Assessing Crop Health & Making Decisions: Protecting Profitability in a Challenging Growing Season
In most of the Corn Belt, the growing season has been contentious to say the least. Some areas were able to plant early (prior to April 20), where cooler ambient and soil temperatures slowed emergence and early growth. Following that, and for many who planted after April 20, dry soil conditions and some days of […]
Go Or No Go? 3 Considerations For Planting Decisions And Emergence Watchouts
When variable weather across the corn belt strikes, the pressure to know when planting conditions are right for your operation weighs heavy. Do you go or do you wait? What do you really need to be accounting for as you weigh the factors to make that decision? Precision Agronomist Erika Parker shares three considerations for […]
Does Organic Matter, Matter? Four Keys to Unlock Potential With Nitrogen Management.
As growers, we can often find ourselves in conversations bragging about how much — or lamenting about how little — organic matter we have based on our soil testing reports. While the importance of organic matter is generally understood, we continue to struggle as an industry to put that knowledge into action. So, how do […]
Six Keys to Writing A Winning Corn Recommendation
A winning football team understands its strengths and weaknesses and also scouts their opponent to understand their tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. Winning coaches put their players in a position to succeed by building a game plan to take advantage of their talents and address their shortcomings. It’s no different when it comes to achieving high […]
For Corn Grain Fill, It’s About Keeping Carbs
By this point in the harvest season, you know how well your corn crop fared in terms of grain, overall yield and quality. While this year’s crop is set, it can still offer you valuable insight for fine tuning your management program for next year. It really comes down to close observation of a mature […]
Isolating the Mechanism: Top Dieback in Corn
At Advanced Agrilytics, we seek to understand the environment first and isolate the underlying mechanism that influences potential productivity. We’ve spent months walking side-by-side with growers. This time of year, we view yield as an outcome of the time and energy spent in proactively managing the crop during the growing season. At this point in […]
The Final Chapter: Protecting the Crop Factory Through Grain Fill
As we turn the calendar into the heart of summer, the growing season can feel similar to reading a book, each chapter building more excitement and anticipation until the final plot line is delivered. We worked hard in chapter 1 to establish the crop and begin what we call the Race to Canopy. The story […]
Does Every Acre Require the Same Nitrogen Application?
Traditionally, Nitrogen fertilizer (N) rates have been linked primarily to expected yield goals. However, with recent high N fertilizer costs, above average commodity prices, and unpredictable rainfall patterns, the focus on improved nitrogen management, reduced environmental risk, and maximizing yield potential has become more important than ever. For corn following soybeans, the traditional guidelines have […]
Decisions, Decisions: Growers Face Many as Planting Rolls On
Pull the planter out of the shed, fill the planter boxes and start putting seed in the ground. That’s all there is to it, right? No, and especially not this year with so many variables at play, says Aaron Gault, lead agronomist for Advanced Agrilytics.
Not only has a wet, cool spring presented challenging field conditions, but also input availability, cost, and wild swings in commodity prices have given growers a lot more to think about.
“Even before we dive into the prescriptive side of managing the crop it’s going to be about the planter and planter maintenance that we need to focus on,” Gault says. “A key part of that is making sure we have even emergence. And when you think of everything that affects that emerging seedling it goes back to how it is set into the trench. Are all the seeds planted at a consistent depth and are they all planted into moisture?”
The Race to Crop Canopy
For most growers, the success of a season is determined with the combine passes that tell us final yield. While this measurement has the most direct and tangible impact to a operation’s bottom line, how does each grower decide throughout the growing season if they are “on track” for their yield expectation or whether other measures should be taken? Most of us have important times during the growing season to assess the crop which most often occur at emergence where we assess stand establishment signifying a strong start and during or immediately after pollination to determine yield potential for the remainder of the year. These are key milestones, but another that seems to garner less attention is crop canopy.