Boots In The Field Report

Informações:

Synopsis

The Boots in the Field Report features Crop-Tech Consulting agronomist Ken Ferrie. He will keep you up-to-date by describing what he is seeing while in the field.

Episodes

  • Episode 310: Boots In The Field Report August 3, 2023

    03/08/2023 Duration: 09min

    Ken uses this #BIFR to catch up on pest reports, update tar spot locations, cyst pressure coming around traits, how last week’s heat affected this crop and why you don’t want to group up your pollination window. He reminds growers to check planting dates when reviewing yield plots this year to create fair comparisons.

  • Episode 309: Boots In The Field Report July 10, 2023

    11/07/2023 Duration: 27min

    In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie touches base with Matt Duesterhaus to get more insight in how fields are looking in the areas hit by the derecho that went through and how crops and growers are fairing in the week since. Ken also covers what the short corn means for yield potential and why the rule of thumb about plants being more than a collar behind is different this year than when looking at years with uneven emergence. Ken also gives a run down of the pest reports and shares that they found Tar spot in a field South of Jacksonville, IL last week. Ken warns growers that with this rain, our relatively disease free fields, are likely to see a change.

  • Episode 308: Boots In The Field Report June 28, 2023

    28/06/2023 Duration: 16min

    In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken talks about how the wildfire haze might be helping us out in this drought, why corn on corn or corn with a rye cover are getting hit harder in dry areas, and why it is especially important to keep an eye out for silk clippers this year. He continues to reminder growers to never walk away from a growing crop and encourages growers to work to help the crop pollinate because if you miss pollinations and it starts to rain, there is no recourse to go back and fix it.

  • Episode 307: Boots In The Field Report June 19, 2023

    19/06/2023 Duration: 23min

    Grab a cup of coffee or a cold bottle of water, Ken has two weeks to cover in this week’s Boot’s In The Field Report. He walks through frost reports in NE Iowa, drought map getting bigger and uglier, and corn hitting the rapid growth stage amid water concerns. In these challenging conditions the sins of spring are coming to light, and while many may have gotten away with the same practices in other years without a penalty, not everyone is getting away with it this year without a cost. Growers are starting to see some prolonged carbon penalty issues crop up, even with sidedress applied, the lack of water is keeping it from getting to the root system for uptake. Ken reminds growers when sidedressing or Y-dropping the N applied should be for later season green and standability, not for plant building. If you are seeing a hit to sidedress timing this year in building the crop, you may need to rework the 4Rs of your Nitrogen program. Plant height is also tattling on some practices that might be hindering an operat

  • Episode 306: Boots In The Field Report June 2, 2023

    02/06/2023 Duration: 05min

    In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken covers some of the issues he is seeing in this dry weather including drought stress on crops, herbicide carryover from last June being dry, and lack of mass flow for potassium uptake. He continues to get reports of leaning corn issues due to lack of crown root development and warns that dicamba type product applications will probably make this problem worse. He has also spotted silvering on corn due to low temp / scalding on leaves, cutworm damage on beans planted into cover, and first flowers on early planted beans. He also advises growers to be on army worm watch this weekend and to make sure in these dry conditions to use a urease inhibitor with y-drop and surface sidedress applications.

  • Episode 305: Boots In The Field Report May 26, 2023

    26/05/2023 Duration: 13min

    This week’s Boots In The Field Report covers issues popping up in fields as this crop starts to take off. Ken Ferrie reports on heavy cutworm pressure causing growers to spray, dry conditions causing herbicide carryover and a number of conditions causing good but not great ratings for corn stands. Ken also reminds growers of the difference between the ugly corn phase and the carbon penalty. He recommends that now is the time to be in the fields documenting conditions, checking for rootless corn, insect presence/feeding, and diagnosing dead plants to help make improvements for next year.

  • Episode 304: Boots In The Field Report May 18, 2023

    18/05/2023 Duration: 14min

    High Ear Counts = High YieldsIn this week's #BIFR, Ken reminds growers that high ear counts are the key to high yields. He also covers planting updates, replant decisions, the ugly corn phase, and insect activity. Cutworm feeding has started, so pest teams be on the lookout! 

  • Episode 303: Boots In The Field Report May 10, 2023

    10/05/2023 Duration: 09min

    Ken Ferrie covers planting progress and emergence in this week’s Boots In The Field Report. Much-needed rain came for most of the Midwest and will help reduce a lot of service calls on all the seed that was sitting in dry soil. Bean stands are looking good and indicating a lot will make early flowering. While corn stands look good from the road, Ken advises stretching a tape to see what your stand count and ear count are. While industry standard says growers should shoot for a 13% or less reduction from planted to ear count, Ken challenges growers to strive to keep it under 6% to take their yields to the next level. He also recommends recording and cataloging these early stand and ear counts so they can be reviewed during yield map meetings. Ken also covers how seed chilling, seed quality, and seed orientation play into the emergence issues and advises if growers pushed away a lot of dry soil to plant into moisture and received a good shot of rain this week, to keep an eye out for crusting.

  • Episode 302: Boots In The Field Report May 2, 2023

    02/05/2023 Duration: 08min

    It is finally here! In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie gives the green light locally for planting corn and encourages growers to get this planting season in the books. But he does caution growers to make sure they are planting into moisture. He gives the following advice if still needing to do tillage before plating:Horizontal tillage: make sure the planter is on the tail of the tillage pass to make sure moisture doesn’t get away. Vertical Tillage: If have to run, run shallow with little to no gang angle. If running on bean stubble to dry and warm up the soil, not needed with these conditions could go no-till. If running to incorporate surface nitrogen, better off buying a urease inhibitor and no-tilling to save moisture with current forecast. High Speed Disks: this is putting in a shallow horizontal tillage layer creating a lot of issues. Gives up moisture needed for germination within hours, subject to blowing if it doesn’t rain and subject to crusting if it does rain.Planting into moisture

  • Episode 301: Boots In The Field Report April 26, 2023

    26/04/2023 Duration: 07min

    In this Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers the calls coming in on the crops planted April 3-10th that took the hardest hit from the freeze. The first step to evaluating replant decisions is to have accurate counts for what plants survived. For beans checking that the stem below the cotyledon is firm. If soft, it gets counted in the dead column. If firm, it gets counted in the maybe column and growers will have to watch for new growth to confirm (70-90 GDUs – so could be next Friday before you know). On corn Ken recommends checking plants that had spikes close to the surface, watching to see if those split and try to leaf out underground. Moisture, tillage practices, and field conditions can play a big role in how deep the freeze got. As the calendar days start to slip away, growers need to know how many days it will take their operation to get their corn crop in the ground. That will determine if they have the luxury to wait for conditions to be right to give them the best chance of achieving their e

  • Episode 300: Boots In The Field Report April 18, 2023

    18/04/2023 Duration: 14min

    In this week’s Boots in The Field Report Ken covers planting progress of last week and concerns as we look at the weather ahead. Beans that were planned to be planted early and have been treated for SGS, can be planted understanding that they will be in the ground for awhile before they come up and require growers to keep an eye on soil crusting to make sure it doesn’t become an issue. He also explains the difference in conditions that cause concern for losing spike down plants versus seed chilling concerns. Both seed chilling, and spike down loss have the possibility of at 7-10 percent stand reduction, so if fighting both could already be at a 14-20 percent reduction if everything else is perfect. Ken also speaks to some of the lower seed germination results rolling in and if growers have concerns with soybean germination score, they might want to bump population 10%.

  • Episode 298: Boots In The Field Report April 10, 2023

    10/04/2023 Duration: 05min

    In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken gives the green light locally to plant fully treated beans for early planting with the understanding that there is always a risk that you may have to replant if we get a heavy frost. If forecast locally is correct then also giving a yellow light to plant corn Wednesday through noon Saturday to get the first day willies out. Understanding that the corn will most likely be in the ground until May 1st if the forecasted weather between now and then holds true. Ken reminds growers that they will have trouble with spike down plants being late emergers and that this is NOT the time to use those seed samples that had poor seed test results coming back. He also reminders growers that if you can ribbon the soil 1 inch below your tillage pass than you are going to create a compaction layer by running in too wet conditions. Use your own field conditions (on a field-by-field basis) and the depth and type of tillage tool you are using to guide when it is fit to run in each of yo

  • Episode 297: Boots In The Field Report March 31, 2023

    31/03/2023 Duration: 08min

    This week on the Boots In The Field Report podcast Ken Ferrie advises that now is the time for the pest boss to lay down the first line of defense. He recommends cutworm and armyworm traps going out wherever you have green cover, setting up wireworm and grub bait stations, and putting out gopher and vole bait traps. Most problems are very manageable if caught early enough. When the population grows too big, then you start to run out of options to manage and avoid a reduction in yields. Scouting for the 2023 crop starts now.

  • Episode 296: Boots In The Field Report March 15, 2023

    15/03/2023 Duration: 07min

    The question to ask: “Is the soil dry enough?” In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers why this questions is so important, with 80% of the service calls for compaction that he goes on can all be traced back to this first pass in the spring. If growers are doing vertical tillage, asking is the soil dry enough to handle the weight of the equipment without creating compaction? If doing tillage, what is the moisture like below the tillage layer, is it too moist and will create compaction? This also applies to when to run the burn down pass to make sure you won’t have wheel tracks to deal with all season long. Ken also cautions growers about using spring anhydrous in the strip, wanting either rain, using RTK to stay off strips when planting or at least 2 weeks between that and planting to help tame down the anhydrous core pH. 

  • Episode 295: Boots In The Field Report March 10, 2023

    10/03/2023 Duration: 11min

    In this Boots in The Field Report, Ken Ferrie stresses that harvest starts now. A little planning now can alleviate a lot of pressure and stress come harvest. He suggests picking for yield first and then narrowing that down based on ear flex and leaf structure to help manage known conditions in the field. Ken advises breaking down maturity groups into: early, mid and full season varieties, to stagger pollination and harvest windows. He also suggests staggering ear flex within the maturities to help mitigate weather risks. Putting pencil to paper to figure out what your operation needs for a harvest window will help you determine when you need to pay drying fees and when you can wait for more ideal conditions.

  • Episode 294: Boots In The Field Report February 24, 2023

    24/02/2023 Duration: 08min

    In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie walks through why 2022 was such a nitrogen friendly year for central IL. While reminding growers it didn’t take less N to grow a bushel last year, it did take less applied N for most due to the decrease in losses and the increase in mineralization. He also encourages growers to not only make their spring plan, but to make sure it is written down and shared with all the players to make sure everyone is operating from the same play book when game time comes around.

  • Episode 293: Boots In The Field Report February 6, 2023

    06/02/2023 Duration: 09min

    In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie tackles the question: “If I have organic matters of 3.5% or higher do I need to apply sulfur?” Despite higher organic matter soils having the ability to provide sulfur later in the season, due to a reduction of sulfur naturally occurring in most environments, they often struggle in having enough available for early season. Ken covers the basis on a 4R approach to sulfur and reminds growers to switch to thinking of sulfur more as a macronutrient instead of a micronutrient.

  • Episode 292: Boots In The Field Report January 13, 2023

    13/01/2023 Duration: 09min

    In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers some of the questions that came in during the Virtual College. In particular the topic of Tar Spot and what the difference is in pressure and management of “home grown” Tar Spot and “blown in.” The conditions must be right for Tar Spot but when it is, it can cause a huge yield hit. Ken talks through what we have learned so far and how we will continue to learn about this disease in the future.

  • Episode 291: Boots In The Field Report December 22, 2022

    22/12/2022 Duration: 11min

    In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers several questions about what kind of efficiencies are gained with banding fertilizer and what he has been seeing as they kick off the yield map review season.

  • Episode 290: Boots In The Field Report December 9, 2022

    09/12/2022 Duration: 12min

    In this week’s Boots in The Field Report podcast Ken Ferrie takes some time to answer questions that have been coming in: “Switching to corn on corn or beans on beans due to market and yields, what should be considered?” and “If growers find urea priced right can they use it as their N source?” He covers what concerns or questions growers need to think about to help make the right choice for their operation.

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