"The Mountaineer" introduces a new news story this week. It is called a Guest Interview and features a "Mountaineer" reporter picking up the telephone and calling someone in our phone book and asking what is on his or her mind today. If you have something on your mind and are interested in doing a Guest Interview, just give us a call at "The Mountaineer" phone number 378-2176.
This week, early in the morning of October 12 Bob Quinn's phone rang early in the morning. That was the start of our Guest Interviews.
Quinn is an easy and a difficult interviewee. He always has something on his mind to share with the community but he is usually talking way ahead of what he is thinking so getting a word or two wrong is easy to do.
But, we will try. Today Bob was looking out of his windows at some snow around his house and wishing it would go away so he could start his planting. Quinn is planting test plots to see if his crops will grow better planted in the late fall, rather than the traditional of such crops to be planted in the spring.
It is no secret that Bob is worried about climate change here on the Big Dry in northern Montana, and wants to see what a longer growing season will do to crops like Kamut and safflower.
Last fall you would have seen Bob out in his tractor in early November planting both Safflower and Kamut. His strategy was simple, to see if those more typical spring planted grains would come up as well in the spring as more typical wheat like winter wheat.
The premise is sort of simple, really. Take spring wheat as an example. Most farmers would never plant spring wheat, Bob thinks, unless they do it as a hedge against something bad happening to the winter wheat crop planted in the fall. It is sort of like the lower prices typically gotten for spring wheat are better than if for some reason a winter wheat crop doesn't come up.
So, how about planting spring crops in the fall? It must have been successful for Bob as this is the second year he wants to be out on the tractor right now and in November.
"I got a 30 percent yield on my crops planted in November of last year, that was after the ground had cooled so they didn't come up at all until spring."
But there was something different about that wheat crop planted in November. Quinn's Kamut averages usually around 20 bushels to the acre but that 30 percent that lived through the winter and came up in the spring averaged 35 bushels to the acre. That is a huge difference.
"So, this year I am trying something different. I want to be planting now if the snow ever goes. I want to plant my spring crops now so that they will have a chance to come up before the snow comes. And in another plot, I will plant my spring crops, like last year, after the ground is cold so they will not come up until next year. I would like to see what that difference is.
Oh, and about that 30 percent yield. Simple, on large acreages just plant two-thirds more and you should have an average yield Bob thinks.
One other thing at Bob has noticed that he has turned into a theory is that huge amounts of June rain can make a crop of any kind susceptible to many diseases. That is how it was in June of 2016. However, go back around twenty years to 95 or 96 when there were heavy June rains and there were few diseases. What was the difference? Bob's theory is that those 90's years had cold winters where as the winter of 2015 and 2016 was extremely mild. Go figure!
Bob Quinn said that he missed the Chili Feed earlier this month but he drove through town and parked in the middle of the street was a big school bus full of happy children. He can tell the rest in his own words.
"There were kids getting out of the bus and going every direction. They were elementary kids and they were painting sidewalks and decorating windows and just having the best time doing it. That was great Pioneer Spirit preparation and how those kids enjoyed it. You know school should be fun too," added Bob.
You betcha Bob! Thanks for the interview.
