With a green light for planting corn in central IL this week, Ken advises growers to spend a lot of time on the ground checking planter settings to make sure it is set correctly before going full out. He covers setting down pressure, checking row cleaners, and maturity planting order. But he also reminders growers not to forget about early planted fields that might be fighting crusting with this past weekend’s heavy rain.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie talks about thinking through conserving water with your tillage decisions,  reminds growers to hoe before they know and recaps what the seed results that are back are indicating about this year’s seed.

The first podcast on what to consider when changing to corn on corn produced a flurry of questions coming in, so this week Ken dives into questions like: Which fields do I choose for going corn on corn?  What hybrids do I pick? Why does my residue level and placement matter more in corn on corn situations? Is 100 pounds of Urea broadcast enough to combat the carbon penalty? Ken answers these questions and more in this week’s episode of Boots In The Field Report.

This week in the Boots In The Field Podcast, Ken Ferrie talks spring anhydrous warnings, compaction from 1st pass reminder and tips to think about with early beans

With current commodity prices, several growers are looking at switching some fields to corn on corn for a better ROI. In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie issues some reminders of things to think about or plan for when switching to corn on corn for the first time in a field.

While we don’t plan for a drought, we can make sure we are picking the right hybrid for the ground and our management style that will mitigate risks like a drought. Matching defensive ground with a defensive hybrid and offensive ground with offensive hybrids can be the best advantage to getting every bushel from an acre while also minimizing risk. Ken Ferrie covers this and more in this week’s Boots In The Field Report.

In this weeks episode Ken Ferrie gives an update on where we stand with 45Z

This winter growers are asking about what to do when they notice they have stand issues and Ken Ferrie gives some tips for how to hunt down the root of the problem in this week’s Boots In The Field Report. Yield maps can tell us where a problem is and how much that problem is costing in yield, but it can’t tell us what the problem is.  It can guide us where to look but not answer the why. If the problem is an emergence issue, the closer the scouting is to emergence the more likely you are to be able to identify the problem. 

The first step is awareness, being aware that there is an issue. Pest teams play a role in this, doing stand and ear counts to catch if there are areas that deviate farther than is acceptable from planting population. 

In situations where the stand has dropped off, they can look at stalk diameter and placement to see if it is even, look below ground for indicators of planter issues like sidewall smearing or trash in the furrow, any evidence of insect or varmint pressure or the presence of diseases or weeds. These notes go in the fields record file and operators make a plan of action to correct it, managing what they can this season and a plan for fixing it before next season.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report, Ken Ferrie answers a grower’s question about if you can create enough efficiency in banding fertilizer in beans to be able to reduce the amount of product applied. There are several factors that play into what the correct answer to that question is which are specific to a farming operation. Ken walks though things to consider to help growers come up with an answer for their operation.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken answers a question that came in from a Beyond the Basics series viewer concerning what to consider when laying out a 4R nutrient plan that involves manure.