Producers Blog
Harvest 2013 – Western Nebraska
Scott Dugan (Sales Agronomist, Region 3 – Western Nebraska)
The 2013 growing season was truly a combination of the past four seasons that resulted in big temperature swings throughout the year and periods of too wet and/or too dry conditions. The spring (April/May) brought cool wet conditions that caused delays and forced some growers to plant into less than ideal conditions in terms of soil temperatures. Parts of the region received snow May 1. June followed with hot and dry weather that was polar opposite from the spring. Then, July turned out to be an unseasonably mild month with two weeks of cloudy, rainy and misty conditions and periodic hail storms. After that, August and September were very similar to 2012 in that they were extremely hot and accumulated some lagging GDUs. Weather wasn’t the only obstacle growers faced: Corn rootworm larvae/beetles, Spider mites, southern rust and stalk rot appeared this year as well.
Overall performance this year has been very good. Irrigated acres have averaged similar to last year and dryland has been up due to better moisture. Corn rootworm larvae were heavily populated in some areas and caused major yield damage. In these areas, the performance of our new fuller season SmartStax have been tremendous! 7268STXRIB and 6878STXRIB have shown fantastic rootworm control and even without rootworm pressures have been finishing near the top of our yield trials. Stalk and root rots are a given side effect of year we have been dealt. The cold planting conditions contributed to the root rots and the mild and wetter mid-season conditions followed by hot drier conditions contributed to the stalk rots that have been noticed this harvest.
Everything considered, the performance of our existing lineup has been great and we have new products in our pipeline that seem to be even better! The yield results in our NET trials show our new experimental products having tremendous performance and look to be great additions to our existing commercial lineup going forward. To view any plot data visit our website and click the “Yield Results” tab. You can sort the data to your liking or feel free to contact your local District Sales Manager for additional information.
