Boots In The Field Report

In this week's Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie reports on harvest progress and recounts yields getting called in throughout IL and IA. Wide swings in yield not only throughout the state be in single fields. He also updates on lime shortages and replant bean plot results. 

Join us for this week’s episode of Boots in The Field Report with Ken Ferrie, where he provides a plot and harvest update that's both informative and timely. Ken dives into the ongoing issue of lime shortages that some growers are grappling with.

Furthermore, Ken underscores the importance of keeping a close eye on harvest loss and the correct calibration of your yield monitors. He walks us through the meticulous process Crop-Tech employs for scaling yield monitors, especially when transitioning between different hybris.

Tune in to ensure you're well-prepared to maximize your yields and effectively manage the unique challenges for this year’s harvest. 

In this week’s Boots In The Field report Ken covers why it is more important than usual this year to calibrate the yield monitor to make sure growers are capturing spatially accurate yield maps. These dry years can give clues to where perched water tables and sand lenses are located out in the field. Ken also advises harvest scouting teams to stay on top of the push test, as some hybrids are flat coming apart. He recommends if scouts find that hybrid failing the push test, that they check the other fields it is planted in as well. If growers are running into anomalies in the field like the low ground suffering in yield compared to the high ground, Ken encourages getting off the combine to do a quick check on stand count, ear count, and plant condition to help determine what the issue was before all the evidence is gone.  Ken also reminds growers to check for header loss, especially in these low branching soybeans.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers the range of yields being called in as harvest kicks off and reminds growers to stay on top of the push test when letting corn dry down in the field. Due to the variability in fields, combine operators will have to continuously check for harvest loss as they change fields and change hybrids. Ken also warns, with the dry June, growers will need to watch out for carry over issues on those products with 10 month cropping restrictions.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers reasons for seeing so much top die back in the corn. 
1. Disease issues like anthracnose top kill will be on sporadic plants in the field, show black spores on outside of stalk on full dead plants, and behind the leaf sheaths on top killed plants. Can be hybrid and stress related.
2. Insect issues like corn borer. Will have dead tops, maybe even broken over from wind and with tunneling into nodes.
3. Heat Stress. More consistent across all plants in field not just sporadically. Doesn’t show the black spores or discoloration in the stalk like the disease top kill has. More prevalent in short corn or fields that struggled to close the row.

The early planted corn that had tassels out when the June 29th storm was already done growing, but the corn planted after May 10th was still 3-5 leaves from tasseling allowing it to utilize the rain and add height to the plant to capture more sunlight. Ken is finding the narrow rows and more pendulum hybrids are showing less damage due to the heat. Ken advises growers to start doing push test in the fields with disease and insect top kill in about 10 days to stay on top of how the crop is deteriorating. 

Ken also covers how to do yield estimates in fields with variable ears and to be on the lookout for the movement to the greener corn or to soybeans from late season rootworm beetles as some of the fields start to die early.

Ken covers what he saw in his travels through IN, OH, NY, and IA in this week’s Boots In The Field Report. The Eastern region, traveled on way to New York, showed plenty of rain but being further behind in maturity than GDUs and planting date would normally be. Have had several cases of tar spot and SDS and he suspects that number to increase with this week’s heat. Ken mentions that the early planted corn that struggled causing it to be short and fail to close the rows is going to be hit harder by this week’s temperatures. In Iowa driving through the parts in the D2 region of the drought map, seeing fields with ears hanging down and plants burning up above the ear. In all areas of travel, Ken reports massive weed pressure in both beans and corn.

Ken uses this #BIFR to catch up on pest reports, update tar spot locations, cyst pressure coming around traits, how last week’s heat affected this crop and why you don’t want to group up your pollination window. He reminds growers to check planting dates when reviewing yield plots this year to create fair comparisons.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie touches base with Matt Duesterhaus to get more insight in how fields are looking in the areas hit by the derecho that went through and how crops and growers are fairing in the week since. Ken also covers what the short corn means for yield potential and why the rule of thumb about plants being more than a collar behind is different this year than when looking at years with uneven emergence. Ken also gives a run down of the pest reports and shares that they found Tar spot in a field South of Jacksonville, IL last week. Ken warns growers that with this rain, our relatively disease free fields, are likely to see a change.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken talks about how the wildfire haze might be helping us out in this drought, why corn on corn or corn with a rye cover are getting hit harder in dry areas, and why it is especially important to keep an eye out for silk clippers this year. He continues to reminder growers to never walk away from a growing crop and encourages growers to work to help the crop pollinate because if you miss pollinations and it starts to rain, there is no recourse to go back and fix it.

Grab a cup of coffee or a cold bottle of water, Ken has two weeks to cover in this week’s Boot’s In The Field Report. He walks through frost reports in NE Iowa, drought map getting bigger and uglier, and corn hitting the rapid growth stage amid water concerns. In these challenging conditions the sins of spring are coming to light, and while many may have gotten away with the same practices in other years without a penalty, not everyone is getting away with it this year without a cost. 

Growers are starting to see some prolonged carbon penalty issues crop up, even with sidedress applied, the lack of water is keeping it from getting to the root system for uptake. Ken reminds growers when sidedressing or Y-dropping the N applied should be for later season green and standability, not for plant building. If you are seeing a hit to sidedress timing this year in building the crop, you may need to rework the 4Rs of your Nitrogen program. 

Plant height is also tattling on some practices that might be hindering an operation. He is seeing plants at the same vegetative stage but stacking internodes due to stress, and a lack of crown roots because of dry conditions or lack of soil. 

The dry weather has created a lot of carryover issues and is something, if these dry conditions hang on, will be a concern next year as well. Growers are also facing issues with lodged wheat, cutworm, armyworm, and rootworm. Ken also warns about parking mowers and keeping an eye on spider mites in the field. 

Despite the tough conditions, Ken reminds growers to never walk away from a growing crop. This growing season has issued some challenges, but Ken encourages growers to stay engaged and keep their heads up. This is when, as professionals, it is time to step up to the plate.