Boots In The Field Report

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken covers nitrate levels, carbon penalty, cutworm, rootworm, and armyworm flights, and crop deficiencies showing up. He breaks down the difference in nitrogen, sulfur, and zinc deficiencies and how they present in the corn plant. Adding nitrogen to a sulfur deficiency can make the problem worse, so it is important to know which one you are facing. He also covers yellowing beans fighting the carbon penalty and why replant beans might be showing it more than older beans.

This year may go down in the books as some of the best corn stands Ken has seen, with the corn coming up in 4 days and even emergence. In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken covers the nitrate values coming back, indicating we are in the middle of the carbon penalty period. As the soils warm up, doubling the microbe population every 10 degrees, it creates a draw down on nitrogen supply. He warns that growers will possibly see yellow or pale green corn and even bean plants. This is a chance to evaluate your nitrogen plan for timing and see if it is working to not let your corn have a bad day. Cutting has started and with the price of corn Ken recommends moving the threshold from 3% to 1.5% on when to act. He also warns about bean leaf beetle feeding.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie reports the ground that didn’t get hoed but is struggling to get make it out of the ground might have to be hoed twice and that still might not be enough to help the plants break through the crust. Replant decisions need to be made quickly with facts and not emotion. Ken reminds growers they will need to know both stand count and ear count when factoring in if they should replant. He also advises using their own knowledge from their hybrid fix/flex plots and the hybrid yearbook to help guide what number to use for bushels per ear when penciling out replant decisions. There is a replant calculator on our website to help guide these decisions. Ken also alerts pest scouts to be on the lookout for cutworm the end of this week.  

Cold wet weather has brought planting progress to a crawl. In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie warns growers about ground getting hard with recent rains causing planters to ride out of the ground and concern for crusting on crops already in the ground. He also covers how row fresheners can help with the less than desirable seed bed conditions and warns about running spring strip-till this late in the season with potential of drying out the soil and causing salt burn to the seed.  Next week looks promising for planting and Ken advises growers to plant corn when they can plant corn. The loss to delaying corn planting at this late of a date far outweighs any advantage that can be gained by planting beans trying to gain an early planting advantage.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report, Ken Ferrie discusses the closing window for achieving early planted beans. While there often isn’t a yield difference between strip-till and no-till beans, this year might prove to be the exception. Strip-tilling may create a 2-3 week earlier window for planting which may allow an opportunity for some pre-solstice flowering that the no-till couldn’t take advantage of because it was too wet to plant. Ken warns to switch from beans to corn when it is fit to plant corn, but not to jump the gun because replant decisions could be more costly this year than in normal years.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken warns growers getting antsy about getting in the field to make sure the calendar, coffee shop talk, nor neighbors are the deciding factor but rather your own investigation of fields to see if they are fit. A spring compaction layer can take the top yield potential out of field before you even get the seeds in the ground. He also reminds growers that are looking at calling an audible at the line and switching crops to make sure you have evaluated the whole process before making the change.

Ken starts this Boots In The Field Report with a recap of insects to be on the lookout for and then dives in with Matt Duesterhaus, breaking down how to evaluate bean maturities for different regions and planting dates when striving for pre-solstice flowering.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers seed test results and what pest scouts should be on the lookout for including: 13-lined ground squirrel, voles, wireworm, cutworm, and armyworm.

In this week’s Boots In the Field Report Ken Ferrie covers rootworm resistance and how the pressure has been increasing over the last couple of years.

In this Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie stresses using this time to put thought into diversifying hybrid line up and strategizing placement of hybrids to take advantage of a field’s strengths and farm around the weaknesses.

This week in the podcast Ken takes a deep dive on what we have learned about tar spot in 2021. He covers why it was so bad in parts of the country this year, what the plot research said about timing of fungicide applications and number of applications, what to be on the lookout for in this coming year. Ken also talks about an app that can help with keeping us up to date on if conditions are right for Tar spot. 

Ken uses this week’s Boots In The Field Report to cover the topic of starter fertilizer and what to consider when looking at cutting costs for next year. Ken walks through evaluating product, placement, timing, and rate to get the most bang for your starter buck.

In this week’s Boots in The Field Report Ken Ferrie breaks down planting conditions for beans in an ideal situation and how that changes when you are trying to plant early beans. The focus, when planting early beans, changes from soil temperatures to soil conditions in order to attempt to get the beans to the unifoliate stage quick enough to pressure the bean to flower before the solstice. Ken also walks through how to adjust the timing window for different maturity groups.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken covers some of the swings seen in the Hybrid Plot hand shelling day and warns about some of the hurdles growers new to applying fall anhydrous need to be aware of. Fall gas does NOT do well in paying the carbon penalty and Ken walks through options to help get over that hurdle.

As a lot of crews cross the harvest finish line, eyes turn towards preparation for next spring. Ken walks through considerations for growers wanting to plant early beans in 2022. As the weather locally led to a lot of wet harvesting and wheel tracks/ruts, Ken recommends trying to fix those fields this fall to make sure it doesn’t hold you back from planting early next spring. If that is not an option than rotating those to your “normal” planted bean fields and switching fields without seedbed issues to be the early planted fields. He also recommends avoiding the group 14 PPOs in early planted bean fields, staying on top of winter burn down, and having discussions with retailers and suppliers so everyone has the same game plan for being ready to plant early beans.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken answers a question that came in during Session 1 of Beyond the Basics. While soil tests can not detect if a disease is present in the field, it can give indicators to how the field will handle disease pressure. Healthy plants handle stress better than unhealthy plants and fields with adequate fertility help to create healthy plants. If a field has low potash values, acid soils, or runs out of nitrogen at grain fill, it is more susceptible to greater loss due to disease pressure. We are asking for growers to call in with the hybrids that did and did not handle tar spot well and also asking for volunteers that can help with the hand harvest project on Tuesday, December 14th. 

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie warns about making sure the anhydrous is sealing as it is too expensive to let gas off. He reports that some strip-till growers are struggling to get good strips in current weather conditions and advises that they might have to move to a plan B. Ken encourages keeping the seedbed sacred and he reminds growers that seedbed preparations for next year’s crop start this fall. He also extends a heartfelt thank you to all Veterans and their families for their service and sacrifice.

As growers are finally able to get back into fields locally, Ken does this week’s Boots In The Field Report from the tractor cab. Growers are doing everything they can to drag Harvest 21 across the finish line. Including cleaning out bins to dry beans, adjusting harvest order to get bean fields before the pods split open, changing heads throughout the day as to not lose an hour of harvest, and keeping their eye on their harvest loss. 

After the 2-5 inches of rain Ken recommends using the floatation of your harvest equipment wisely to reduce compaction and reminds growers to keep records of the fields that are getting rutted up to make a plan to fix after harvest. In this week’s Boots In The Field Report he also advises that fields with bean pods opening move up the harvest list and shares the article https://fieldcropnews.com/2018/12/how-to-dry-soybeans-in-a-bin/ as a resource to help dry beans. 

In this Boots in The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers multiple adjustments growers can make to their combine settings to reduce the record amount of harvest loss happening this year. He also advises growers to calculate in bushels what it cost to apply for removal of phosphorus and potash. The grain leaving the field is worth more and the cost to replace the nutrients leaving the field cost more. Looking at it in bushels from last year to this year can help put the cost in perspective and keep growers from putting on the brakes too soon.