Kelly Garrett had a plan to go heavy on soybean acres in 2022. But that changed in a matter of days when he made the decision to switch 500 acres from beans to corn just a few weeks before the season. This presented a problem since these fields had no fall applied nitrogen on them. Mike Evans turned to a new product from SoundAg that is designed to pull more plant available nitrogen out of the soil.

You probably didn’t realize this, but seaweed has been utilized as a crop input for 40 or 50 years in some specialty crop production systems. Now, seaweed’s benefits are being discovered and put to work in commodity cropping systems. With several of the XtremeAg guys trialing seaweed-derived crop inputs, it was time to sit down and discuss kelp technology in farming. In short, seaweed helps crops because it thrives in cold, dark, salty environments and it’s good at it — kelp has been in the oceans for millennia! Brian Cornelius, Director of Applied Sciences with Agricen explains the stress mitigation benefits of seaweed.

Presented by Advanced Drainage Systems

Kelly Garrett and Mike Evans have identified that one of the biggest yield limiters for soybeans is branch strength. They have spent a lot of time getting enough fertility into the plant in order to grow more pods, but if the branches can’t hold the pods, that’s a problem. Kelly and Mike talk about the calcium program they are implementing to increase branch strength in their Agroliquid trial this season.

Garrett Land & Cattle is almost completely no-till farming due to sloping fields and Kelly Garrett’s adherence to carbon programs. Being no-till presents emergence problems for soybeans following high yield corn with massive amounts of stalk residue. Mike Evans with Integrated Ag Solutions and Garrett's business partner, explains the challenges faced and lessons learned with this year’s soybean crop planted into high residue acres. What products to apply, when to apply them, and how to set up your planter — good takeaways here for no-till operations struggling with uneven emergence due to residue.

Presented by Advanced Drainage Systems with support from Agricen

The potential for renewable fuels in the future will make soybeans in high demand. That means that US farmers will need to produce more soybeans to keep up with demand. Traditionally, farmers have not grown soybeans on the same ground in back to back years, and there are some good reasons for that. Kelly and Mike from Garrett Land and Cattle talk about their 40 acre experiment to overcome the challenges of growing beans on beans.

If harvest time isn’t upon you, it soon will be. So, what is your fall marketing strategy? How sold are you on your commodities at this stage? Are you one third sold, half sold, not sure? Information from the USDA and WASDE August reports didn’t hold a lot of surprises. However, there is still volatility-induced upside and downside that could be costing you money without a proper commodity marketing strategy. Bryce and Sean from Silveus Financial explain strategies to protect your farm and increase your profit.

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SourceCorn is a product proposing this promise: Spend $14 per acre for this foliar applied product and you’ll save more than that in nitrogen application and maintain the same yield (or even do better!). This matters as we increasingly are impacted at the farm level by environmental policy or pressure to reduce our utilization of the big macronutrients — N & P. SoundAg is the company behind SourceCorn. XtremeAg is doing some trial work with the company this year. SoundAg’s VP of sales, Eamon Flood, joins me to discuss soil health and the future of using less fertilizer per bushel.

Presented by Advanced Drainage Systems

The number of nozzle types/sprayer tips to choose from can be daunting. So how do you know which nozzles are the right ones for the right applications? Chad talks with Pentair Hypro's Nick Fleitz about the nozzles he uses and why he prefers them in each different type of application.

We’ve been instructed since the advent of soil testing on the importance of the macronutrients — nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. But what about carbon? Where’s it on the soil sample, why do I need it, and where do I buy it for my crops? That inability to buy carbon — or for the inputs industry to sell it to farmers -- is precisely why Kelly Garrett says we’ve never been advised on carbon’s importance as a crop input. That’s all changing according to BiomeMaker agronomist Al Toops who says through advanced soil analysis is uncovering the role of carbon in soil biology. As Connor Garrett says, “N,P & K are like vitamins. Take them and they’ll make you feel better. But carbon is food. You can’t live without it.”

Presented by AgXplore

Drain tile systems have come a long way in the last 20 years. What started as a functional way to drain water off a field has now become a a complete water management system that delivers precision control of the water table in their field. Damian talks with Darla Huff from ADS and Chad Henderson about the high-tech drain tile system he installed this spring.