From the Fields: Crop stands look good

TOULON, Ill. — Corn and soybean stands look good on Cliff Lane’s farm, and he has not found any issues with emergence.

“With the cool, wet weather, I was a little concerned about the seedling diseases,” said Lane, who is married to Tammy and farms in north-central Illinois.

The family operation includes several family members.

“I am blessed that I get to farm with my 84-year-old father, John, my older brother, Jeff, and my nephew helps part of the time,” Lane explained about the 1,100-acre operation.

The family plants a corn-soybean rotation.

“We don’t do a lot of corn-on-corn,” Lane said. “We have a lot of rolling timber soils, waterways and CRP on our farm.”

Tillage for the operation is predominately no-till or minimum-till.

“Back in the ‘80s, dad made the decision to do more no-till,” the farmer said. “We also plant a fair amount of cover crops to reduce erosion and build organic matter for healthy soils.”

Lane plants cereal rye in the fall along with the fertilizer application.

“Depending on the conditions and the weather, sometimes we will run a vertical tillage over the cereal rye and incorporate it a little bit,” he said. “Or, if we get some rain and it starts to sprout, we just let it go.”

The weather in the spring determines how Lane will manage the cover crops.

“Sometimes I terminate it early,” he said. “Other times I have planted into green standing rye that is over knee-high.”

This year, the fields that had rye were drier and ready to be planted sooner than the fields with cornstalks and no rye.

“The rye was pulling the moisture out, so those fields were fit to plant before some of the cornstalk fields,” Lane said.

He started planting around April 23 and finished at the end of the first week in May.

“We have a corn and soybean planter, so my brother starts in one direction and I start in the other,” he said.

Typically corn and soybean planting occurs close to the same time and this year soybean planting started a couple days before corn.

“If field conditions are right, I would rather see beans go in earlier than corn,” Lane said.

He plants a lot of Cornelius Seed corn hybrids and soybean varieties.

“I am a little bit biased because I’m the regional sales manager for Cornelius Seed,” he said.

“My brother plants InVISION corn, DeKalb corn and some Asgrow beans,” he added.

Soybean maturities range from 2.7 to 3.4.

“We went back to XtendFlex soybeans this year to try to get a better handle on the water hemp,” Lane said.

For corn, the varieties are from 107- to 115-day maturities.

“Since we don’t really do any corn-on-corn, we plant a lot of Double PRO and PowerCore hybrids for above-ground protection of rootworms,” Lane said.

Now he is turning his attention to getting the planting equipment cleaned up and doing some repairs.

“I have a soybean planter that I need to do some rebuilding on,” he said. “I will be taking some row units apart and replacing older worn parts.”

Lane will also focus on spraying waterways and field edges.

“Canada thistle has become more of a challenge the last few years, so I’ve been trying to be more aggressive at cleaning it up, so we do not have a problem,” he said.

Lane has worked at Cornelius Seed for about eight years.

“Before that I was with Munson Hybrids and then Cornelius Seed purchased Munson Hybrids,” he said. “I went from one independent seed company to another one that is a great family-owned company with good values that are customer focused.”

Before working in the seed industry, Lane worked with agricultural chemicals for both Valent and GROWMARK. He is a graduate of Illinois State University with a degree in agricultural business, although as a high school student he didn’t plan to complete a bachelor’s degree.

“Blackhawk East was six miles from home, so I went there for a two-year degree,” he said. “At Blackhawk, you had to do a work experience, and my adviser said I could go anywhere in the world.”

Lane chose to go to Australia because it is a beautiful place with an agricultural industry and the people speak English.

“I worked on a dairy farm and a beef station,” he recalled. “When I came back, I said I need to go to a university because there was too much out there that I had not learned yet.”

In addition to continuing to learn, it is also important for the Stark County farmer to be involved in organizations and contribute to his community. He is currently in his second term as a board member of the Illinois Corn Growers Association.

“It has been an awesome learning experience and I have enjoyed it,” Lane said. “Going to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to talk to legislators was pretty eye opening.”

The farmer is also the clerk for Elmira Township.

“It is hard to find people who are willing to step up and do things,” Lane said.

“But when I talk to young people I tell them to start somewhere, like your church council, the school board or a township position,” he said. “You don’t need to run for a big public office. Just get involved somewhere.”