A Year in the Life of a Farmer: Tissue, soil testing planned to learn more about nutrient requirements

AgriNews will follow Chad Bell throughout the entire year. Each month, look for updates about the farmer and the decisions he makes on his farm.

VIOLA, Ill. — With corn and soybean planting finished, Chad Bell is focusing on evaluating the stands and completing tissue sampling and soil testing.

“The conditions I planted in were pretty good for the most part, but looking back I probably would have started planting a little earlier,” said Chad Bell, who is married to Brittany, and they are the parents of Amelia and Charlie.

“I was not impressed with the conditions of the first field of corn I planted, but it looks pretty good,” he said.

Together with his dad, Greg, and his employee, Hunter Timerman, Bell finished planting soybeans on May 13 and corn on May 14 across the 1,800-acre operation.

“We did not have a lot of trouble for the most part during planting, just minor issues,” he said.

A hydraulic hose on the soybean planter blew which took some time to repair.

“We knew which hose going into the hitch blew, but we did not know which one it was coming out of the hitch,” Bell said. “So, we had to wait for the new hose to be made so we could use the old one to pull the new hose through.”

It is a little early to evaluate soybean stands, especially on the most recently planted fields.

“I need to spend some time driving around and checking the stands to make sure we don’t have any thin spots from planter or operator malfunctions,” Bell said.

“We had several wet spots that we went around that were not really large, but just inconvenient,” he said. “One dried up enough that we went back in and got it fixed and the other couple are not really big enough to mess with.”

Bell planted a couple of fields on Monday after Mother’s Day.

“The plants were poking through yesterday, so that is pretty good,” he said. “Six days is what you want, quick emergence so the plants are up and out of the ground quickly before anything bad can happen like a crusting rain.”

On May 4, there was a pop-up rain shower that produced a range of rainfall in a short period of time.

“I got less than one-tenth of an inch of rain at Viola, but five miles south by my hog barn we got 1.25 inches of rain,” Bell said. “Some of those acres I had planted right ahead of that rain and it was starting to get pretty hard, but I think it is going to be alright.”

He plans to do some soil nitrate testing, especially on the fields where he has applied manure from his hog barn.

“I want to see where we are at and if there is anything we need to be doing,” he said.

In addition, Bell is going to use a soil microbiome sampling kit to evaluate the soil function of the soil.

“It tests for soil nutrient cycling, soil health and biodiversity,” he explained.

“It will show pathogens, so if you have a high level of pythium, you can treat that field,” he said. “The test helps predict disease risks based on what it finds in the soil.”

Tissue sampling will also be completed on Bell Family Farms this year.

“I am trying to learn what is going on in the field as far as plant nutrient uptake instead of just wondering what is going on,” the farmer said.

Bell is interested in evaluating nutrients beyond the typical nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur to see if there are other nutrients that are limiting the plant growth on his farm.

“We’ll be doing this for a couple of years to get a baseline and to see if there are any crop stages where we are short on certain nutrients,” he said. “We want to make sure the nutrients are there when the plants need them.”

In previous years, Bell has done some random sampling of his fields.

“This time we picked a couple of fields during the winter with an aerial image,” he said. “So, I have latitude and longitude coordinates where I am going to pull samples from certain spots.”

Information from testing the soil and plants may be even more important next year.

“Our hand may be forced with fertilizer prices and we might have to be stingy with our dollars unless something drastic changes in the next six months or so,” Bell said.

“We may have to prioritize what will give us the best bang for the dollar,” he said. “So, we need to be testing and trying to figure that out.”

With planting complete, Bell’s goal is to work on his two planters to repair any broken parts prior to storing them.

“Usually, it doesn’t get done, but at least I get some parts ordered while it is fresh in my mind,” he said.

Moving grain from the 2025 growing season will continue from the Mercer County farm in northwestern Illinois.

“We have moved more old crop than what we have normally done by this time,” he said. “I think we are down to the sweeps for two of the bins.”

Bell will be getting some help to haul the grain.

“Hunter passed the written test for his CDL license and now he has to do the driving part to get fully certified,” he said. “Then he can haul the rest of the grain.”

Grain sales from the current growing season, Bell said, are further ahead of where he has been for the last few years.

“I have been selling some here and there to stay current with the market and luckily it continues to creep up,” he said. “I am probably at 40% sold of my insurance guarantee right now for both crops.”

Pigs at Bell’s farm are healthy, growing and should be ready for market about the middle of July.

“Hunter has been doing most of the chores,” Bell said, as he continues to recover from his cracked kneecap.

“We had two rains that have blown in sideways and got into the feeders,” he said. “The worst one was Saturday, so we’ve been working to keep the feeders flowing and cleaning out the chunks of feed.”