Boots In The Field Report

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