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Non-Tech : Farming -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jon Koplik who wrote (50)	5/31/1999 12:19:00 PM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4443

Article about doing planting from an airplane (!) May 31, 1999 N.D. Farmers Plant Crops From Air Filed at 1:53 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Farmers frustrated by heavy rain in north-central North Dakota need not slog through soggy fields to plant crops like canola. They might want to take to the air. A crop sprayer already has seeded about 1,700 acres of canola from his airplane, helping meet the crop insurance planting deadline for the popular alternative crop. Farmers had until May 25 to plant canola and receive full crop insurance protection. ''It's a do-or-die situation,'' said Greg Eisenzimmer, who runs the crop spraying company Air Ag North in Munich, N.D. ''We've got an awful lot of guys on the bubble.'' Eisenzimmer blends the canola seed with fertilizer and applies it from a spreader on the airplane. The process works best if farmers are able to run a disk over the ground to cover the seeds. ''The jury will be out,'' Eisenzimmer, who seeded 60 acres of his own canola from the plane, said last week. ''I'll tell you in about two weeks. So far, the overall population (of seed) looked good.'' Cavalier County Extension Agent Ron Beneda doesn't believe seeding by air will take off and become a standard planting practice, but he says it's an attractive alternative for farmers who have no other choices. ''There's a big concern on how we can get that grain to sprout without covering it up,'' he said. ''It could work. I sure wouldn't be in a position to try it on a lot of acres.'' John Lepp, who works for Rivers Air Spray in Rivers, Manitoba, said airplane seeding has proven to be a viable option for flooded Canadian farmers. Lepp said he has seen canola sprout after seeds were dropped on potholes with standing water. ''The canola fell through the water and when the water dried up, it grew in the potholes,'' he said. Eisenzimmer charges $4.50 per acre to plant canola from his plane. Custom operations normally charge between $6 and $9 to seed crops with air drills. ''I can seed it cheaper than they can run their drill over it,'' he said. ''We're doing the canola at $2 to $3 an acre cheaper.'' Eisenzimmer said he is considering planting durum and wheat for one farmer, to help him meet the June 5 insurance deadline for those crops. The heavy rain also is a problem in south-central North Dakota. Hazelton farmer Tom Voller is one of those scrambling to meet the crop insurance deadline. He said recent storms that dumped about 10 inches of rain in his area will make it impossible to plant between 20 percent and 30 percent of his 2,500 acres. Voller said he is already three weeks behind with planting. ''This is the worst I've ever seen'' he said. ''We had it bad in '95, but not this bad.'' Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company