Boots In The Field Report

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie answers a question from a Beyond The Basics viewer from Southwest Ontario. The viewer was asking about nitrogen carryover in red clover, where is the best place to reduce nitrogen in the overall nitrogen program when using red clover, and does it pay to use a nitrogen stabilizer in that situation.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie shares his concern on the December 12th drought map for the “I” states and advises growers to close tile gates, if they haven’t already, to keep what water they have from getting away. He also answers the question from a Beyond the Basics viewer about how deep to pull samples in long term no-till fields. Ken advises that it could be beneficial to pull a couple of stratification samples, checking the top three inches compared to the next three. A good amount of uptake of nutrients happens in the top three inches but in a drought year the next three inches become very important. Ken also talks updates on the CI score front for farmers

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken talks with Jared Bergan about the stats from this year’s hybrid flex plot: hybrids added, operations and locations participating, record for highest and lowest kernels per bushel. Ken also answers a question from a Beyond The Basics viewer about how soil test values can be helpful in hybrid selection and placement.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers the last of the Hybrid Ear Flex plots that came out this past week, hard pulling conditions, and considerations for growers contemplating going from narrow to wide row beans.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie takes a peek into the results that came off the host of plots that came out last week, from N rate, planter fertility, corn nematode, fix/flex, to bean tillage and row spacing plots.

The rain events are creating some delay for harvest and tillage work and but it also brought lower soil temperatures to get growers closer to safer anhydrous application conditions. While more often growers are concerned in dry falls about sealing for anhydrous, Ken Ferrie warns that too much moisture can create smearing from the knives, preventing a good seal and creating Nitrogen loss. In this episode he is able to share Sullivan Agro’s results of their 8 variety, 3 planting date bean study done in Canada. Ken also covers plot results on bean fungicide, using AMS and starter on beans and high-speed disk versus vertical till. All this and more in this week’s Boots In The Field Report.

In this Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers harvest recaps getting called in. Fields that got that heavy rain in August have high ground out yielding low ground, beans that turned too quickly showing premature death from disease, and harvest loss proving to be an issue for some field conditions. Ken recaps the fungicide and insecticide plot that came out and the outcome of 2 fix/flex plots that came out this week. In addition, he advises growers to check their WAAS satellite if having issues with GPS signal.

In this Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie reports on initial review of soybean plot data that came out this week. He advises that the research crew will have to look at a lot of variables: planting dates, varieties, maturities, row spacing, rainfall timing, rainfall amount, tillage, use of covers and more. While the data may vary widely this year, it will give growers excellent data to find field advantages and identify field weaknesses if they take the time to make sure they are collecting good data and noting the anomalies in the field.

In this week's Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie reports on harvest progress and recounts yields getting called in throughout IL and IA. Wide swings in yield not only throughout the state be in single fields. He also updates on lime shortages and replant bean plot results. 

Join us for this week’s episode of Boots in The Field Report with Ken Ferrie, where he provides a plot and harvest update that's both informative and timely. Ken dives into the ongoing issue of lime shortages that some growers are grappling with.Furthermore, Ken underscores the importance of keeping a close eye on harvest loss and the correct calibration of your yield monitors. He walks us through the meticulous process Crop-Tech employs for scaling yield monitors, especially when transitioning between different hybris.Tune in to ensure you're well-prepared to maximize your yields and effectively manage the unique challenges for this year’s harvest. 

In this week’s Boots In The Field report Ken covers why it is more important than usual this year to calibrate the yield monitor to make sure growers are capturing spatially accurate yield maps. These dry years can give clues to where perched water tables and sand lenses are located out in the field. Ken also advises harvest scouting teams to stay on top of the push test, as some hybrids are flat coming apart. He recommends if scouts find that hybrid failing the push test, that they check the other fields it is planted in as well. If growers are running into anomalies in the field like the low ground suffering in yield compared to the high ground, Ken encourages getting off the combine to do a quick check on stand count, ear count, and plant condition to help determine what the issue was before all the evidence is gone.  Ken also reminds growers to check for header loss, especially in these low branching soybeans.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers the range of yields being called in as harvest kicks off and reminds growers to stay on top of the push test when letting corn dry down in the field. Due to the variability in fields, combine operators will have to continuously check for harvest loss as they change fields and change hybrids. Ken also warns, with the dry June, growers will need to watch out for carry over issues on those products with 10 month cropping restrictions.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers reasons for seeing so much top die back in the corn. 1. Disease issues like anthracnose top kill will be on sporadic plants in the field, show black spores on outside of stalk on full dead plants, and behind the leaf sheaths on top killed plants. Can be hybrid and stress related.2. Insect issues like corn borer. Will have dead tops, maybe even broken over from wind and with tunneling into nodes.3. Heat Stress. More consistent across all plants in field not just sporadically. Doesn’t show the black spores or discoloration in the stalk like the disease top kill has. More prevalent in short corn or fields that struggled to close the row.The early planted corn that had tassels out when the June 29th storm was already done growing, but the corn planted after May 10th was still 3-5 leaves from tasseling allowing it to utilize the rain and add height to the plant to capture more sunlight. Ken is finding the narrow rows and more pendulum hybrids are showing l

Ken covers what he saw in his travels through IN, OH, NY, and IA in this week’s Boots In The Field Report. The Eastern region, traveled on way to New York, showed plenty of rain but being further behind in maturity than GDUs and planting date would normally be. Have had several cases of tar spot and SDS and he suspects that number to increase with this week’s heat. Ken mentions that the early planted corn that struggled causing it to be short and fail to close the rows is going to be hit harder by this week’s temperatures. In Iowa driving through the parts in the D2 region of the drought map, seeing fields with ears hanging down and plants burning up above the ear. In all areas of travel, Ken reports massive weed pressure in both beans and corn.

Ken uses this #BIFR to catch up on pest reports, update tar spot locations, cyst pressure coming around traits, how last week’s heat affected this crop and why you don’t want to group up your pollination window. He reminds growers to check planting dates when reviewing yield plots this year to create fair comparisons.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie touches base with Matt Duesterhaus to get more insight in how fields are looking in the areas hit by the derecho that went through and how crops and growers are fairing in the week since. Ken also covers what the short corn means for yield potential and why the rule of thumb about plants being more than a collar behind is different this year than when looking at years with uneven emergence. Ken also gives a run down of the pest reports and shares that they found Tar spot in a field South of Jacksonville, IL last week. Ken warns growers that with this rain, our relatively disease free fields, are likely to see a change.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken talks about how the wildfire haze might be helping us out in this drought, why corn on corn or corn with a rye cover are getting hit harder in dry areas, and why it is especially important to keep an eye out for silk clippers this year. He continues to reminder growers to never walk away from a growing crop and encourages growers to work to help the crop pollinate because if you miss pollinations and it starts to rain, there is no recourse to go back and fix it.

Grab a cup of coffee or a cold bottle of water, Ken has two weeks to cover in this week’s Boot’s In The Field Report. He walks through frost reports in NE Iowa, drought map getting bigger and uglier, and corn hitting the rapid growth stage amid water concerns. In these challenging conditions the sins of spring are coming to light, and while many may have gotten away with the same practices in other years without a penalty, not everyone is getting away with it this year without a cost. Growers are starting to see some prolonged carbon penalty issues crop up, even with sidedress applied, the lack of water is keeping it from getting to the root system for uptake. Ken reminds growers when sidedressing or Y-dropping the N applied should be for later season green and standability, not for plant building. If you are seeing a hit to sidedress timing this year in building the crop, you may need to rework the 4Rs of your Nitrogen program. Plant height is also tattling on some practices that might be hindering an operat

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken covers some of the issues he is seeing in this dry weather including drought stress on crops, herbicide carryover from last June being dry, and lack of mass flow for potassium uptake. He continues to get reports of leaning corn issues due to lack of crown root development and warns that dicamba type product applications will probably make this problem worse. He has also spotted silvering on corn due to low temp / scalding on leaves, cutworm damage on beans planted into cover, and first flowers on early planted beans. He also advises growers to be on army worm watch this weekend and to make sure in these dry conditions to use a urease inhibitor with y-drop and surface sidedress applications.

This week’s Boots In The Field Report covers issues popping up in fields as this crop starts to take off. Ken Ferrie reports on heavy cutworm pressure causing growers to spray, dry conditions causing herbicide carryover and a number of conditions causing good but not great ratings for corn stands. Ken also reminds growers of the difference between the ugly corn phase and the carbon penalty. He recommends that now is the time to be in the fields documenting conditions, checking for rootless corn, insect presence/feeding, and diagnosing dead plants to help make improvements for next year.