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.

Scroll down to hear from your local agronomist.

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Tim Malterer

Tim covers plant health and what to expect in the western territory

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Joe Dee

Jo Dee discusses what you should expect to spray this time of the growing season.

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Zach Thompson

When was the last time it rained?  I had to do some research because I didn’t remember!  The whole month of April we received 1.3” of rain and most corn wasn’t planted until the second half of April. The month of may we received 3.25” however we had a 2” rain event the first week of May.  So far in June we have only received .15”.  Total we have received 4.7” and normal at this time is 9.5” so we are 4.8” short on moisture so far.

Corn needs different amounts of water depending on the stage.

So far I feel like the corn is handling it OK. In the morning, the plants have good color and leaves are open to collect sunlight.  In the afternoon, they look grey and go into defensive mode by curling up their leaves trying to reduce the amount of water that is transpired and closing the stomates. By closing the stomates it slows the plants ability to take in carbon dioxide which slows the plants photosynthesis and growth.

Take a look at the chart below and see what kind of a yield loss we could be in for.

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Chris Soltau

Chris discusses symptoms on plants you may find after an application on a hot day.

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Chace Kinneman

Questions for this week… How long will my corn last in these dry conditions? And is my sidedress Nitrogen gone?

Once you notice your corn curling from drought you have about 4 days until you see a yield decrease. After the 4 days you can expect 1 to 2 bushel loss per day until we get rain depending on how dry you are. Not great news but let’s all pray for rain during reproduction stage because that is where the plant could make up for it or could exponentially get worse.

Studies have shown that 21 days after spreading Urea with no stabilizer in the worst case scenario 60 percent will turn into ammonia and float away into the air. If you use Agrotain to stabilize it worse case after 21 days is 10 percent loss. Also, you need water to make urease to convert the nitrogen to ammonia form and being it has been dry it’s less likely to happen. So I believe we are all safe with the sidedress application especially it looks like some rain in the forecast.

Second pass bean spray is in full swing with corn spraying and sidedressing wrapping up.

Hope everyone has a great week and let’s all pray for those rain drops.