Moisture readings from our AquaCheck probe

The above charts show the water use of a crop of Mung Beans planted around 50 days ago. The bottom chart shows the 100 to 200mm (10 to 20 cm) water use.
You can see that at about 11% of soil water the green line flattens out (crop could not extract any more water) before we had 34mm of rain. Then there was a rapid increase followed by a few days then another 18mm of rain. Then a few days flat and now as the crop is bulking up and using a lot more water you see the "steps" (daily use) using much more water than earlier in the crops life.
The top graph is for the 700 to 800mm (70 to 80cm) zone, as you can see the crop is also drawing on this water slowly There is obviously water left in between the above zones although I did not want to make it too complicated by adding them (click to show a bigger image)

Soil Moisture/Temperature probe data

We installed a AquaCheck soil probe a while ago, the above screenshot shows the 10cm deep soil temperature (red line), as you can see the soil temp rises and falls each day, the highest daytime 10cm deep soil temp was 32 deg C, this surprised me as it was about the same as the ambient temperature (air temp).
Then we had 34 mm of rain around the 2nd of April, as the graph shows, the temperature plummeted by 8 to 10 deg C.
 I suspect that the radical drop is also related to the Mungbean crop getting canopy cover (shading the ground).
Lots for us to learn from all this type information, the hope would be that we make better management choices based on what we learn. 

Forage Sorghum planted on the 22nd of Feb (approx 49 days ago)

The above photo is of Kabuli Chickpeas planted beside our forage Sorghum trial, we will cut the forage in about 35/45 days and see what type of feed quality we get. 

A small number of Grubs installing some window's in our Mung Beans

Crop Progress 26th of March.

Photos from the top forage sorghum growing well, this is a small area to trial possible uses for the forage.
Next photo from the top are KS20 Mung Beans , our 500 hectares of beans are very even which will make managing the beans easier, they are growing nicely.
Bottom two photos are of wheat, it has been a bit on the warm side for wheat with temp up to 31 deg c and high winds.
Still if the long rains come in the next week we should see our maximum daytime temperature drop as we move through April down to 25/26 deg C.

Good Root Development on forage sorghum and Kabuli Chickpeas

Chick Peas , 23 days since planting

Jumping Beans, Mung Beans, 26 days after planting,variety is KS20

Annie, Grace, John and Wiz out on the town

 

Mung Beans (Green Grams) see daylight

Wheat up and Away

Planting 2016 started

We started planting wheat a few days ago, we have had 320 mm of rain over the past 3 months and so our soil is getting full.
We will plant about half our farm to wheat then the other half to Mung Beans (Locally known as Green Grams)
Plus a selection of small plot and small comercial trials of various crops.

Our planting team with our new Quick fill hopper (built by Robert in the purple top)

Seed Wheat Cleaning & Treatment

Farm Update

Well, we have had above average rain for what's locally called the short rains, usually just Nov and maybe half of December, the average for Nov, Dec and January is 208mm although we have been very fortunate to get 313 mm of rain for the same period to date (still some of Jan to go).
It has been very encouraging to see no water runoff our fields at all, quite amazing as much of the rain has been in heavy storms.
The previous crop residue, controlling our machinery traffic and zero till is showing its benefits, interestingly the only place any water has laid is in some tram lines.
The soil profile must be getting full of water and as we are only 10 or 12 days from the start of our 2016 planting it is nice to have all that water there.
Lots of preparing the planter and getting all our crop planting inputs ready to go.

Farm Christmas Party

 Gideon and his wife Margaret, Gideon runs our office and is also a very good machinery operator

 Team Security, Benson and Simon from our security team having a laugh

Samson on the left and Stanley our gardener on the right with Annett who helps Annie

 Annie giving a Christmas hug to Abigail, (Gideon and Margaret's daughter)

Mum and Dad with Chicks (black feathers are the male) Dad not happy

Happened to run into the Pope while at the Airport

Short Rains Are Here

The short rains are over the period of November and half December, from June to October (five months) we received 23mm in 4 events, so zero effective rainfall.
Since the start of November we have had 80mm, we will need three times this amount to get even a 75% full soil moisture profile. At the end of Oct our fields were bone dry and the soil cracked open ready to receive the rain.
We will aim to plant our next crop in Feb if we can plant on moisture to make the most of April/May rains when the crops needs it most, these rains are known as the long rains. (truth is they are about the same length as the short rains, i.e. 6 weeks)
 

Back home in Kenya after 15 day study tour of South America

Well after spending time in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina the small group of us returned to our homes and farming businesses.
We saw lots of different approaches to cover crops, No Till and machinery that allows planting  into high residue loads.
In Brazil and Paraguay there was obvious sub surface compaction although the 1600 to 20000  mm of annual rainfall masks it to a degree.
Lots of very good farmers and consultants growing good crops of Soya Beans and Corn.
We then moved into Argentina in an area called "The Pampas" silty clay soils that surprisingly don't appear to have the same degree of sub surface compaction  as the red high % sand soils of Brazil/Paraguay.
One amazing thing was that we did not find one farm running on a CTF system. (Controlled traffic farming ).
Thanks to all the farmers/consultants/machinery manufacturers who gave us their time, it was greatly appreciated.
     

Last Day In Argentina, looking at a field that has been no till for 30 years

Wooly Pod Vetch Cover Crop (he is concerned about his receding hairline)

Steve from Beyond Agronomy showing serious no till passion at a reseach station in Argentina. 

Iguassu Falls (Brazil side)

What a Cover Crop ( Brachiara Grass in Paraguay )

Jonti Standing Beside Lab Grown Soya With 2136 Pods on One Plant

Moving from Brazil to Paraguay (Background of Photo)

Stara Zero Till Planter Doing A Great Job Planting Soya in Southern Brazil

11 t Hectare Cover Crop (dry matter)

We had our first day with two leading farmers in Brazil, both were planting Soya Beans into some serious residues.
Great day, lots to learn from the people we are meeting.
Our host "Cleber" from a company called "Stara" has been 1st rate.
Today was Day one of our study tour in South America., over the next 10 day's we will look at various farming systems in Brazil,  Paraguay and Argentina. Busy 10 day's.

Just met one of our hosts, Cleber (Brazil)

Starting Our South America Study Tour

We arrived in Sao Paulo (Brazil) this afternoon,  heading to the home of Zero Till tomorrow.