Kansas Conditions Vary

Kent Reinhardt (DSM, Region 6 – Southern)

Late July 2013 in western Kansas is hot and dry. Southwest Kansas is still suffering from the drought with reports that even pastures in the far tier of western Kansas counties and out into Colorado are capable of producing dust when the wind gets into the 30-40 mph range. As you get into north-central Kansas, conditions vary wildly. There are strips where the pastures are green and growing with ponds full of water but you can also go 5-10 miles in any direction and find strips where ponds are dry enough that they are being cleaned out with dozers.

Corn conditions in southwest and north central Kansas vary to the extreme. The majority of the dryland corn in the area has suffered due to the lack of rain; in fact, some acreage has been chopped for silage with additional acreage scheduled to be chopped within the week. The rainfall in the region has been spotty and in those areas that caught some showers, dryland corn will be harvested for grain with yield potential varying greatly.

The majority of irrigated corn looks good at this time; night time temperatures have been in the 70’s, allowing the plants to recover from the heat and for good pollination to take place.

Wheat harvest has ended with yields from 0 to over 80 bushels per acre. Dryland wheat yields in southwest Kansas ranged from 0 to the teens, even the irrigated wheat in southwest Kansas did not yield well due to the late freeze. Wheat yields in north-central Kansas varied greatly; a lot of 20 -30 bushel yields throughout the area but wheat yields in the central part of the state produced 80+ bushel dryland yields. The soybean crop looks good at this time and the central part of the state planted numerous acres of double-crop soybeans.

 

Western Kansas would benefit greatly from a rain that covers the whole area.

It’s Over…Finally!

Mitch Barlow (RSM, Region 5 – Iowa)

I always consider the 4^th of July mid-summer.  Well if you go by the school calendar it is.  The kids have been out of school for six weeks here in Western Iowa.  And I suspect they have about another six weeks of summer vacation.

With that in mind I was doing some paperwork this morning and saw I did my first point-to-point transfer on March 30^th.  My last transfer was done June 28^th.  That is taking an extended planting season to the extreme!  I believe is has finally come to an end.  So, “So Long” planting 2013 I hope I never see you again!

Now it is time to look ahead to brighter (literally) days.  2014 is full of promise and hope.  Planning is well under way for our Iowa Kickoff meeting, which will be held in Ames, IA July 30 – 31.  I’m excited to tour the completed research station in Boone and even more excited to see the progress of the new production facility in Ogden.

So I’m putting 2013 to bed! And looking forward to an exciting and prosperous 2014!

2012 vs. 2013

Ryan Stelter (DSM, Region 2 – Minnesota)

2013 has certainly been an interesting year to say the least, but we are off and running here in Southwest Minnesota.  With a slightly late planting time frame, we still managed to get all of our crops in the ground here.  We have had an excellent start to the growing season, and crops around this area are looking fantastic!

With the side-dressing complete, corn fields sprayed, many customers around here have started (or in some cases finished) spraying their soybeans.  While out visiting with customers the common theme that comes up is the weather. “ How far behind last year are we?”  “We were tasselling last year right after the 4^th of July!”…etc. I did a little research to see where we actually stand this year as compared to average and last year.  The historical heat units for SW MN on July 8^th is 1064.  This year we are sitting at 990.  So comparatively, we are only 3 summer days behind average.  The majority of the corn was planted here around May 20^th, and at that point, we had only accumulated 187 heat units(less than what it takes for corn to emerge).

2012 was a different story!  July 8^th, 2012 had registered heat unit accumulation of 1239.  This puts us 249 heat units behind last year. But, it is way too early to hit the panic button and start ordering propane by the tanker load. The thing most people tend to forget is we harvested dry corn approximately 3-4 weeks ahead of normal harvest time last year.

We are less than a month away from the start of the Farm Shows! Farm Fest will be held August 6-8, just outside of Redwood Falls, MN.  Whatever farm show you will be attending, please stop by and visit with your Producers Hybrids DSM about our exciting new lineup of products that we will have to offer for 2014.  And YES – in SW Minnesota, we still have a chance to harvest dry corn during a normal harvest time frame this year!

Timely Rains

Jim Kolar (DSM, Region 3 – Western Nebraska)

What a difference a year can make!  A year ago, every well was running in my area and this year the wells are just starting to run.  I sure am glad that we didn’t follow the same weather pattern as last year at this same time.  We saw many timely rains in my area that brought much needed rain to get the crops out of the ground.

The corn in my area has progressed very quickly with the recent moisture and heat that we had a couple of weeks ago.  It seems that the corn has grown about three feet in the past two weeks.  With cultivating, spraying, hilling and laying pipe, there hasn’t been much of a break for our district.

The corn is growing fast and now is the time to keep an eye on rootworm.  If you have had rootworm problems in the past be sure to check the problem areas in your fields.  It is also time to start looking for first generation corn borer; although I haven’t seen a problem with corn borer because of all the stacked corn that is being planted.

Now we need to keep the wind away and get some heat and moisture to help the crops continue to progress and I think we will have a good crop at harvest.

“Different Kind of Year”

Brian Kohlenberg (DSM, Region 1 – South Dakota)

It’s been another “different kind of year”.  Farming always sees its share of challenges, but this year they just seem to have stacked up.  In Northeast South Dakota, we saw a late spring snow melt and when the snow did disappear field conditions shaped up nicely for about a May 5^th start to corn planting.  Farmers had about a 9 day window to get their corn planted, fertilizer down and pre-emergence chemical applied.  Then the rains came, which at first were welcomed with open arms as soil conditions were dry and uneven emergence was being noted in corn stands.  The next 8 weeks were wet and only small planting windows existed to get soybeans in and other field work done.  Just as everything pretty much got wrapped up, the state saw a major storm system move through that brought a pretty wide swath of hail. For some, that meant replanting soybeans and hoping the corn could recover some.

Overall we are behind, but things are starting to look good. The earliest planted corn will be over waist high by July 4^th.  It looks like the forecast is good for the next ten days so some side dressing and finishing spraying will be the major focus this week.  Like they say, if you don’t like the weather in South Dakota today, just wait an hour, it’ll change.