From the Week of November 13, 2023
The one-stop-shop for everything you need to know about what’s happening this week in your fields.
This week’s featured agronomists are:
Courtney Wolf – Belle Plaine
Tyrell Treptow – Goodhue
Joe Dee – Morristown
Kenny Loftus – Lewiston
Kirsten Bauer – Ellsworth
Scroll down to hear from your local agronomist!
The Weekly Agronomy Updates will be taking a break for winter, as we start prepping & planning for the 2024 growing season. The Agronomy team would like to thank you all for a successful 2023 growing season. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to be a part of your farming operation.
WEST
Belle Plaine – Le Center – Le Sueur
Courtney Wolf
The harvest of 2023 is coming to an end but there is still a lot going on in the fields, preparing for the 2024 growing season. Let’ first recap 2023. Corn was interesting this year because yields had a very wide range. On the prairie sands the yields were low while on the peat and black soils the yields were more than most expected, some even reaching close to, or over 300 bushels in the best parts of their fields. The beans were a little bit of a different story. There was not as much of a range; yes there were lows and some high yields, but it seems that a lot of farmers were averaging in the low 60s to mid 50s on yields. With the little amount of rainfall we had this year, it is amazing what can still be produced. There is tillage happening on many corn fields and dry fertilizer has been applied on the bean field. Even with the warmer temps this past week, the soil temps have been below 50 and that has made the field conditions very favorable for anhydrous. The anhydrous application has been going on wonderfully. With the field work coming to an end it is a good time to reach out to your Ag Partners agronomist and discuss your seed plans with them. Before you know it, we will also be planning our 2024 chemical, fungicide, topdressing, and fertility plans. I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful harvest! I know I had a great time going out and doing weigh wagons and big bushel contest weighs with you all.
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EAST
Pine Island – Cannon Falls – Goodhue – Lake City
Tyrell Treptow
#HARVEST23
Text messages from the Field
- “Yup… unbelievable!”
- “…holy smokes!”
- “Best ever…”
- “Very impressed!”
- “Good corn 🌽“
- “your 105 and 107 were no. 1 and no. 2…”
- “…east of my house is doing well… good recs!!”
- “DKC54-38 is the healthiest looking…”
- “looks to be a moisture — tip back situation”
- “Weeds are taller than the corn!!!”
- “I have two shots of whiskey”
Click for a view from the field with Tyrell:
CENTRAL
Morristown – Wanamingo – Kenyon
Joe Dee
Harvest is essentially complete in the central part of our territory with fall fertilizer applications still taking place. It’s been quite the fall to remember with the amount of weather swings we’ve experienced from torrential rain and freezing temperatures/snow to sunshine and 60° in November. With that being said, if you haven’t talked to your agronomist about fall fertilization to get ahead for Spring 2024, there is still plenty of time.
With a little cold weather on the horizon and winter reality in the forecast, it’s a good time to reflect on this past growing season and dissect some of the factors that contributed to this extremely variable crop. We all know moisture played a pivotal role but what other factors could have affected the way your season turned out? It’s going to be important to analyze the data and evaluate some of the management practices that helped (or didn’t help) bring yield to your farm.
As this harvest season comes to a close, the end of the year will be here before we know it, and it is never too early to get ahead of the game and start planning for 2024. Think about getting together with your agronomist to sift through the information and to help you make better informed decisions for the upcoming growing season!
SOUTH
Elgin – Lewiston – Stewartville
Kenny Loftus
What an exciting time of year. Harvest is coming to an end and we get our report card for the year. There is a fair amount of corn stalk bales being made with this nice stretch of weather and a lot of tillage being completed. Soil sampling is coming to a close also. This year we focused on looking at how low to plant soybeans. Below are some yield results showing reduced planting populations. Economics used are as follows: sell soybeans for $13.00/bushel, purchase price is $55/unit.
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At a 1,000-foot look, results seem to be promising. More to come on final results. Reach out to your agronomist and button up any soil sampling and fall spreading you would like done.
WISCONSIN
Ellsworth
Kirstin Bauer
The corn is almost all off here in western Wisconsin and the 2023 crop season is coming to a close. It has been an interesting year from pests, hail, drought, and the unexpectedly good yields we will be discussing for the next few months in many of our post-harvest meetings. I would like to take this time to extend a big thank you to everyone. Thank you to my colleagues, our agronomists, applicators, truck drivers, interns, and every single Ag Partners employee. Your hard work and dedication to the farmer is what makes us so successful. Most importantly, thank you to our patrons. Whether you purchase one bag of seed, or 300 tons of fertilizer from us in a year, your business matters and is so appreciated. The farmers and producers are the heart of our cooperative and we are continuously proud to serve you. I hope everyone had a safe and happy harvest, and I look forward to the 2024 crop season!
