Your Local Weekly Ag Partners Agronomic 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:
Chad Mattes- Le Center
Tanner Borgschatz – Kenyon
Noah Erickson – Lake City
Kenny Loftus- Lewiston
Chace Kinneman- Ellsworth
Scroll down to hear from your local agronomist.
West
Belle Plaine – LeCenter – LeSueur
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Chad Mattes |
Happy Harvest for everyone. For the most part that’s exactly what it’s been for our territory. Tremendous corn and soybean yields with the exception of a few drown out areas or hail events here or there. We all know CORN is king and it’s just a more exciting crop to plant right? Which brings me to my topic for this week’s agronomic update, SOYBEANS. |
So what will we plant next year? In 2020, we predominantly sold you the RR2 Xtend soybean platform for a couple key reasons. Product placement and yield ability. We have so much good data on this platform and that has helped us position these products for your success. We’ve all seen the wrong bean on the wrong acre in the past and for the most part we’re able to avoid this. Although we currently do not have a MN label, it’s our belief we will get this label back for 2021, however we do not know what specific application guidelines we will have as of today.
Looking into 2021, it certainly looks like we have another strong platform to offer you with the “newer” trait known as Enlist E3 or the 2,4-D bean. As you maybe had a neighbor plant this trait for 2020 or maybe you yourself planted it, I think we were all pleasantly surprised that although they certainly didn’t visually look “as good” as the Xtend beans throughout our growing season, it seems they yielded right there with the Xtend platform.
Now wait, what about the LL GT27 platform? We sold a fair amount of this soybean as well in 2020 and it seems like our customers were very happy with this option as well. Lastly, if the three previous options weren’t enough for you, Bayer has approval to sell their newest XtendFlex trait for this coming year. In a nut shell, it’s the Xtend bean with the ability to spray Liberty (Glufosinate) on rather than our traditional Round-Up tank mix. Again, we are currently waiting for a MN label just as we are with the Xtend soybeans.
When planning for 2021, all trait platforms have their fit. Work with your trusted Ag Partners seed advisor to help determine which trait or traits work best for your operation and to assist you with product placement.
Central
Wanamingo – Kenyon – Morristown – Owatonna
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Tanner Borgschatz |
The early snowfall last week gave us a chance to collect some harvest data and start analyzing some of the side by side trials in our AYS East region. Below are some of our initial findings on soybean fungicide and insecticide applied at R3. With the low soybean prices this summer, this management decision often came up in conversation. Of the trials analyzed so far, the average response to R3 fungicide/insecticide combo was 7.45 bu/a as compared to 5.3 bu/a in 2019. This late season management has shown an average response of 4-8 bu/a for the last three years. More results to come this winter. |
South
Lewiston
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Kenny Loftus |
Are Your Management Zones Correct? With the weather making a turn for the worse here in the short term, what a great time to look at some yield maps and evaluate at a high level to see if our zones are correct. Every year growers see differences in yield. This can be attributed to a lot of factors such as soil type, water holding capacity or even flex ear vs fixed. |
I am sure some of your fields have averaged 220- with areas of the field hitting 250 and other areas that will only reach 160. With those results it starts to get my wheels turning, thinking did we fertilize the entire field for 220 or did we follow the management zones and place nutrients where the odds are in our favor of getting the return. Did we flat rate plant the field or did we put the odds in our favor. Every year is different, but more times than not the better parts of the field usually yield more than the poorer spots. Take this time and make notes as to any changes to your management zones for the next growing year. Even if you are not able to variable rate plant you still can utilize management zones for fertilizer. If you are not utilizing management zones, talk to your agronomist or AYS specialist to start creating those zones.
VRT Fertilizer by Management Zone
East
Pine Island – Cannon Falls -Goodhue -Lake City
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Noah Erickson |
2020 Grain Marketing Recap This year has brought a whirlwind of events to make grain marketing almost impossible for farmers. The December 2020 Chicago futures market started off the year pretty good at $4.04 on January 2nd for corn and $9.83 for soybean. Then came an event, or crisis some might say, that took a toll on those prices. |
If you could guess, that would be the COVID-19 crisis. When that came about the corn and soybean market tumbled, causing the corn market to bottom out on August 4th at $3.20 and the soybean market to bottom out on April 21st at $8.31 for 2020 November Chicago futures. COVID has caused the market to tank by causing ethanol plants to get shutdown, export demand to drop, and talk about an upcoming big crop. There was also the Iowa derecho that took place on August 10th. The USDA estimated that there were 550,000 acres of corn that was flattened and will not be harvest this fall.
The United states is now a secondary soybean supplier, with Brazil now being the largest supplier of soybeans. With Brazil in the heart of their planting season, they are experiencing a dry spell which is currently helping drive the US market. The market continues to be on an upward trend over the past month or two. The drive behind this is that fears of COVID are starting to subside, ethanol plants are taking off again, feed demand is increasing, and exports took off. Some of the biggest drives in demand right now is China’s need and crushers needing grain to fulfill feed needs. China has admitted they have a “food shortage” and when they actually acknowledge this, then it is a big problem. They want to experience a source of food security and do not want an uprising in their country.
According to the USDA, exports last week for soybeans were tremendous, exporting 97.9 million bushels of beans. The corn export was above average as well. CME’s markets are at a high this Tuesday afternoon, with corn closing at $4.20 and soybeans at $10.94. With a market that this year has been bringing, it can be an emotional time on marketing your grain. This fall has been an overall successful harvest. We got in early and had a great dry stretch to get a good chunk of our crop out, but recently ran into a road bump with this cooler and wet weather. The positive thing to remember – we are still way ahead of schedule! The USDA states that the total corn harvested as of 10/25/2020 is at 72%. Last year we were only at 38%, and our overall average for this time is 56%. The soybean harvest is sitting at 83% done, with last year being at only 57% and our overall average for the 26th of October being 73%.
It is never too early to start thinking about your plan for next year. You can do this by connecting with your local agronomist to prepay for the next growing seasons inputs and locking in prices that make sense for your operation. The extended forecast looks to be promising in warming up and bringing some dry weather. Good luck on the rest of your fall harvest!
WWAS
Ellsworth
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Chace Kinneman |
This week the weather is starting to turn around, corn is coming off, and next week looks even better! Who thought we would get 8″ of snow in October? The good thing is that there is plenty of time to get things harvested still. I would say most guys are done with beans and half done with corn. We started spreading fall fertilizer again and things are going well. We will continue soil sampling next week so if you need any sampling, lime, or fertilizer spread this fall contact your agronomist. |
