How Do You Tell Time?

Since harvest is underway I have been reflecting back on this, the 2010, growing season and one important question kept coming up.

How do you determine when your fields are trafficable?

A question so complex in its simplicity indeed! But the ramifications of being wrong......

Trafficability is nothing new to us folks involved in agriculture. And it is certainly a critical piece of the crop production business. Whether you are a producer, Ag Service Provider, cooperative, or custom applicator, trafficability is on your front burner.

Crop management is all about timing. Everything we do in crop production usually is prefaced by "When can I [fill in the blank]" It may be the perfect time to apply fertilizer, insecticide, herbicide, or fungicide but if the field  isn't trafficable nothing else matters. And lets not even think about tillage with soils that are too wet!

So I open this thread with the two questions: How do you determine when you can enter your fields to perform field operations? And, What factors/variables play a part in your decision making?

Thanks to all the farmers out there harvesting or about to start harvesting the crops for our food, feed, fuel, and fiber.

Photo Credit: AgWeb