JULY 30TH AGRONOMY UPDATE

The one-stop-shop to hearing everything you need to know this week about what is happening in your fields.

This week’s featured agronomists are:
Joe Dee – Morristown
Chris Soltau – Goodhue 
Justice Keefhauver – Lewiston
Hannah Elias – Goodhue
Brady Kinneman – Ellsworth

Scroll down to hear from your local agronomist.


Central 
Wanamingo – Kenyon – Morristown – Owatonna

Joe Dee

Join Joe Dee for a quick update from the field!


East
Pine Island – Cannon Falls -Goodhue -Lake City

Chris Soltau Agronomist Goodhue

Chris Soltau

Is our Sidedress Nitrogen There?

Each field in this data set is corn on corn. Urea was used for the Nitrogen source for every field tested.

Split applications were done on June 1st or 2nd of 2021. All split applications sat in dry soil for 17-18 days before any precipitation came to incorporate the Urea.

All data points were tested on June 23rd, 2021. Every sample had a 0-12” sample as well as a 12-24” sample. First applications were done before May 1st, 2021. The rate of Agrotain Advanced on every split application was 2 quarts per ton of Urea.

1 Shot Corn on Corn Nitrate Data

Corn on Corn Split Application

Through this project we learned that the Split application works well with the Urea and Agrotain Advanced even with two and a half weeks of heat with no precipitation.

Thank you, Ethan Schafer our Goodhue intern, for compiling this data. It is very useful information.


South 
Lewiston

Justice Keefauver

Fungicide is about wrapped up on both corn and beans! Locally a few cornfields have already completed the pollination process, many fields are at that development stage or soon will be. I wanted to inform you a little about the pollination process.

The pollination period, the flowering stage in corn, is the most critical period in the development of a corn plant from the standpoint of grain yield determination. Pollen shed is not a continuous process. There is a window when pollen falls and certain times of the day depending on temperature and moisture. It stops when the tassel is too wet or too dry and begins again when temperature conditions are favorable. Little to no pollen is shed when the tassel is wet so there is little chance of pollen washing off the silks during a rainstorm.

Also, silks are covered with fine, sticky hairs, which serve to catch and anchor pollen grains. Shortages of pollen are a problem under conditions of extreme heat and drought; they may also occur in fields due by uneven emergence in later emerging plants. I have been walking a lot of corn fields lately and found local pollination has been fair to good with some excellent depending on the amount of drought and heat stress that area endured in the last few weeks.

Here are some key notes

  • Long stretches of high temperatures may affect corn pollination.
  •  Hot weather can reduce viability, production, and the release of pollen grains.
  • Silk viability can be reduced under extreme high temperatures before pollen shed.
  • Timing of pollen shed, silking, and hot temperatures play a role in how heat affects the pollination process.

This next week when it cools off to get back into fields to scout, would be a great opportunity to peel back the husk of the ear and determine abortion of kernels, stress during pollination, and how many viable kernels have pollinated. Ultimately, this exercise is to help determine grain yield predictions based on pollination and setting grower expectations.

Although spotty we are pleased to see the corn and beans get moisture this week and look forward to walking fields with customers to have important conversations surrounding pollination!


East
Pine Island – Cannon Falls -Goodhue -Lake City

Hannah Elias

Tis` the Season

As we move out of the fungicide window, in our area we are quickly moving into R2 or the brown silk phase. It won’t be too long until we starting noticing plant diseases.

This week, I managed to find some Bacterial Leaf Streak in a field in Goodhue County. This specific disease can be commonly mistaken for Grey Leaf Spot. BLS can be identified by the elongated lesions along the leaf vein and will have a vibrant yellow/orange color when held to the sunlight. GLS will have distinct short blocky lesions along the vein and will show a yellow halo when held to the sunlight. GLS cannot be prevented or cured with a fungicide because it is a bacterial disease.

Lesions of Bacterial Leaf Streak

Grey Leaf Spot lesions

A few fungal diseases to be aware of are Northern Corn Leaf Blight, which will have dark cigar shaped lesions with rounded borders and Tar Spot which will look like someone splattered tar on the leaves of the corn plant. See pictures below

Northern Corn Leaf Blight lesion

Tar Spot lesions

I have NOT found a leaf disease yet. It is still early and our current dry conditions are less conducive for fungal growth. There is still a lot of growing season left and potential for these diseases will be higher in corn-on-corn acres. As we think about the month of August, it will be important to watch for susceptibility by hybrid and pay special attention to fields that did not receive fungicide.


WWAS
Ellsworth

Brady Kinneman 

This week in Wisconsin we’re praying for a NICE rain.  Most of our territory has received between 9-13 inches this year.  In Western Wisconsin we have substantial variability in our soil water holding capacity.  South of HWY 10 our crops look excellent due to deeper topsoil and increased organic matter, but north of HWY 10 we are extremely dry.

Currently, we are using .16-.22 tenths of water per day in our corn and soybean crops.  Looks like tonight there is a reasonable chance of moisture but also a threat of severe weather. Fungicide season is ending this week for corn and soybeans.

We did fungicide trials on soybeans 10 days ago which we can already see a difference in treated vs untreated especially in the areas that are struggling for moisture.  Our greatest response to fungicide since we have been keeping track was in 2012 which was an exceptionally dry year like this year.  Fungicide helps mitigate stress and increase water/nutrient efficiency.  It will be exciting to see the results this fall.

It was a great week to get Oats/Wheat combined and straw baled.  Wheat and Oats were running 90-100 bushel/acre and straw was heavy and fantastic quality.  If there was ever a year to plant small grains 2021 might be the perfect year.
Market update:  Corn has been trading in a $.50 between $5-5.50 CBOT trading range for the last 45 days and soybeans between $12-13.50 CBOT Range.  If we could just hook a rain, I think it would ease the decision for growers to sell some grain.  Hope everybody is having a great week. Stay Cool!