Crops

By Matt Reese

Farmers markets are a staple for marketing many of the products from Wishwell Farms Produce in Logan County, and that meant some major changes for the start of the 2020 sales season. Brothers Jason and Joel Wish sell more than 20 different farm products at 10 to 12 Ohio farmers markets throughout the growing season, each with a slightly different response to COVID-19.

Two of their top markets, Worthington Farmers Market and Clintonville Farmers’ Market in northern Columbus, switched to all online ordering in late March. The Clintonville Farmers’ Market actually moved locations to a larger parking lot facility off of I-71.

“Several of the markets are requiring us to do online ordering and a pickup at the markets. Instead of the traditional farmers market where the vendors set up a tent and table and display their produce and the customers would walk up and purchase it, we are not allowed to do that yet this year,” Jason said.… Continue reading

By Matt Hutcheson, CCA, Product Manager, Seed Consultants, Inc.

Typically, soybeans may begin to show symptoms of Soybean Cyst Nematode (SCN) damage by July 1. SCN is a parasitic roundworm that feeds on the soybean root system. The cyst stage of the nematode’s life cycle is when the female nematode is filled with eggs. Cysts are visible throughout the summer on soybean roots and will appear as small, white, and lemon-shaped. After the female matures, these cysts are hard to see. When trying to identify SCN presence on soybean roots, it is important not to confuse cysts with Rhizobium nodules (where N fixation takes place).

How can you determine if SCN is causing damage and yield loss to your soybeans? Injury symptoms include yellowing and stunting of plants. These symptoms may appear in patches of a field. These patches may grow from year to year; especially in the direction a field is tilled.… Continue reading

By Harold Watters, Ohio State University Extension agronomist

I finished planting my corn about 6 weeks ahead of last year. I thought with the stay-at-home policy for OSU I would be ready to plant at a moment’s notice. While things are not as delayed this year as they were last, the weather still didn’t allow me to plant in April or even in early May. Oh, and for my planting window, I have had three periods of about 24 hours each.

Late planted corn

With some “late” planting, folks are concerned already about whether or not we have enough growing season to get us through. Not to worry. The corn plant has the ability to adapt to the later planting by advancing more rapidly through the growth stages — work done at Purdue and Ohio State by graduate students of Bob Nielsen and Peter Thomison, showed that the number of growing degree days (GDD) needed from planting to maturity decreases by about 7 GDD per day of delayed planting.… Continue reading

By Harold Watters, Ohio State University Extension agronomist

With the crappy spring, we missed proper burndown timing, pre-emergent herbicide application and now are working on missing the proper timing for post applications. Consider adding a second component to that glyphosate application when you do post your corn or soybeans. The idea is to have a second method of attack on those weeds that may be resistant, have grown a little larger than planned or you have had problems with in the past.

The Ohio, Indiana & Illinois Weed Control Guide is a great resource for getting management tips on how best to apply herbicides. See the recommendation tables to choose potential partners for those post applications. The Guide is available on-line from Mark Loux on his Weed Management website: https://u.osu.edu/osuweeds/. Know also what is appropriate for the herbicide technologies Enlist, Extend or LibertyLink if you are using them.

Don’t forget about drift.… Continue reading

The second annual “BeSure!” campaign supported by National Corn Growers Association is underway and runs through July.  The effort focuses on helping pollinators by promoting best management practices and habitat creation all year long.

BeSure centers on promoting proper use of neonicotinoid products to protect honeybees and other pollinators critical to the food supply and ecosystem. This year, the campaign is seeking to reach not only growers and applicators, but also golf course, turf, and ornamental landscape managers.

In its first year, BeSure! focused its messaging on major crops in the Midwest that utilize neonicotinoid-treated seed, such as corn and soybeans. This year, the campaign is expanding to include neonicotinoid foliar sprays, soil drenches, and granule uses on fruits, nuts, vegetables, turf, trees, and ornamental plants that bees visit.

(It’s also extending outreach to include the citrus industry in California and Florida where neonicotinoids have been very effective in stopping invasive pests, such the Asian citrus psyllid that spreads the Huanglongbing (HLB) disease that is decimating Florida’s citrus industry and has cost the state more than 8,000 jobs and $4.5 billion in the last five years.)… Continue reading

By Roy A. Ulrich, DEKALB/Asgrow technical agronomist

Over the next week or so we will reach the time of year when field activity begins to slow down after the rush of planting, herbicide applications, and sidedress nitrogen applications have been completed. While we may be slowing down, our crops are beginning to ramp up growth and development from the vegetative stages to the very critical reproductive stages. Planting conditions, fertility and weed control have set the foundation for the crop from this point forward and cracks or missing pieces of that foundation may have placed some yield in jeopardy even this early in the year.

Corn is entering the grand growth stage where rapid growth of above ground biomass occurs and rapid uptake of key nutrients out of the soil is taking place. During this time nutrient uptake increases at a rapid pace and continues until late into grain fill. Restriction in root development due to sidewall compaction, tillage compaction or root pruning due to corn rootworm damage can limit nutrient uptake during this critical time.… Continue reading

By Angela Arnold, Mark Sulc, Jeff Stachler, Dean Kreager, Jason Hartschuh, CCA, Ohio State University Extension

The alfalfa crop over the past week has continued to advance in maturity. Pure alfalfa stands across Ohio are ready to be harvested for high quality forage. Producers in dryer regions were able to start harvesting alfalfa fields over the weekend. Western Ohio has had larger rainfall totals than Eastern Ohio over the last two weeks. Keep in mind that harvesting when the soil is too wet and soft will do non-reversible compaction damage to the stand and will lower the productivity the rest of this year and into future years.

Grasses in Central Ohio have headed out. Once grasses reach the early heading stage, they are already past the prime for high producing lactating dairy cows; however, grass in early heading is still good for feeding to many other classes of livestock with lower requirements than lactating dairy cows.… Continue reading

By Matt Reese

Baling hay and straw is a labor of love for brothers Miles and Caleb von Stein that requires a love of labor they’ve had since high school.

“Growing up, Caleb and I loved baling. We did it for our FFA SAE project. We started with 20 or 40 acres of straw. Dad and my uncle said we’d never get it all baled,” Miles said. “That was in 2010 and it almost was a personal challenge and we tried to do more every year. Then they didn’t think we could do 50 or 60 acres and now we are doing 600 or 700 acres. The fact that they thought we couldn’t do it almost fueled us even more to grow.”

Small square bales of hay and straw have paved the way for the von Steins to take their Hancock County family farm in a new and innovative direction focused on soil health, high quality products and meeting unique customer demands.… Continue reading

By John Fulton

Planting remains one the most important, if not most important, field operation for row-crop producers. In most cases, there is one pass to “get it right” with the planting operation. Two key goals of the planter are to achieve optimum stands and uniform emergence to maximize yield potential once the seed is placed in the furrow. Once placed in the soil, corn emergence is influenced by several factors and should be kept in mind not only during planting but also post-planting when scouting.

While planting is the critical field operation, scouting post-planting is important to evaluate planter performance (i.e. Did I “get it right?”) and understanding a field’s yield potential for the current cropping season. Scouting can provide valuable notes on how the planter performed across and between fields with this data used to help improve planting in the future. Mobile applications can enhance scouting since most today provide the ability to geo-reference (i.e.… Continue reading

By Barry Ward, Ohio State University assistant Extension professor, leader in Production Business Management

COVID-19 has created an unusual situation that has negatively affected crop prices and lowered certain crop input costs. Many inputs for the 2020 production year were purchased or the prices/costs were locked in prior to the spread of this novel coronavirus. Some costs have been recently affected or may yet be affected. Lower fuel costs may allow for lower costs for some compared to what current budgets indicate.

Production costs for Ohio field crops are forecast to be largely unchanged from last year with lower fertilizer expenses offset by slight increases in some other costs. Variable costs for corn in Ohio for 2020 are projected to range from $359 to $452 per acre depending on land productivity. Variable costs for 2020 Ohio soybeans are projected to range from $201 to $223 per acre. Wheat variable expenses for 2020 are projected to range from $162 to $198 per acre.… Continue reading

By Todd Hubbs, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics University of Illinois

The USDA released the first projections for U.S. corn and soybean supply and demand in the 2020-21 marketing year on May 12. The forecasts for soybeans showed higher ending stocks this marketing year with a substantial decrease in the next marketing year’s ending stocks. While the prospects for this year’s crop come to the forefront, the consumption projections reflect the potential market size and merit consideration.

Current marketing year ending stocks increased to 580 million bushels due to a 100 million bushel drop in soybean exports. Total consumption for the 2019-20 marketing year is forecast at 3.901 billion bushels, down 70 million bushels from 2018-19. The initial forecast of soybean use for the 2020-21 marketing year came in at 4.315 billion bushels. Driven by an expectation of exports at 2.05 billion bushels, consumption near this level last occurred in 2017-18 before the onset of the trade war.… Continue reading

By Andy Westhoven, Regional Agronomist, CPAg, CCA, AgriGold

I realize it is now mid-May and plenty of corn and soybean fields have been planted, but avoiding the knee-jerk reaction actually applies to the entire growing season —

not just at planting. Many farmers (including me) have very short-term memories. The last thing we need to do is base our decisions solely off 2019. Coupled with the frightening facts of the virus pandemic and market decreases — staying with the plan is the best action to take.

Many areas that experienced prevent plant acres know full well there would not be a repeat in 2020. My own farm had only a third of the acres planted and, regardless of the environment(s) this spring, crops will be planted. So far this season, many small pockets were able to plant early while others waited on the sidelines. The planter is the most important pass of the season and no one enjoys a redo.… Continue reading

By Mark Loux, Ohio State University Extension

Depending upon where you are in the state, it’s possible right now to be experiencing delays in getting anything done, progress in planting but delays in herbicide application, weather too dry to activate residual herbicides, and/or reduced burndown herbicide effectiveness on big weeds due to cold weather — what’s become a typical Ohio spring. Some information relative to questions that OSU Extension educators have passed on to us:

1. Residual herbicides and rainfall. Residual herbicides do vary in the relative amounts of rain needed for “activation,” or adequate movement into the soil to reach germinating seeds. Most growers are applying mixtures or premixes of several products, so we’re not sure these diiferences are as important as the overriding principle here. Residual herbicide treatments need to receive a half to one inch of rain within a week or so after tillage or an effective burndown treatment, to control weeds that can will start to emerge at that time.… Continue reading

By Pierce Paul, Ohio State University Extension

Most of the wheat in the northern half of the state is still between Feekes growth stage 8 (early flag leaf emergence) and 9 (full flag leaf emergence), but in the southern half of the state, wheat is much further along. Malting barley is even further along than wheat, and will soon be approaching the heading growth stage. Understandably, given the wet weather we have had so far this season, folks are asking questions about head scab and vomitoxin. Based on some of the questions I have been asked over the years, here are a few things to remember and consider as you make your head scab management decision.

Q: What should I apply for head scab and vomitoxin control?

A: Prosaro, Caramba, or Miravis Ace. In my experience, they are just as effective when applied at the correct growth stage.

Q: What is the correct growth stage for applying a fungicide to control vomitoxin and head scab?… Continue reading

Corteva Agriscience announced the launch of a brand-new seed brand for the U.S.

Brevant seeds is a bold, high-performance corn and soybean brand that is exclusive to retail in the Midwest and Eastern Corn Belt. Brevant will replace Mycogen Seeds as the primary retail seed brand from Corteva.

“To retailers and their customers, Brevant brings a completely new and unique opportunity. It’s people and it’s proven products from an organization that truly cares about your individual success,” said Jason Dodd, general manager for Brevant. “Having access to this germplasm pool for retail has never been possible broadly in the past. The genetic diversity that is now available is a great new advantage.”

Brevant will offer more than 200 corn hybrids and soybean varieties with the latest trait technology solutions.

“Brevant is rooted in more than a century of U.S. ag experience, science and support, and we’ve built Brevant for farmers who prefer the service and local expertise the retailer brings to their farm,” said Mike Lozier, marketing leader for Brevant.… Continue reading