From the Week of October 23, 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:
Matt Pettis – Le Sueur
Todd Anderson – Goodhue
Carly Reinke – Morristown
Tye Anderson – Lewiston
Al Williams – Ellsworth
Scroll down to hear from your local agronomist!
WEST
Belle Plaine – Le Center – Le Sueur
Matt Pettis
Things are rolling here in the Le Center/Le Sueur area. Anhydrous is in full swing as we are grinding away at the many acres of anhydrous to be applied. The late rains have proved to be beneficial as the ground is working up much nicer than the year before. The fall agronomy updates have revealed some better yields than what was expected. The harvest progress throughout the area has been encouraging, with most farmers finished with beans and are now working away at the corn acres. Despite the challenging growing season with the weather being unfavorable, our resilient farmers have adeptly managed the growing season and the harvest data is showing that. Data is yet to be collected but there seems to be extreme variation within corn fields this year. As well as extreme variation with genetics. We are very excited to get this harvest data back so it can be analyzed more in depth. One key takeaway from this season is that fertility is important; we’re seeing higher yields are associated with higher fertility, especially in a drought year. Have a safe rest of the harvest!
EAST
Pine Island – Cannon Falls – Goodhue – Lake City
Todd Anderson
Harvest was in full swing until mother nature just put the brakes on with the soaking rain we are now receiving. The early report is that the yields are as variable as the rainfall this summer, but that overall, most growers are satisfied with the yields they are seeing. It has been said that some may even end up with their best crop ever. Make sure to reach out to your AYS specialist once you finish so we can download your yield data and get it processed and back to you in a timely fashion. It is also helpful to give us any information you have such as grain cart weights/field or truck scale weights, that can be used to post calibrate your harvest. By doing so, you can obtain the most accurate data to help you and your Ag Partners agronomist make good seed decisions for next year. Don’t forget to mention any side x side trials so that we can help analyze that for you as well. Have a safe rest of the harvest season!
CENTRAL
Morristown – Wanamingo – Kenyon
Carly Reinke
As we wrap up the 2023 crop season, we are already seeing the strong correlation of fertility to yield. Lack of rain throughout our territory was our number one limiting factor for 2023, and the fields that tend to be yielding fantastic aren’t shy with fertility.
The graph illustrates Potassium soil parts per million by applied potassium (K20) for the 2022 crop. In the 70-100PPM you can see there was a huge response even where they only applied a little potassium because the ground is hungry. As you move across the graph you can see the trend of as more was applied the yields tend to favor higher. The second graph represents the number of acres in those areas. As you can see as a whole, we don’t have many acres in the 70-100PPM, a lot of our acres are in 130-220PPM. We are expecting to see the same results for our 2023 crop, maybe even more dramatic because we didn’t receive rain in August of 2023, like we did in 2022.
Stay tuned as we start to process the 2023 data and trends.
SOUTH
Elgin – Lewiston – Stewartville
Tye Anderson
Soybean harvest is pretty much wrapped up and corn yields continue to surprise. Everyone seems to be full throttle between rains. With drier than normal corn, we want to be diligent in minimizing head shelling to capture bushels. Make sure to adjust deck plate settings and ground speeds as we harvest. Anything we can do to keep bushels in the machine will help our bottom line.
Fall spreading of P&K has been in full swing as well. More time allows the nutrients to get deeper into the root zone. If a grower is doing fall tillage after spreading, that allows the fertilizer to be more uniformly incorporated into the soil. Water is our best friend when it comes to the diffusion of potash and phosphorus. In terms of phosphorus, it is the least mobile of our three main nutrients (N,P,K). Giving these nutrients more time to break down in the soil could be beneficial for spring availability to the plant. Soil pH will affect the availability of phosphorus as well. If soil pH is above 7.3, we will see phosphorus tie up as calcium phosphate. If soil pH is below 5.5, we will see phosphorus tie up as aluminum phosphates. Neither of these are available to the plant. The chart below shows the relationship between soil pH and nutrient availability.
I hope everyone is having a safe and bountiful harvest!
WISCONSIN
Ellsworth
Al Williams
While it has been a very up and down year in terms of the desired weather and resulting effect on yield, I feel most producers are pleasantly surprised by the yields we are finding as the combines roll through the fields. While rain is welcome during the growing season it is not during fall harvest. I think rain days are a perfect time to gather yourself and your crew and get refreshed for the next harvest window.
I would also like to point out that you should have a very good idea of how your hybrid selection worked this year. Chances are if a hybrid worked well for you, it did for others also. I would also look back at your fertility program. These are critical decisions that helped you have the success you are experiencing. Critical observations are very fresh in your mind. These observations include yield, plant disease, weed control and other issues within fields. A rain day is a perfect day to reach out to your local agronomist at Ag Partners and get the process of procuring these inputs, discussing issues, as well as scheduling applications of phosphorus and potassium yet this fall to have a successful 2024. Let’s finish fall harvest up safely and get a strong start to next season.