The question to ask: “Is the soil dry enough?” In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers why this questions is so important, with 80% of the service calls for compaction that he goes on can all be traced back to this first pass in the spring. If growers are doing vertical tillage, asking is the soil dry enough to handle the weight of the equipment without creating compaction? If doing tillage, what is the moisture like below the tillage layer, is it too moist and will create compaction? This also applies to when to run the burn down pass to make sure you won’t have wheel tracks to deal with all season long. Ken also cautions growers about using spring anhydrous in the strip, wanting either rain, using RTK to stay off strips when planting or at least 2 weeks between that and planting to help tame down the anhydrous core pH. 

In this Boots in The Field Report, Ken Ferrie stresses that harvest starts now. A little planning now can alleviate a lot of pressure and stress come harvest. He suggests picking for yield first and then narrowing that down based on ear flex and leaf structure to help manage known conditions in the field. Ken advises breaking down maturity groups into: early, mid and full season varieties, to stagger pollination and harvest windows. He also suggests staggering ear flex within the maturities to help mitigate weather risks. Putting pencil to paper to figure out what your operation needs for a harvest window will help you determine when you need to pay drying fees and when you can wait for more ideal conditions.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie walks through why 2022 was such a nitrogen friendly year for central IL. While reminding growers it didn’t take less N to grow a bushel last year, it did take less applied N for most due to the decrease in losses and the increase in mineralization. He also encourages growers to not only make their spring plan, but to make sure it is written down and shared with all the players to make sure everyone is operating from the same play book when game time comes around.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie tackles the question: “If I have organic matters of 3.5% or higher do I need to apply sulfur?” Despite higher organic matter soils having the ability to provide sulfur later in the season, due to a reduction of sulfur naturally occurring in most environments, they often struggle in having enough available for early season. Ken covers the basis on a 4R approach to sulfur and reminds growers to switch to thinking of sulfur more as a macronutrient instead of a micronutrient.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers some of the questions that came in during the Virtual College. In particular the topic of Tar Spot and what the difference is in pressure and management of “home grown” Tar Spot and “blown in.” The conditions must be right for Tar Spot but when it is, it can cause a huge yield hit. Ken talks through what we have learned so far and how we will continue to learn about this disease in the future.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers several questions about what kind of efficiencies are gained with banding fertilizer and what he has been seeing as they kick off the yield map review season.

In this week’s Boots in The Field Report podcast Ken Ferrie takes some time to answer questions that have been coming in: “Switching to corn on corn or beans on beans due to market and yields, what should be considered?” and “If growers find urea priced right can they use it as their N source?” He covers what concerns or questions growers need to think about to help make the right choice for their operation.

Ken takes a little more time this week to catch up with the Matt Duesterhaus in Quincy, Il to see how their harvest finished up and then speaks with Isaac Ferrie on what they saw on the plot side this year during this week’s Boots In The Field Report. Matt commented on higher-than-average corn yields, surprising a lot of growers for how dry they got in August. He also covers some wind events, wildlife damage and fungicide results that he saw in his area. Isaac touches on the plot program results and what the research department is working on to prepare for the winter meetings. Ken reminds growers of the upcoming educational opportunities of Beyond the Basics, Hand Harvest, and Virtual Winter College.

In this week’s Boots in The Field Report Ken Ferrie recaps the last of the plots coming out, highlighting a fungicide plot out of this year’s tar spot alley, NE Iowa. He also goes over some of the yield data coming out of the ear flex plots and why some areas that experienced a flash drought in the rapid growth stage may be disappointed in the yields of their L1 hybrids. Ken reminds growers to mitigate risk with their hybrid selection and know the weaknesses of the chosen hybrids so they can farm around them.

In this week’s Boots in The Field Report Ken covers harvest progress throughout the state and reports most areas pleased with corn yields and ended up with average bean yields. Several reports coming in have shown a reduced yield coming out of the April planted corn this year and Ken reminds growers that we plant by soil conditions and not the calendar.