FIELD TREK
by Theresa Farris
April 30, 2010
K/1 students took a field trip, not by bus, but by walking a short distance to a field located just west of SVCA to learn first hand what it takes to plant field corn. Joe Sprague had disked the field the week before in preparation for planting. The first thing we learned was the seed he would be planting had been treated with an insecticide to help the seeds get started.
Mr. Sprague told the class this field of corn would be used as either feed for animals or used to make ethanol fuel. We were given an explanation of the process that the corn goes through as it moves through the planter and how the seed is planted and covered again with soil.
Mr. Sprague explained that most farmers today have automatically steered tractors guided by satellite driven technology.
This system allows tractors to be driven hands free with auto steering using the NASA Global GPS Network. It will allow a farmer to have more exact information regarding fertilizer, planting, and harvesting to the inch – literally. This technology will save the farmer cost and improve production, data collection, and yielding maps that will help the farmer have a business that will be more cost efficient.
After Mr. Sprague spent time explaining how the tractor and planter works students observed how the planter operated for a short distance. Then K/1 students got down to the fun stuff of trying to locate and dig up some of the seed using the information that Mr. Sprague had given about the depth and distance the seed was placed in the ground.
K/1 students knew corn seed germinated between 7-10 days so K/1 made our second trip to the field the following Monday to check for any sign of germination. We dug one seed and at that point nothing had germinated.
We made another trip to the field 2 days later and the seed had germinated.
It was on Friday last week that sprouts from the seed had emerged from the ground. The sprouts were up to 1” tall. We will be making weekly treks to the field to measure the growth of the corn.
