St Louis

Just returned from the Farm Futures buiness summit last night and I must tell you, what a great conference! Farm Futures gears this meeting toward farmers and farming, not agronomics per say. In fact there was not a single session with regards to "NPK". This conference is about the "BUSINESS"  of farming. Market updates and strategies, breaking down the global economy to your level, planning for success for your farm, why its is necessary to create and maintain a PR plan for your farm, forming advisory groups, risk management and why you need to bullet proof your balance sheet for the inevitable downturn that is coming because there will be opportunites by the bushel for those who are properly positioned. Two of my colleagues, Kelly Roberston (http://www.krfarm.net/) and John McGuire from STS gave outstanding presentations on the use of technology and clearly pointed out why you need to value independent research from plots that are replicated and randomized. If you are looking at yield maps from combines that you know are not calibrated properly... be wary.

Two growers that I work with attended this meeting  and I am fairly confident that they will be returning next year. This meeting helps me to (for lack of a better cliche) think outside the box. I do not wish to become either complacent or stagnet in my relationship with customers. It is important to always improve if I can, myself, and my service to the growers I work with. Think about this meeting next year, it is a winner.

Keep your edge

Just wanted to give you some thinking material for this winter as harvest is winding down. Whether you are well into the realm of precision technologies or just thinking about it one thing is becoming clear, it pays! The cost of the equipment is stable to decreasing somewhat and did I mention it pays. From fuel, to seed, fertilizer, chemicals and efficiency using precision technology is going to keep you in the game when things turn ugly again. This up cycle has been great but we know after up, down usually follows and we have to be in a position to be profitable even in the down cycles. What you as growers need is information. The data for example that yield monitors put out provides you information. So in a simple situation for example we find that one variety out performed another consistently across the farm by 10 bushel. That information can be used to make decisions for next year. Just saw a great video clip on fuel savings by having row sensors on corn head in down corn as compared to no sensors. $8.00 per acre savings in fuel not too mention faster harvest. Shut offs on planters and sprayers can add to your bottom line . So just be thinking and reading this winter for ways to utilize precision equipment in your operation in the future. I can help with some of the data processing with current software packages already in use. If you want to come in and go over different scenarios where this technology pays you are welcome anytime. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Harvest thoughts

Excuse me for the lack of updates lately, I hope to post more things as we get into the winter months. So far harvest has been a nice surprise. Considering the conditions that we were dealing with this spring, the yields are quite good. Beets of course still under way but those hurt early are down a little and those not hurt too bad are yielding pretty well if rainfall was decent. Dry Beans were for the most part phenominal. Quite a few reports of 30+ bag beans. Corn is very nice if you were in the few rain belts that came thru however there were definite pollination/kernal abortion issues resulting in 10 bushel minimum loss in some areas. As we are later than the past few years it seems down corn is a problem this year with certain varieties but we did experience some windy days that hurt alot. Please be careful as you continue this harvest season. More on nitrogen and some sugar beet thoughts later.

Innundation

Well, out of every corner and crevice I've been told the "specialty" products are being offered, sold, given, presented and the promises of gold and silver are soon to follow. Let me preface the following remarks with this, any product out there, applied at the exact right time and place may give a yield response that may have you selling the stuff the very next day. And that is just fine. Some people seem to want that quick fix to all problems and issues that were "created" for example by unfavorable planting conditions, including planting DATE!
It seems there are quite a few "interns" running around taking tissue samples and reports being issued of various "problems" out there and I have heard we could be short of every nutrient known to make plants grow. Frankly I don't know how to begin to answer this. So I won't. What I will say is that plant nutrition is a very complex system that includes so many other variables along with fertility it really boggles the mind. The current weather conditions, meaning the hot and dry, before the little bit rain we had was very hard on crops especially sugar beets. Lets try to remember for example that a beet crop that went in basically a month later than normal, now has a root system that is expected to withstand the typical heat and lack of moisture we "normally" get at this time. Lets also remember that plants under stress will probably not respond to added nutrition until the stress is removed and may in fact be detrimental.
I"d like to remind you to you remember your basic agronomy when considering nutrient applications. Things like compaction/drainage issues especially when that leads to disease are not going to be corrected by nutrient applications per say. Remember how the corn looked in some of last years beet fields earlier this year especially compared to corn following beans? As the soils warmed and adequate moisture was received it began to look a lot better. It had to fight through some adverse conditions but now most of it looks reasonable considering late planting and less than ideal planting conditions. The chemical "fertility" is no different following beans than after beets... I wonder why, in a wet year in particular, why do we always have corn that looks like that after beets and not beans hmmmm....
I see it as my responsibility, as a consulting agronomist, to help you find the "cure" not apply the band aid. So, if the underlying problem is compaction, all the foliar 6-20-0 with all the minors at 1 gallon per acre is not, I think, really going to really help much. Lets do the math on that. 1 gallon = 10 lbs roughly. 10 x .06 = .6 lbs of N/ac, and 10 x .2 = 2#/ac half of which may hit tissue. Lets use common sense out there. If specific nutrient deficiencies are determined, then foliar feeds targeted to that nutrient will help in the right form at the right rate and proper time.

Todays thoughts

As it continues to rain the catch up on reading, learning software and getting your field files ready for sampling continues. First a few thoughts on Nitrogen. At this point we all wonder how much if any N that was applied early has been lost. If you used stabilizers chances are you are fairly safe. In sandy soils the problem is leaching and in heavy soils it is more about denitrification. In any case the speed of conversion from ammonia to nitrate is one factor. The cooler temps have helped in that respect slowing down that conversion. Nitrate tests at this point would be inconclusive due to lower soil temperatures. Our new N test called PNA for potential nitrogen assessment has shown on wheat that maybe an additional 20 to 30 lbs might be warranted. However that test is still in the "testing" phase and we are using it only for research and calibration purposes right now. I would consider foliar applications of N with fungicide sprays on wheat. Helena has CoRon and CPS has N-Pact, Freeland carries Nitamin 30, all products would be a good source of N for foliar.


Fertilizer prices are poised to move up a little bit more than some of the publications I have been following had predicted in the last few weeks. While working on this today I did a little math on P sources and came to the conclusion that those of you using liquid starter may have an opportunity to save some serious dollars by mixing things up a bit. This all has to do with the price spread between 10-34-0 and MAP. If you want more details give me a shout. 


Sampling is underway as weather and field conditions permit. It is going to be a challenge getting this done as early as I would like just like you would rather have been planted earlier. 


As I continue to process planting data and yield data the more convinced I am that this technology is going to make us money. From fine tuning zones to exact placement of proper nutrients to the future methods of sending spreading files directly to your tractors via wireless signals... its very exciting stuff.


Monitor sugar is recommending liming ahead of sugar beets and they are doing so vigorously. I do not have a problem with this practice in general. I have read and continue to read the research out of the valley. I have not found much plot data yet that gives me any type of starting point with regards to balance and pH. Some yes but not enough. The bottom line is that anphanomyces is still a DRAINAGE problem. The last 2 years we have had warm and wet and that is not a good combination for resisting infection. There is plot data out there that suggests success with liming, some with no difference. Another area where some success is being seen is having adequate P close to the seed especially in low P soils. If you want to lime ahead of beet fields as a matter of disease management again I don't have a problem with it just make sure you understand the effect this will have on magnesium and potassium levels and availability in particular on soils with TEC's of less than 10. Get me a list of Beet fields for 2012 and if you want I will include this application in the recommendations so you will have maps and accurate tonnage calculations. Custom spread files are easily made for this also. 


Other random thoughts include fertilizer storage, co-ownership of equipment, vertical tillage.

EPA is out of Control

This article seems to reflect the normal "attitude" coming out of EPA now a days

http://www.farmfutures.com/story.aspx/farmers/would/be/hit/hard/by/expanded/epa/jurisdiction/17/48817

Starter Fertlizer article

I ran across this paper (probably for the 3rd time) and thought it might be of interest to most of you. It is a study on pop up for sugar beets. Bottom line. 3 gallons of 10-34-0 on seed was as good as any other product out there. No significant differences in yield or recoverable sugar were consistently noted in this study.
http://www.sbreb.org/research/soil/soil08/PhosphorusStarter.pdf