From the Fields: Scouting pays off

It looks like it’s going to be another hot one this coming week with very little chance of rain in sight. I can officially state we are done planting for the 2020 growing season. We finished harvesting the wheat this past Monday. It went very smooth this year, and we had no rain delays or equipment breakdowns to deal with. The wheat all tested dry and yielded well for the kind of growing conditions that we had. I think we will average around the 80-bushel mark when we haul everything off, but I’m excited to get our final numbers put together to see what it averages.

The straw crews got everything baled and hauled away, so we were able to get started on double-crop beans. Even though it’s been very warm, I was surprised at the moisture of the soil as I was planting. I’m praying we catch a pop-up shower or a storm rolls in to really help push those beans out and get them jumpstarted. We planted about half of the double crops to a 4.2 maturity and the other to a 3.7 at 230,000 population. We should have some starting to neck out of the ground beginning of the week, so I’ll be going around checking on emergence next week.

This is one of my favorite times of the year. All the fieldwork is done and now I can go around and scout our crops. I love walking out in the fields seeing what the plants are telling us. Our early beans are at R3 stage and will be getting fungicide, insecticide and a micro foliar fertilizer applied the beginning of the week. Plant health seems good this year with very little disease pressure, so far. The Japanese beetles have moved in and are starting to feed, but nothing that’s too alarming yet. Even though we don’t see many “pests” yet, we still feel the insecticide is very beneficial to the plant health and keeping those critters away while they start to set and fill pods.

We find that usually you never lose money on fungicide application. A lot of people balk at the price, but most years it pays for itself and then some. But inevitably some years it only paid for fungicide and the trip. We try and run a blend of micros that will give the beans a real boost of energy not only for more growth and pod fill, but to mitigate stress while it’s hot and dry. A happy plant in a stressful environment is more likely to yield than a plant that’s already lacking going into a stress period.

Our early corn is tasseled out and starting to silk for pollination. We could really use a nice rain and some cooler temps to help out with the pollination process and beginning grain fill. We plan on having a Hagie come in and spray fungicide and insecticide on the corn in the next week or two. We haven’t seen any common corn diseases come in yet. We usually see some northern corn leaf blight every year, but the big ones we spray for and watch closely now is the southern rust, tar spot and gray leaf.

These three don’t always happen in our area and vary from year to year on pressure and if the weather is conducive to the diseases. Those three can be detrimental to a corn crop, so we always spray to get ahead of the diseases before we see signs. Once you see it in your fields, it’s too late. Can you save some yield? Yes, you can. But the major yield loss has already occurred. It’s so important to take preventative measures instead of waiting.

We always encourage our customers to get out and look at your fields. If you’re not sure what to look for, we encourage you to seek help. We will always go look at our clients’ fields if they want us to. Our agronomists are very good about setting up times to come along and offer guidance. With these low commodity prices, a farmer really has to make sure every plant counts and we have to give it every chance to work hard for us. I encourage all of you readers to go out and find a few new things you’ve never seen or noticed before and go back and study those to see what you can do to better your farm for next season.

Everyone, stay cool this coming week and go enjoy some time out in the fields. Have a great week.

Hope, Ind.