Week of May 22, 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:
This week’s featured agronomists are:
Jake Heitshusen – Le Sueur
Garrett Johnson – Morristown
Hannah Hernke – Goodhue
Joel Johanningmeier – Stewartville
Eric Soley – Ellsworth
Scroll down to hear from your local agronomist, and click for contact info!
WEST
Belle Plaine – Le Center – Le Sueur
Jake Heitshusen
Here in Le Sueur, we have had good weather the last few days and corn planting is nearing the end for 2023. There are a few fields of soybeans left to go in yet but should be hopefully wrapping up shortly. We were lucky and missed most of the heavy rains earlier in the month, most reports were 2-4” to the south and down to 1.5” north towards the Carver/Chaska area. Once we finally dried out, we were finding most issues of slow emerging corn is due to crusting of the topsoil. Crusting can be a serious issue if not caught but can be remedied by breaking the crust with a quick pass of a rotary hoe. Below are some pictures of corn planted right before the rain that didn’t have enough time to emerge before the crusting occurred. If you have any questions about corn emergence and your options, contact your local Ag Partners agronomist!
CENTRAL
Morristown – Wanamingo – Kenyon
Garrett Johnson
This week we have a very different progress report, even in our small central area. To the south most operations are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and have a few days’ worth of soybean planting. To the north and west there’s very little corn in the ground and maybe some starting on beans. This week, with good weather and a decent forecast that will change drastically as everyone catches up. There were some areas to the south that will be looking at stand loss due to the crust that came after 5-7” of rain in previous weeks. Be sure to check stand counts on your farms or have your Ag Partners agronomist scout for possible replant situations.
Pictured below is a farm to be replanted.
EAST
Pine Island – Cannon Falls – Goodhue – Lake City
Hannah Hernke
We have finally been able to string some good planting days together! In the Goodhue neighborhood, I would say most of the corn is in the ground and a lot of people switching to soybeans at some point this week. Alfalfa in the last two weeks has really grown and a lot of hay is being cut and chopped as we speak.
With the rain events the end of April and beginning of May, some of my customers were concerned about getting crops in the ground before Memorial Day weekend. In the last ten days we have accomplished a lot in the field and I think a lot of people will be able to park their planters before Monday!
SOUTH
Elgin – Lewiston – Stewartville
Joel Johanningmeier
In most of the area, planting is wrapping up and the crop has emerged or beginning to emerge. Some of it rather rapidly. The next couple of weeks are a good opportunity to evaluate the quality of your stand. The first thing I like to do before I head to a field is to review imagery of that field to determine where to go to evaluate. Satellite imagery is very commonplace now and can help your efficiency in scouting. Climate Fieldview™ Field Health maps are some of the more readily available, but there are other quality providers that you can utilize as well.
While imagery can give you the picture of where to go in the field and quantify how much of the field is in each zone, it cannot determine what is happening in the field. This is where the ground truthing/boots in the field takes place. Using the image on a phone or iPad, I can navigate to the area of the field I want to perform my evaluations. This time of year it is good to take a stand count, determine consistency of emergence, determine planting depth, and view overall health of the plant. All of these have an impact on yield for the remainder of the season.
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To determine stand count measure off 1/1000th of an acre and count the number of plants. (17ft 5in. for 30 inch rows/26ft 2in. for 20 inch rows) Then multiply by 1000 for your population.
Make note of any plants that are 1 leaf stage or greater behind the rest of the majority of the plants. Likely these will contribute little to yield and in many cases act like a weed in taking resources away from the other plants around it. These can be omitted from your stand count for yield purposes.
To determine planting depth, measure the length of the mesocotyl (connection from the kernel to the stalk) and add 3/4 inch. This determines the depth at which the planter set the seed. Too shallow can have an impact on rooting later in the season.
Get a general overview of the plant health of the field. If the field looks in good condition, take credit for what you did or added to overcome the conditions of this Spring and plan again for next year. For fields that are challenged, continue to scout and perform diagnostics such as tissue, soil, or nitrogen sampling to help determine what can “fix” the field this season.
As mentioned earlier, imagery can help your scouting efficiency by helping to determine where to look in a field. Some fields are pretty obvious to see, but others may be subtle like in the example below. An overall glance of the field looks pretty consistent, but going to areas of higher and lower vegetation showed those subtle differences. In the lower area of the example there were slightly fewer plants and less consistency in plant height and growth stage. If you are interested in scouting with imagery and need help in accessing imagery from Climate or another source, reach out to your Agronomist or AYS Specialist in your area.
Wisconsin
Ellsworth
Eric Soley
We have had a beautiful stretch of weather the last 10 days here in the Dairy State! Most corn and bean acres will get wrapped up planting and a lot of hay acres will be put up this week. The last two years, after 1st cutting has been taken off, alfalfa weevils have wreaked havoc on the regrowth. It will be important to watch for them again this summer. A lot of acres were planted into less than ideal conditions as growers, understandably, kept an eye on the calendar and tried to get the crops in before the next rain event. With the heat and sun this week, we are starting to see some crusting issues on the beans and the corn now. A few growers are talking about getting the rotary hoes out to break up this crust. A lot of herbicides have been applied during this dry stretch and will need moisture to get the residual portions of the chemistry activated. “We will need rain soon” – something I didn’t think I would be saying seven days ago!
