Producers Blog

Jeff Morey (Sales Agronomist, Region 5 – Iowa)

The planting season that won’t end. That is what best describes the spring of 2013 in Iowa. We have growers that are still trying to plant corn for the first time, finish planting corn, have already replanted corn, trying to get started planting soybeans, want to finish soybeans and replanting soybeans.  All of these things are occurring on the same day throughout Iowa. There are also growers that are weighing the option of prevented planting. And just to prove that supply and demand economics still work, the oats you will need for a cover crop on the prevented planting acres have increased in price by 250% in the last 3 weeks…which I have heard has upset a lot of horse owners.

For those corn acres that were planted before the May 1st snow storm, it is time to get them sprayed.  While most of the corn planted ahead of the snowstorm has been progressing right along, the weed pressure is starting to cause problems. In some cases the PRE herbicide has diluted after all of our moisture and is not as effective anymore. Or where we don’t have a PRE down and need to get started on our post programs, the wet conditions have hindered spraying so much that the grasses are as tall as or taller than the corn in some fields. Some studies have shown as much as a 5-10% yield loss as early as V1-V2 corn stage because of weed competition. And for soybeans, we may lose 1% for every day weed control is delayed past V1-V2 stage.

This would be good year to consider a Late Spring Nitrate Test (LSNT) on your cornfields. Iowa State University Extension Agronomists collected soil samples this spring from the same locations as last fall.  The results have shown that the nitrate-N has moved deeper in the soil profile and in most cases the nitrate-N has decreased from last fall.  Talk to your local extension office for more details on how and when to do the testing.  With all of the rain that we have had so far this year and the yield potential that is still in the field, doing at least one test in every corn field could provide a big ROI.  And the least it would do is provide you with a piece of mind that the N levels are there for a bumper crop.