Kernels & Pods

June, 2018

Good morning,

Once again I am beginning the June newsletter right after a substantial rainfall over the weekend. Our farm had been missing some of the rain that had been happening, getting .1 of an inch when other areas were receiving ½ inch or more, even up to 2 inches in places. One group of customers to the north of us (Readlyn-Tripoli area) had a late spring getting their crops into the ground. They received several 5-6 inch doses of moisture keeping them out of the field until late May. In the end, all of the corn and beans got planted and are thriving. As in recent years, the slight lack of rainfall early on has given us one benefit; it drives the roots down lower to reach moisture which gives us a much stronger basis for the plant to remain healthy and stand well until harvest.

If we think back to mid-April when we received the last snow storm, a lot of us were getting stressed out, realizing that in 2017, there were many acres of corn already planted. However, the weather did turn around quickly. The only issue for many of us was getting our nitrogen applied. Tool bars were sometimes in short supply. When the nitrogen did get put on the acres, we got several phone calls about how long to wait before going in and planting. The “stock” answer that is usually given is to wait 3 days. We contacted our agronomist and were told that 5 days is much safer for the seedling. Since the ground had gotten fit and in some cases gotten dry, the danger of going in with the planter too early was magnified. We did experience several issues of nitrogen burn because of this situation. In one case, the grower waited 8 days; however, the soil was somewhat wet when he applied the anhydrous, and coupled with the fact that the one end of the field was wetter due to the way the field lays, he had some kernels that did not germinate. In most years, this is not an issue because the nitrogen bars are usually active in late March. It does seem like we are “ahead” of the mark now, due to the abnormally warm temperature in the last few days of May.

There is one last comment about this spring. Once again, remember how nervous we all

were around April 15th………..in the world of today, we can get one heck of a lot of corn planted in a very short amount of time.

Soybeans were planted earlier than normal for several of our growers. Once again the nitrogen factor entered in. Guys who were waiting for nitrogen applicators finally got the N. applied, but then had to wait several days for the ground to absorb the nitrogen, so they went ahead and planted all of their soybeans. (More beans got planted in April this year than normal.) Beans, like the corn fields, are off to a very good start.

For those of you who are using Dicamba weed spraying programs for the first time, we will refresh your memory somewhat to assist you in making your spraying timelines work. You can spray Xtend-A-Max until the beans complete R-1. (Beginning of flowering). You have 4-5 days after flowering begins to complete your spraying. Now of course, soybeans don’t have calendars but as a rule of thumb, you need to be finished spraying Dicamba by around July 1st-4th, at the latest. Try to spray the weeds before they are 4 inches tall. You get 2 weeks of residual out of Xtend-A-Max, so coupled with canopy, you should be able to have great control of your weed issues. Waterhemp weeds are late in germinating so that should make the timing of your application work well.

Almost everyone tank mixes Round-Up or something with the Dicamba products to really clean up fields. For those of you who planted Liberty beans this year, remember that Liberty beans ARE NOT ROUND-UP-READY. There were 2 incidents last year with folks whose Liberty beans got sprayed with Round-Up and killed the entire field.

We sold approximately 70% of our bean sales this year to the Dicamba technology. Several of our customers bought the newer beans because they wanted the latest genetics more than they wanted the Dicamba tolerance. The beauty of this system is that if they do develop a weed problem, they can control it later with Xtend-A-Max. We will still offer the Round-Up 2 varieties in 2019. We have a very loyal group of growers who really have come to like certain Round-Up 2 varieties. We do suspect that someday all of our beans will have Dicamba genetics along with Round-Up tolerance, which will make it much more simple to utilize the spraying choices without getting into trouble, spraying the wrong product on the wrong field.

Our plot event this year will be the evening of Thursday, September 6th. You will be notified by mail as well as email for those of you who use email.

Have a great summer, and play safely!

Mike & Bob