Spring planting at the Husker Harvest Days site near Grand Island, Nebraska, started in full swing on Friday, April 11. Host farmer Jason Luebbe and his crew were able to plant 160 acres before rain and snow halted progress on Saturday night. The show site received a half of an inch of rain before it changed to snow, accumulating 2 inches on Sunday, April 13.

"It was very dry," said Jason Luebbe. "Planting was going well but we did need the rain. Without it, we would have started to irrigate this week."

Planting demonstration fields at Husker Harvest Days. With the forecast of rain and snow, planting became a late night endeavor.

Planting resumed on Wednesday, April 16 with close to 300 acres planted between Wednesday and Thursday. Twenty acres has been set aside for John Deere to demonstrate their new high-speed, high-performance ExactEmerge planter for accurate planting at speeds of up to 10mph. More information and photos to follow on this new technology.

Other news at the Husker Harvest Days site includes a new pivot for the alfalfa that is used during the show for haying demonstrations and Wednesday corn harvest. The old pivot has been replaced with the newly launched Valley VFlex Corner Pivot. Several companies will be testing their irrigation tools such as moisture probes and variable rate irrigation at the site this summer. We will be sure to keep you updated as the growing season progresses.