Producers Blog
Great Performance Despite Tough Year
Cody Graham (DSM, Region 6 – Southern)
Needless to say it was a tough year for most, with much of the region getting only 5-15 inches of rainfall, well below annual averages. Dry land acres held on as long as they could, but most of those acres were harvested early with a silage chopper or a swather. As bad as it sounds, it was probably for the best for the cattlemen in western Kansas whose pastures shriveled to nothing early under the stress of heat and lack of rainfall. Irrigators struggled to stay within the year’s water allocations, due to extreme temperatures and low rainfall. But with the right product recommendations we placed earlier in the year we are seeing extremely good yields and very good plant health thus far on most of those irrigated acres.
Wheat planting has started and we are hearing more growers talk about putting more of their acres to wheat because of the potential shortage of rainfall and low snow fall forecasts over the coming winter. A few timely showers in the area have taken some frustration away and allowed wheat growers to at least get the planted wheat out of the ground. Sorghum in 2013 has also entered into the conversation, which I question because the sorghum in the area is not showing any advantages over dry land corn this year.
Without good snowfall and a little rain this coming spring we will probably see a decline in dry land acres in western Kansas. On the other hand Producers Hybrids has seen awesome performance on irrigated acres and we have gained more brand awareness in the area. 7224VT3PRO, 7394VT3Pro, and 7414VT3Pro are a few of the products that are really impressing our customers and have them waiting in line to place their 2013 orders.
