The wet conditions this fall could lead to compaction.

By Sjoerd Duiker, Penn State soil management specialist

If fields are compacted this fall due to the wet conditions, there are some different strategies that can be taken to correct the problem.

If no ruts are seen, it is probably not necessary to do tillage. Instead, plant a cover crop to use the living root system to alleviate compaction.

Ruts need to be smoothed out to be able to plant the next crop successfully, however. If ruts are uniformly distributed across the whole field, some type of tillage may need to be done on the whole field. In many cases, however, ruts are localized and only need localized repair.

Remember the negative consequences of tillage. It will be necessary to till deeper than the depth of compaction. Shallow “vertical tillage” tools that only do tillage in the top 4 inches will not be sufficient to manage soil compaction. Very tough shanks are needed that will penetrate instead of bounce on top of the compacted layer.

New subsoilers can do maximum fracturing without doing much surface disturbance with straight or bent-leg shanks. Parabolic shanks do much more surface disturbance and will need more secondary tillage for seedbed preparation and are therefore not preferred. Deep tillage may be what you could use in the fall, and then come back in the spring to smoothen the field up with a field cultivator or disk harrow.

However, it may be tough to find the right soil moisture conditions this fall for deep tillage. Deep tillage should fracture the soil and it therefore needs to be performed in relatively dry soil. With the temperatures coming down now the soil is not likely to dry out sufficiently, and it may be necessary to wait until spring to do deep tillage. Deep tillage can be performed in a living cover crop in the spring, if you use the modern, low disturbance subsoilers. Do not let subsoiling deter you from planting a cover crop. The more tillage you do, however, the more you set yourself up for increased compaction problems in the future.

Cynthia Koonce, owner/operator of Blue Heron Farm near Lisbon, conducts a wagon tour of her farm, which played host to Ohio Sheep Day on July 16. Koonce has about 300 predominately Dorset sheep on her 230-acre farm, which consists of hilly, formally strip-mined ground.

The U.S. sheep industry is experiencing a historic time. Lamb prices are at an all-time high, the wool market and wool pelt prices are setting historical records, and the cull ewe market is strong. That reality made for a happy gathering of roughly 130 sheep enthusiasts from across the state and beyond at the 2011 Ohio Sheep Day, held July 16 on a hot, clear day on the rolling hills of Blue Heron Farm in Columbiana County.

Yet despite the current prosperity within the U.S. sheep industry, there is concern that the U.S. sheep flock is not large enough to keep up with the demand for lamb and wool production.

Nationally, the American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) has started a campaign to encourage shepherds to expand their flocks, with information available at www.growourflock.org. And Ohio Sheep Day carried out that trend, with a number of the day’s sessions focusing on ways to increase sheep production, either through new farms or expanded flocks.

“We had a really successful day with a lot of different sessions concentrating on a lot of sheep production systems,” said Roger High, Ohio Sheep Improvement Association (OSIA) executive director and Ohio State University Extension sheep specialist. “But we’re really looking at how we can expand this industry and how we can get more people involved and raise more lambs, because with the high lamb prices there’s such a supply and demand gap. Supply is a little bit low, and demand is on the increase. There are a lot of positive things going on.”

Sessions throughout the day focused on a variety of topics, such as pasture watering systems, manure management, conservation funding for sheep farms, lamb carcass cutting and cooking, supplementing feed rations with dried distiller’s grains, and basic sheep pasture and grazing management. But a handful of sessions were geared specifically toward ways to produce more lamb.

“One of the things we’re seeing in Ohio is not the expansion of existing flocks, but a lot of new flocks, especially Amish,” High said. “They’ve got land, labor, generally know how to raise livestock, and their coming in next to where lamb markets exist, such as Barnesville and Mt. Vernon.”

That’s why one of the Sheep Day sessions focused on basic sheep management practices for the beginning or novice shepherd. For someone interested in getting into sheep production, High recommended finding a good set of young females without health problems.

This will help lead to early success and hopefully prevent new shepherds from getting discouraged. High also encouraged new producers to take advantage of the educational resources available to them through OSU Extension, OSIA and others.

“A lot of people are interested in helping, they just need people to ask,” he said.

For more on Ohio Sheep Day, see the August issue of Ohio’s Country Journal.

The rainy April made farmers exercise quite a bit of patience this year.

As just about everyone reading this magazine knows, it’s been a tough year to try and grow anything in Ohio. Patience has been more than a desired virtue; it’s been a way of life. Someone once said patience is the ability to throttle your engine when you feel like stripping your gears. We’ve experienced a great deal of “throttling” this year, haven’t we?

My experience with patiently trying to grow something centered around grass, and I’m talking the legal kind of grass, even though over the past year, Logan County has had more than its share of the illegal kind of grass.

We moved to a different parsonage last year when we were appointed to a different church, and the lawn immediately behind the parsonage was a mess. It appeared that when the house was built, the builders simply backfilled around the rear foundation, not paying any attention to the type of soil or what was in it when they leveled the ground. It was a mix of topsoil, subsoil, along with an abundant and unhealthy amount of east Logan County clay, plus more rocks and stones than a gravel pit. No self-respecting plant wanted to make this area home.

I tested the soil and found it was pretty sour and poorly fertilized. So earlier this spring, I spread both lime and fertilizer. After letting those settle, I also added a layer of topsoil graciously provided by a neighbor. Then I undertook to till the ground.

I knew the tilling would be rough. Our Logan County clay is very stubborn (mulish and obstinate would be more appropriate descriptions!) and I believe it is a close cousin to cement; bad when it’s wet and even worse when it’s dry. The first roto-tiller broke before the job was done. The drive belt twisted and then flew into pieces trying to work through the clay soil. So I borrowed another tiller and finished the job, but not before I’d also thrown my back out, even with a rear-tine tiller.

Eventually, the seed bed was ready, grass seed was spread and a layer of straw covered the good-looking new seed bed. Then I started a twice-a-day watering regimen, faithfully in the morning and evening.

For a week, I watered and watched, watered and watched. Nothing showed, not even a weed. The seed bag said expect to see growth in five days. After five days, I was getting anxious. It took nearly eight days for the seed to germinate and now, after 10 days, the grass is prolific. I learned a lesson in patience.

That lesson is nothing, though, like the Chinese and their bamboo. They plant the bamboo seed, faithfully water and fertilize it the first year and nothing happens. The second, third, fourth and fifth years, they continue to faithfully water and fertilize the bamboo seeds. The sixth year, they faithfully water and fertilize and will only then see the first faint signs of growth. Then, during the course of that sixth year, in a period of approximately six weeks, the Chinese bamboo tree will grow about 90 feet.

Did it grow 90 feet in six weeks or did it grow 90 feet in six years? I think we’d all agree it was a six-year growing period because if that seed had not been faithfully and patiently watered, fertilized and tended for all those years prior to when the tree actually started growing, it would not have grown an inch in the sixth year.

Unlike the Chinese, we Americans tend to be very un-patient in our thinking. Americans are a very patience-less and patience-challenged culture. I even heard one of the church youth last week remark on how something was out of date because “it was, like, so yesterday!”

The late President Richard Nixon had a great analysis of this mindset difference when he said this: “As Americans, we have many great strengths, but one of our weaknesses is impatience. The Russians think in terms of decades, the Chinese in terms of centuries. Americans think in terms of years, months and even days. If, in the quest for a realistic, lasting peace, we expect overnight success and instant gratification, we are bound to be disappointed.”

In the Bible, Galatians, chapter 5 reminds us that patience is one of the great fruits of the Holy Spirit, along with love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. All of these are companion pieces in the great picture puzzle of life, which we could call contentment.

Likewise, instant gratification is not all that it’s cracked up to be. The trouble for most Americans, particularly young people, is that they want to get to the promised land without going through the wilderness. Nothing worthwhile or long-lived ever happens in a hurry anyway. Sure, sometimes we’ll experience a fleeting moment of joy, but that’s just what it is: fleeting and ephemeral. Because our American culture, unlike the Chinese culture, has become so far removed from our agricultural roots, we have forgotten that we can’t reap and sow in the same day. You can accomplish just about anything if you have patience; you can even carry water in a sieve if you wait until it freezes.

That lesson has been demonstrated by our patient Ohio farmers this year. For many, 2011 marked the latest they’ve ever planted corn in their lifetime and greatly strained their patience, yet the crop service reports we planted a record number of acres. And even as late as the planting was, drive around the state and you can see some beautiful corn and soybean fields. Sure, there are disasters, but as I write this month’s column in late June, I’ve seen fields in our area with corn more than chest high, and completely filled-in soybean fields.

We need to keep reminding ourselves that the One who holds the world in His hands has an entirely different concept of time than we do. God counsels us to have patience and wait upon the Lord not just as an attractive saying but as a way of living.

ATVs can be a serious liability issue.

Once upon a time, there was a Grandma and a Grandpa who retired in Ohio. They owned a farm in Indiana, where their Grandson and another Minor Relative went to ride ATVs. Apparently confusing the agricultural terrain with a demolition derby track, Minor Relative drove her ATV straight at Grandson, failed to turn in time and fractured Grandson’s legs, ankle and skull.

So, Grandson and his parents sued Minor Relative and her mother and stepfather (who were at the farm when the accident occurred). Grandson and his parents also sued Grandma and Grandpa. I assume that holiday gatherings were never the same.

The complaint alleged negligent entrustment regarding Minor Relative’s mother and stepfather. Regarding Grandma and Grandpa, the complaint alleged that they knew of Minor Relative’s “reckless and/or negligent tendencies” and that they had the duty and ability to exercise control over Minor Relative, breached that duty, and as a proximate and foreseeable result of their negligence, Grandson was injured.

Interestingly, the complaint does not include any allegations that a condition on the property contributed to the accident.

This case is all about the insurance. Grandma and Grandpa’s Ohio residence was insured by Westfield Insurance Company. Their homeowner policy provides Grandma and Grandpa with personal liability coverage for damages arising from bodily injury or property damages. It excludes, however, coverage for claims “arising out of” premises owned by an insured that is not an insured location.

Grandma and Grandpa’s Indiana farm was covered by liability insurance from Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company.

When Grandson and his parents sought legal advice, one of the most important criteria for the attorney was a pool of money from which to recover damages. Oftentimes, attorneys hire investigators to run asset checks of the potential defendants to assure that there are assets from which to collect. Personal injury attorneys love it when potential defendants have insurance. Here, there were two insurance policies, so the fight began.

Then, the insurance companies began to squabble about who should pay. The issue was to what degree a negligence claim must be connected to the premises in order for the exclusion to be triggered. Westfield claimed that the exclusion clause applied because the accident happened on the farm in Indiana, so Grinnell had to pay. Grinnell and the plaintiffs argued that the negligence didn’t involve the property in Indiana, but the behavior of Grandma and Grandpa, so Westfield was also liable. Three courts heard this argument, as it worked its way through the appeals process. The Ohio Supreme Court decided the law and sent in back to the trial court for proper application.

The Ohio Supreme Court held that the simple fact that Minor Relative’s misconduct took place on land is a matter of the law of gravity, not the law of insurance. So, if the complaint is based on the theory that the Grandparents failed to properly supervise Minor Relative while she was on their property and that failure led to Grandson’s injuries, then the exclusion does not bar coverage. If, however, the complaint of negligent supervision is merely a subterfuge to avoid the “other premises” exclusion because the claims are based on Grandparents’ ownership of the property, then the exclusion is triggered, and coverage from Westfield is not available. So, the trial court was instructed to ascertain the nature and factual basis for the claims against the Grandparents. The court also alerted insurers that exclusions could be drafted to more fully preclude coverage of occurrences like this one.

And there are several morals to this story. It’s always about the money, always. The plaintiffs wanted both insurance companies involved because that meant there was more money available for damages. And even though blood is supposed to be thicker than water, it is still all about the money.

Even if you are adequately insured, you can still be sued and forced to spend inordinate amounts of time in court defending yourself. And this can happen between friends and family. I don’t like spending time in depositions when I’m the one conducting them, so I can only imagine the frustration and anger when days are spent answering questions instead of posing them.

Review your existing policies to verify that you have coverage for all properties you own. And think long and hard about what activities you permit on your property, even if you are present. Is it worth eventually spending years in court? Even if your representation is provided by your policy coverage, you can still be obligated to physically be present for many hours of legal proceedings. And you will not be reimbursed for your time. In these situations, there is no happily ever after.

Leisa Boley Hellwarth is a dairy farmer and an attorney. She represents farmers throughout Ohio from her office near Celina. Her office number is 419-586-1072.

The soybean aphid may be among the concerns for late planted soybeans in Ohio.

With the significance of Ohio’s wet spring fresh in farmers’ minds, Ohio State University experts recommend extra vigilance when scouting fields for soybean pests and diseases this summer.

The late start could increase the chances of yield losses from soybean rust, though early conditions in the south were not particularly favorable for the disease.

“The cold winter temperatures and hot dry spring prevented soybean rust from surviving in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. In Florida, soybean rust is in a kudzu patch just south of the panhandle. This low level of inoculum and hot dry conditions in the south indicate that it is going to take quite a bit of time to reach Ohio,” said Anne Dorrance, Ohio State University Extension plant pathologist. “The next time we should look at this is in early August. At this time we will take a look at how many counties in the south are red, how much inoculum is there in those locations, and what the growth stage, canopy closure, and general health of the Ohio soybean crop is. We will be able to predict what the risk is of soybean rust to actually arrive in Ohio during 2011.”

Ron Hammond, an entomologist with OSU Extension, recommends producers be especially mindful of two particular insects this season as well: bean leaf beetle and soybean aphid.

“Scouting for the bean leaf beetle is more for the growers that happened to get in early this year, where they’re the only ones who have an early-planted field in a fairly large area, like a county or township,” Hammond said.

Those early-planted fields served as trap crops, playing host to the overwintering beetles that came out in spring. While the beetles normally might spread across several fields in the same area, absent the normal planting progress, the overwintering insects gathered instead in the few fields where farmers planted in the typical timeframe.

“If farmers went into those early fields a month ago, they’d have seen a lot of feeding,” Hammond said. “Those growers need to be cautious now because the first true generation is just starting to come out, and some of those fields may have a large population feeding.”

Hammond said bean leaf beetle pressure would not normally worry Ohio farmers because they would not cause enough feeding to be of economic concern. This year, however, affected fields could be riddled throughout the entire canopy because of the unusually late planting.

But perhaps a larger looming concern is soybean aphid appearance in late July and early August. Aphids were not a major issue in Ohio last year, but Hammond expects a more significant showing for the 2011 crop.

“I’ve tended to believe in Ohio in the two-year cycle for aphids and it looks like that will hold true again this year,” Hammond said. “We’re starting to see fields in Ohio where aphids are already emerging.”

He acknowledged, however, that not every area of the state, nor any given field in a region, will be affected by an aphid infestation. Farmers, he says, must be vigilant in late July and early August to avoid economic impact of aphid pressure on a plant population.

Because plants are later developing than normal due to later planting, they are physically smaller than at this point in a normal growing season, and potentially more susceptible to damage.

“With the kind of insects we’re going to deal with this year, if the plants stay relatively short and we get a lot of beetles, they’ll be more susceptible to feeding simply because they don’t have as much leaf area for feeding,” Hammond said. “The same is probably true of aphids, too.”

Hammond said most areas of the state could use an inch of rain to boost plant growth. Most areas of Ohio are experiencing soil dryness in the root zone, holding back plant potential.

With some timely rains, he said plants will really start growing, belaying some of his concerns for insect feeding in the latter part of the season.

“The insects will come out at their normal time, most likely, but we’d like to see more plant growth to handle that insect pressure. On the other hand luckily, the early-planted fields where we’ll likely see bean leaf beetles have a lot more leaf area than do most of the soybean fields across the state.”

“We took a crop tour around part of the country, and Ohio is almost like the rest of the nation — variable. From southern Indiana to Illinois there was a lot of wet, yellow corn in standing water. There is flooding in St. Louis through Missouri. In Arkansas they hadn’t had rain in 60 days, and the previous two weeks’ temperatures had been 12 degrees above normal, but then they got rain while we were there.

“We’re extremely dry here. We got our last rain three and a half weeks ago. We finished planting on June 8. It rained four-tenths on June 10 and then two-tenths on June 16 and that was the last rain we had. Corn looks good in the mornings until about noon and then it shows the heat and dryness. It is amazing how nice the crops still look, but they are doing it with not much rain. It looks like we may get some rain today, but 10 days ago we had a rain just like this. It came right to us and then went south. We’re cautiously optimistic that we should catch this one.

“It is so dry, there doesn’t seem to be much disease in the beans. The beans look nice other than maybe a little manganese deficient in some areas. The beans are really getting started, and we should have some rapid growth, especially if we get some rains.

Most double-crop beans around here got scrapped because it was so dry. If they did get planted they are laying in dry dirt.”

The wheat crop in the area was disappointing. “Around here, yields were 15 to 20 bushels off average, and quality was better than expected. Yields are all over the board.”

“It is nice and warm, but keep it coming because everything is growing well. Friday we got anywhere from a quarter inch to an inch and a half in spots. That has gotten us through so far. It was starting to get dry, but it was a good time to be dry for getting the plants rooting down.

“The compacted end rows have some corn curling, but that is the only place. We have corn anywhere from a couple of feet over my head down to about waist high. Most of our first plants will be starting to tassel early next week so we’re hoping that we catch this rain tonight. The corn tasseling is probably only a week off of average.

“We got all of the corn sprayed. We have a couple more days of spraying beans and we’ll be done with that. I think the beans look good. They’d look really good if it was the middle of June and not the middle of July. We have not heard about any soybean aphids yet, but the way this year has gone anything can happen.

“In this area, almost everyone’s beans are looking about perfect. Everything that was planted came up nice and they are growing. The beans are a good bit behind, though. They are only a foot tall when they are usually around waist high by this time.”

“I am a little concerned. We’re getting dry, but they are calling for some rain here this afternoon and we got a couple tenths last Friday. There are some people who are getting pretty dry around Ohio. It is spotty all across the state.”

A recent crop tour around parts of Ohio and Indiana revealed a wide variation in crop condition. “You’ll see areas where the lawns are turning brown and the crops are hurting, then you’ll get to another stretch with greener grass and nicer looking crops. Ohio has some decent crops and some areas that you really feel sorry for the farmers because it is pretty dry. You’d see a beautiful field of corn every now and then, and then you see the areas that were too wet and didn’t make it, and then you see those dry areas.

“On the farm, we have uneven crops like the majority of farms around here. There is a lot of soybean spraying going on also. We’re about halfway through our bean crop. And, this is the time of year corn needs water. Some of it is getting close to tassel and we have some already starting. The pollination is not going to take place in two weeks this year; it is really going to be spread out.

“The beans here at home are starting to shape up, but we still have beans that are fairly short. The corn is uneven but some of it is stretching up pretty good. It is all going to depend on what moisture we get in the next few weeks.”

In Richland County, a nice rain kept the crops going. “It is pretty hot here and things are getting dry. We did luck out on Friday and we got a nice shower from anywhere between four and seven-tenths of rain. It was a nice steady shower and that was a big help. We got another tenth before that after I finished spreading urea.

“The early corn is starting to shoot tassels. The rest of the corn is waist to head high. There are a few uneven places where there are wet spots, but most of the corn is pretty even around here. The beans are looking pretty good. That rain helped. We had a neighbor plant some double crops, but we’re not doing any. Dad is spraying this morning the second time with Roundup. The beans we had planted in May are getting pretty tall and looking good. The others are canopied out, but definitely shorter than the early beans.

“The wheat harvest is coming along. We have about 50 acres to go. Our quality has been really good, especially compared to last year, with 60 or 61 test weight. Our yields are in the high 60s, which is pretty good for our soils.

“I’ve been round baling straw for a couple of days. We use it for our own bedding. We go through around 800 round bales of straw a year, so I try to get close to that. The straw has been really nice this year. We did some second cutting alfalfa and got 800 really nice silage bales in the last week of June. We’re chopping the rest starting on Wednesday after wheat and straw.

“The flies have been a big problem with the cows this year. A lot of people have been saying that, and we have been spraying quite a bit.”

By Tim Reeves

In 1835, a Frenchman named Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States of America. A historian, philosopher, writer and an early social scientist, de Tocqueville wanted to discover what made America America. For nearly a year, he traveled across the country, interviewing and studying Americans of all races, classes, ethnicities, etc.

After all that work, he wrote a compilation of what he learned, titled “Democracy in America,” which has been described as the most comprehensive analysis of the character and society of America ever written. He painted a true picture of America that went far beneath the red, white and blue of patriotism, the “green” of commerce, the spectacular vistas of natural beauty that grace this land, and the popular images.

Alexis de Tocqueville created a true picture of what embodied the American spirit.

His introduction bears reading. “Upon arrival in the United States of America, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention. In France, I had almost seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. In America, I found they were intimately united.”

De Tocqueville was struck by the partnership Americans had formed between their Christian religion and their political government. It was a unique marriage unlike anything else he had ever seen in France, Europe or elsewhere. It was a separate but equal partnership that was openly fostered yet carefully cherished and treasured.

Here’s how he described it: “Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of personal and political liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other. (Americans) have brought with them into the New World a form of Christianity which I cannot better describe than by styling it a democratic and republican religion.”

In his book, de Tocqueville openly touted the greatness of America, but also flavored that greatness with a warning. He said America is great because Americans are basically inherently morally good people with a personal sense of right and wrong. If Americans ever cease to be morally good, America will cease to be great, he warned.

As I write this month’s column, I begin to wonder just how “inherently morally good” Americans still are. The headlines over the past two months have been dominated by scandals involving politicians named John Edwards, Arnold Swartzenagger and Anthony Weiner, but also The Ohio State University memorabilia and tattoo fiasco. A good man named Tressel has lost his football coaching job, and the football legacies of several players have been forever tarnished because of that ethical fiasco.

It makes one wonder what has happened to the “inherently morally good” Americans that de Tocqueville once so eloquently described. Likewise, it is certainly cause to wonder if America is beginning to lose its greatness because of our collective decline in moral and ethical standards. How have we slid so far in less than a couple hundred years?

At the time de Tocqueville wrote his two-part analysis of America in the early 19th century, the United States had more Christian churches than the rest of the world combined. That’s amazing, and we held that distinction for more than 50 years in that century.

We also had one of the largest and most extensive public school systems in the world, a system that relied primarily on two books: the McGuffey readers and the Christian Bible. Prayer was still an integral part of every public school, because as de Tocqueville pointed out, for Americans, religious freedom was seamlessly but openly married with political and personal freedom.

Much has changed since those days of the early 19th century, and my cynicism says we Americans have not changed for the better in terms of personal morals, ethics and character.

Backing up de Tocqueville’s claim, since 1789, every session of the U.S. Senate has opened with a public prayer. That prayer has continued a practice that began in the American Revolution that Benjamin Franklin described this way: “In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britian, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection.”

The Senate has had 62 chaplains since that time, and one of the greatest was Rev. Peter Marshall who once stated, “Our liberty is under God and can be found nowhere else. May our faith be not merely stamped upon our coins but expressed in our lives.”

Yet throughout the late 20th century and into the 21st century, it seems like not only Americans but our government have been at war with this founding principle of religion, ethics, morals, and the partnership between faith and personal freedom.

In March 1984, the U.S Senate voted down voluntary prayer in public schools. While a majority of the Senate voted for it, the school prayer amendment fell short of the number needed to pass. A month later, then President Ronald Reagan, speaking to the National Association of Secondary School Principles, said these almost-prophetic words: “God should never have been expelled from America’s schools. As we struggle to teach our children, we dare not forget that our civilization was built by men and women who practiced their faith in a loving God. If Congress can begin each day with a moment of prayer, then so can our sons and daughters.”

Later, the president would remark: “Sometimes, I can’t help but feel the First Amendment is being turned on its head.”

As we Americans move toward celebrating our 235th anniversary as a nation, don’t you think it would be appropriate to take some time to reflect on where we as a nation have come in that 235 years and how we have strayed so far from the people we were to the people we now are? I am certainly not naive enough to believe that if we had remained true to our roots of a healthy partnership between religious, personal and political freedom, that we would be spared the scandals and ethical fiascos of the past and present.

However, on the other hand, we do need to look at what our abandonment of faith, morals, ethics and character are doing to our younger generations.

The Bible warns us that the sins of one generation will be born by succeeding generations in ever-greater degrees.

Will we learn from history?

Until next month, God Bless.

Horsefeathers!

A new raw material has been discovered for making thermoplastics — and it comes from a source you may not expect. When I tell you what it is, you may say, “Horsefeathers!”

Traditionally, crude oil is the key ingredient of thermoplastics, which can be molded into any shape when heated. You find thermoplastics around home in everything from toothbrush bristles to car bumpers. It can be made tough enough to manufacture armor plating for a military tank — not that you’re likely to find one of those at home.

So, what’s the new raw material for making thermoplastics? Here it is: chicken feathers. Honest!

Chicken feathers have had few practical uses, except to keep chickens warm. And to stuff pillows. And they used to come in handy for chickens when they escaped my mother’s chicken house and evaded my grasp by flying up into a nearby tree. Plus, our old rooster seemed to take great pleasure strutting around and waiting for an opportune time to “flop” me as a little kid with his massive wings. (Ultimately, my mother fixed that problem. His drumsticks made for a delicious Sunday dinner.)

Also, you may remember from one or two of my previous columns, in which I have sung the praises of the cow, that chicken feathers can be processed into cow feed. Thanks to their unique digestive systems, cows can ferment the amino acids of keratin-containing feathers and convert them into nourishing milk and meat for us humans.

And that’s a good thing — except that the poultry industry produces 3 billion pounds of chicken feathers a year! That’s far more than cows can stomach.

In comparison, our appetite for stuff made of plastic is seemingly insatiable. At the same time, we have a growing need to cut back our diet of foreign oil. This has driven researchers to find a renewable source for plastic.

Yiqi Yang of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has worked out the process for developing thermoplastics from chicken feathers. Before she perfected the process, the perplexing part of her research was overcoming the tendency of thermoplastics made from chicken feathers to soften and lose their molded shape when exposed to water or rain. Yang solved this problem by adding methyl acrylate to the blend. Methyl acrylate, a nail polish ingredient, makes the thermoplastic stronger and more resistant to tearing than plastics derived from crude oil, soybeans or starch.

So, now every time you order a chicken dinner at the Colonel’s you can eat confidently, knowing you’re doing your part to reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil.

I’ll leave you with a parting note to ponder: If a scientist can figure out how to make plastic processed from chicken feathers resist water, how hard could it be to make a water-resistant chicken? If you’ve ever had to work around the odor of old wet hens like I have, you know it’s worth investigating.

By Jerron Schmoll, Agronomy Research Manager, Pioneer

The practice of managing diseases with fungicides in corn has increased significantly in the last few years as commodity prices have made this practice more economically viable. As we approach tasseling, many growers will be considering whether or not to spray their acres. Let’s review what we have learned from previous seasons, and what is different about 2011 that might help guide our decisions.

Before we dig into the data, let’s review the primary diseases that we are managing with fungicides: gray leaf spot (GLS) and northern corn leaf blight (NCLB). GLS causes rectangular shaped lesions that turn gray as the disease progresses, while NCLB causes gray-green elliptical or cigar-shaped lesions. Both diseases are favored by prolonged periods of leaf wetness in the form of prolonged dews and high humidity, and both can produce substantial yield losses, particularly on susceptible hybrids. Increased stalk lodging can occur with both diseases as the plant “cannibalizes” carbohydrates in the stalk to fill the ear instead of relying on green tissue to photosynthesize carbohydrates. Scouting for these diseases and applying fungicides as needed is the most sound economic approach. Not surprisingly, data indicates that when disease pressure is low, yield response to fungicides is also low. As either of these diseases starts to infect the ear leaf or the leaves above the ear leaf, it may be time to consider spraying.

Data from the last couple of growing seasons has reinforced the mantra that the environment is key in terms of determining yield response. Both diseases overwinter on corn leaf tissue, so any management practice that reduces the amount of residue on the soil surface will reduce the incidence of disease. Crop rotation helps with this. Pioneer agronomy science data from the 2009-2010 seasons indicated that fungicides provided around 4 bushel per ace yield response in a corn-corn rotation relative to a corn-soybean rotation. Tillage also impacted yield results. Fungicides applied in a no-till/strip till environment provided around 9 bushel-per-acre yield response relative to conventional tillage. However, both of these diseases can be carried on wind currents, so while crop rotation and tillage reduce the probability of a high level of disease infection, these diseases can still occur in tilled ground in rotation, particularly on susceptible hybrids. Most seed companies rate their hybrids for GLS and NCLB and company representatives should be able to tell you which hybrids are more likely to respond positively to a fungicide application under disease pressure.

Timing is another important management consideration. Tasseling is the typical recommended application timing as this if often the time that disease begins to develop. Early and late vegetative stage applications have been studied as a method to improve season-long disease control, and while there is on average a positive yield response associated with vegetative stage applications, the response is typically not economically positive. There is also an increased risk of arrested ear development with late vegetative applications. Adjuvants used to improve fungicide efficacy seem to be the primary cause of arrested ear development, so leaving them out of early applications may be warranted, however the safest bet is to wait until the reproductive stages of development. Uneven stands due to tough spring conditions may make crop staging difficult as some plants in the field may be at a late vegetative stage while others may be at tasseling to silking stage. Recent research has shown that erring a little on the late side of application (R1) can produce essentially the same result as a VT application and may help avoid potential injury from a late vegetative stage application.

Finally, what may be different about 2011? With the late planted crop, stalk quality may be a little more challenged as growers elect to let the crop stand to dry in the field. While fungicides can add a little moisture to the grain relative to an untreated field, they may also help improve standability into the fall by controlling diseases that contribute to stalk cannibalization, giving the crop more potential drying time to shed the moisture.

So consider disease presence, your agronomic practices, your hybrid, and the weather to help make an informed decision around fungicide application in corn. Good luck scouting this summer.