. We also put in a corn silage plot and a soybean plot.

The Farmers Union Oil Company also offers to treat soybeans. As seen in the next two pictures. They have a seed treater and scale in the facility. Producers pull up under the conveyer for their product. Product distribution is all done with a touch screen. This runs all the conveyers and slides to the hopper bins and treater. We would also fill seed treatment such as Cruiser Max and Warrior. We also would fill inoculant such as Vault.

During the spraying and fertilizing season time was spent loading and unloading product from the warehouse. Product was moved around with industrial forklifts. Producers planting corn would often come in and get Nachurs liquid starter fertilizer. We also had to recirculate liquid fertilizer to prevent it from setting up as seen in the next two pictures.

Turnip aphids in Canola Aphids have been showing up this past week in most canola fields. Most canola fields where planted early this year and are not in harm of aphids. However in years when there is much more later planted canola spraying may take place when 20 percent of the stem is infested with cluster of aphids at flowering and late flowering.

Alternaria Black Spot Have not seen very much of this in fields just happen to come across it. I believe it to be Alternaria pods are discolored with shriveled up seeds. Also parts of the main stem are dark in spots with black blotches. Most varieties have some type of resistant to Alternaria.

Cereal Aphids in Wheat Populations have grown these past two weeks but have not reached any established thresholds. As of right now I do not now of anyone who has sprayed for aphids in small grains or has recommended it.

Fusarium Head Blight left picture. Right picture may have some head mold disease. The left picture has scab in it the head is white and dried up the kernels are shriveled up and have a light to whitish color to them. The picture on the right may have head mold do to the black spots scattered on the head also the head did not fill… flowers may have aborted do the really hot and humid temperatures we had at flowering.

Leaf Rust in Oats Most producers spray a fungicide when spraying their herbicides so leaf rust has been around a little. I have only seen it in a few fields this happened it be an oats field that probably is going to be hay so the producer didn’t spray a fungicide.

Tan Spot in Oats Most producers spray a fungicide when spraying their herbicides so tan spot has been around a little. I have only seen it in a few fields this happened it be an oats field that probably is going to be hay so the producer didn’t spray a fungicide.

Lady Bug larva in Barley Lady bugs are usually a good thing in small grains they help with controlling aphid populations. There has been quit a few around this year.

Aster Yellows Canola Aster Yellows is a disease transmitted by the asters leaf hopper. This disease rarely causes any economic damage. This canola plant has it bad because it was seeded really early. This was actually a fall seeded dormant spring canola do to it early start it was susceptible to the high populations of leaf hoppers that we had this year early in the spring.

Untreated

Ascend- seed treatment or in furrow. Main role is to help with plant germination.

Nachurs 6-24-6 w/S starter and Zn

Headline- Strobulurin fungicide that can be post applied, or used in furrow. This enables a treated plant to protect its self against disease. This also allows the plant to emerge faster and have more seedling vigor in cool soils.

Stamina- Used as a seed treatment in this trial, its purpose was to help treated corn seed emerge faster, prevent seedling disease and establish a healthier stand. We compared the Headline in furrow to the Stamina to see which gave the most efficient response based on an in-furrow vs. seed treatment.