Boots In The Field Report

In this week's Boots In The Field Report Ken talks aphids, 2nd generation corn borer flights, and wind damage.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report, Ken shares yield check numbers and pollination issues he is finding during field visits due to drought and wind damage. He covers why it is important to take note of how hybrids handled the heavy wind pressure and encourages growers with the option to put up drones to check how fields survived heavy wind to make sure yield checks don’t need to be adjusted.
During field visits this week, most beans were in the R3-R5 stage. Ken warns that once most beans hit R5 they are going to stop growing. This means weeds are about to blow past the beans, especially in 30 inch rows. He reminds growers that spraying at the R5 time frame will come with a yield hit, and cautions growers to look at other options for trying to manage the weed pressure. Ken also covers the weed of volunteer corn in bean fields and what that means for growers wanting to plant non-GMO corn in those fields next year.

In this week’s podcast Ken gives a pollination report and details the difference between the April planted corn pollination window in comparison to the May planted corn. He advises growers when taking stand counts which ones they should only give half credit to get more realistic yield estimates.
Ken also urges growers to make sure they aren’t letting an opportunity to improve their operation pass them by. He is seeing a lot of wind damage, but in this podcast he outlines what that damage can tell growers about their field conditions and how they can shore it up for the future.
Ken notes that while the disease pressure is relatively light, it will continue to climb with the humidity and also gives an insect report as pressure builds.

In this week's Boots In The Field Report Ken covers wind damage, non-uniform april corn, the decision between taking out the surfactants or waiting to spray and why moisture influences how we react to insect pressure.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken covers: brittle corn, excessive tillering, presence of cotton pith in stalks, and why corn fields might look tougher from the road. He also warns the dry areas about spider mites and suggest anybody looking at double crop beans check with their seed salesmen about the demand for seed beans.

As the season is now off and running, Ken Ferrie gives a crop report from around the Midwest.

In this week's Boots In The Field Report Ken covers: carbon penalty and ugly corn syndrome, rootless corn and what you can do about it, what pest to be on the lookout for, trends he is seeing in nitrates, and reporting on early flowering beans.

Ken covers how the April planted crops are faring, warns to be on the lookout for bean leaf beetle, cutworm, and wireworm, and shares what nitrates moving to the second foot means for the carbon penalty.

Ken warns that many farmers in Central Illinois will have to make tough replant decisions this week. He advises that the decision will need to be made as soon as possible and based upon actual counts from your farm, not neighborhood consensus or emotion. He walks through what steps to take to see if you can save the current crop and how to collect the numbers to tell if replant is the right decision. If growers are without a hoe, Ken offers other options to try to help this crop out of the ground.

Ken does a special mid-week Boots In The Field Report to prepare farmers for the predicted weather this weekend. He covers why he is concerned and the possible outcomes if the forecast is correct.