Agronomic Thoughts

Looking back at my article from last May I could have run the article in this year’s Connection and been almost spot on with this year. However, we have moved from a D3 to a D4 in almost 40% of the state. 83.5% of the state is in some level of drought, however, the good news is that we are moving from the La Niña to El Niño phase. This should bring us more moisture over the later part of the summer. Quite a bit of our AOR will have to deal with harvesting wheat that is very short and may be light test weight. Hopefully, you have been able to attend one of the combine clinics to pick up some tips for harvesting this type of crop.

Much of the corn is planted as well as the irrigated soybeans. If you are still waiting to plant corn, be aware of the last plant date for your area for full insurance. Some cotton is being planted but many are still waiting for moisture to plant. We still have time to get moisture to plant dryland soybeans and milo. One of the big questions is how much double crop will be planted this year. We will likely need to have a significant amount of rain before a lot of acres will be put back to soybeans or milo.

We have had some frost/freeze injuries in both corn and wheat in areas. The corn should have the potential to grow out of this since the growing point is still underground. The wheat that is damaged will begin to show white heads or partial white heads as heading progresses. The 90-degree temps predicted over the upcoming weekend will hurry this along. I had a customer tell me recently that he believed that the yield data in his area would be really valuable this year. The “good” and “bad” areas should really differentiate themselves this year.

Speaking of yield maps, if you haven’t been in Operation Center lately there have been a lot of updates. Some of them take a little getting used to but have also turned out to be very good. If you have any questions about where something is or how it works, be sure to contact your salesman or call the Remote Support Center to ask these questions. If you haven’t tried some of the newer capabilities with Operation Center or some of the newer technologies that work through the Operation Center, now would be a good time to get some of those questions answered. We are hearing really good reports from those that have been using things like Work Planner and AutoPath.

We will have See and Spray Ultimate sprayer in our AOR soon, be sure to ask your salesman about this incredible technology. 

As always let us know what we at PrairieLand Partners can do to help you with your farming operation.

Rob Meyer, Agronomic Specialist, CCA