“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic
answer, but the right answer. Let us not
seek to fix the blame for the past. Let
us accept our own responsibility for the future” – John F. Kennedy; 35th
US President
If
you read this quote to most people and tell them that it came from a prior
President, most would probably assume Reagan or Eisenhower or maybe even a
stretch to GW Bush. Whatever the guess,
it would most likely be a Republican.
However, it’s very interesting to note that the President attributed to
this quote was a member of the Democratic party. It makes you wonder how long our political
system has been sabotaged with corruption, dishonesty, and a media unwilling to
provide truthful investigative research for the benefit of the American public.
Answers
in farming that consistently drive profitability are not easy to formulate and there
is no right or wrong method to obtain the goal.
Some farms have a keen sense of the markets, some dive head first into
the agronomy, and others enjoy the mechanical challenge around farm
machinery. Today’s farm producers
consistently enjoy several aspects of the business and are highly aware of the
areas that need improvement.
If
you are looking to improve some aspect of your operation, Pioneer can help. We have several resources within the industry
that can either provide the service directly, or help you learn about a
topic. Please reach-out to me directly
or contact your local Pioneer sales agency for more insight.
Weather and
Corn Development
We’ve
had great conditions for the warm season crops to flourish over the past
several weeks assuming the excess rainfall was able to adequately drain-off the
fields. We’ll have very warm temperatures
return at the end of this week and through the weekend. I’ll predict another 155-160 GDD’s for the
week ahead.
A
few folks have made the reference of 2020 being similar to 2016 with all the
wet weather we have been experiencing.
However, 2016 was a bit cooler for temperatures as many locations would
be 50-150 GDD’s fewer in 2016 at this time compared to the current year. Probably the best analogy would be 2012 or
2018 temperatures with 2016 rainfall. However, there is so much drown-out crop in many locations, it’ll be
very tough to match 2016 yields this particular autumn.
The rainfall map for our region
in the first three weeks of July looks manageable, but when looking back to
June, we understand that many areas from east central North Dakota and eastward
have endured too much water.
Most of the corn crop is starting
to reveal tassels (VT) over the past several days. The first reproductive stage is actually
silking (R1), and it should last 10-12 days under current conditions. A fully healthy corn crop at a plant
population around 32k plants/ac in the pollination stage will consume 1/4 to
1/3 of an inch of water per day depending on heat, humidity and sunshine, so
hopefully we’ll dry-up a tad over the next couple weeks.
I’ll count on your weather app
for the best guidance through the 7-8 day forecast, but looking beyond that,
I’ve found this site from NOAA to be fairly reliable for a general 8-14 day
outlook (next week). https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/814day/...
During this time frame the
forecast is to have greater chances of being above average for temperatures,
while the precipitation forecast is for equal chances to slightly above average
chances of being wetter than normal.
The NOAA group also provides three month outlooks. If we would like to get a bit of insight for the autumn harvest season of Sept-Oct-Nov time frame, it can be seen here: https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/.../long_range/seasonal.php?lead=1
This timeframe forecast reveals equal chances for both above and below average precipitation, but for temperatures, there is a greater chance that we should experience warmer than average conditions.
The USDA estimates corn silking is occurring across
59% of the US acreage, but only at 18% for North Dakota. The corn crop condition is 69% of acreage in
the good to excellent category (same as last week), and surprisingly the North
Dakota crop rates at the same level of the US crop – 69% in the good to excellent
category.
For soybeans, USDA predicts that 64% of the
acres are blooming, while 69% rate in the good to excellent category. North Dakota’s soybeans would rate at 68%
good to excellent and 57% are at in the bloom stage.
Spring wheat has a 68% good to excellent
rating across the US with N.Dakota’s spring wheat condition rated below the
national average at 62% good to excellent.
Bayer’s Glyphosate Settlement
In June, Bayer agreed to settle its
approximately 100,000 lawsuits related to glyphosate and cancer. The settlement cost was US$10.9 bil. Of that total cost, $US1.25 bil is designated
to go towards addressing potential future litigation on the matter. Since 2018, Bayer has lost three consecutive
lawsuits in front of US juries who ruled that glyphosate does cause cancer
after listening to scientific testimony from both plaintiffs and defendants.
There are still some questions around the
$1.25 bil for future claims. Bayer’s®
lawyers will address all concerns related to these questions in a late July
hearing.
Bayer® to Bring Multi-Herbicide Stacked Corn Hybrids
Speaking of Bayer®, pending regulatory
approval, they have announced plans for a five-way herbicide stacked corn
trait package. The designated hybrid
herbicide tolerances will be to glyphosate, glufosinate (Liberty™), dicamba,
2,4-D, and quizalofop (Assure™ II). The
AgNews article doesn’t provide a timeline for potential release or when a
regulatory decision is forecasted.
However, the article does mention that
Bayer has closed their litigation trial in regard to a settlement around
dicamba drift in soybeans of US$400 Mil.
Many university weed scientists are questioning
the future of weed control as the writing on the wall says that weed resistance
is continuing to expand despite additional tools from ag-industry. Will crop tolerances to herbicides that were
developed decades ago be the solution to our expanding weed management
challenges? I would think not, but our
willingness at the farm level to invest into non-herbicide weed control
strategies is a low priority currently.
I would agree that the ag-industry has
placed most farm managers on a herbicide carousel and we will need continued
technology advances to stay ahead of a consistently evolving weed spectrum. For a non-herbicide weed control option,
Redekop® has an interesting development in the area of controlling weed seeds
at harvest time. https://redekopmfg.com/products/harvest-weed-seed-control/
Corn Pollination Facts
It’s
interesting to note that the spelling of the word “pollen” changes when you
expand it to “pollination”. Anyway, here
are some common facts about the most important phase of corn growth -- pollination:
·
Pollination normally takes place during a 10-12-day period
·
Significant
drought stress delays silk emergence since silks are over 90% water as well as
stimulates an earlier than normal pollen shed.
This results in a shorter pollination “nick” where receptive silks and
viable pollen are both present
·
Each tassel can
produce between 2 and 5 million pollen grains. Considering there are 500 to
1,000 potential kernels on each ear, not having enough pollen in the field is
very rare
·
Anthers typically
shed pollen in the early to mid-morning time frame as anthers dry in the heat
and sunlight
·
Pollen grains are
viable for only a few minutes after they are shed until they desiccate
·
Extreme heat
stress (over 95℉) can reduce pollen production and viability – very
rare for our region to have sterile pollen due to heat
·
Each silk that
emerges from an ear shoot connects to a single ovule, or potential kernel
·
A silk must
receive pollen and an ovule successfully pollinated to develop into a kernel
·
Silk emergence
(and therefore pollination) begins from the base of the ear to the tip of the
ear
·
Silks will
continue to elongate for up to 10 days after emergence or until they are
pollinated. Silks can grow over 1.5” inches per day
·
After the ovule
has been pollinated, the silk will detach from the ovule. A common method to check pollination success
is to carefully peel back the husks and see how many silks naturally fall off
the cob. Seeing a couple silks hang-on
is normal, but if the number is closer to a dozen or more, then you should
begin to ask some questions
·
Silk receptivity
decreases over time following initial silk emergence due to the senescence of
silk tissue
·
The greatest stress susceptible period extends from one week prior to
silking to approximately two weeks after silking
·
Yield losses during this period result from reduction in kernel number
and are therefore irreversible.
What’s Happening in my Corn and Soybean Crops?
For
corn, I like the University of Purdue’s “Grain Fill Stages in Corn” guide. https://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/news/timeless/grainfill.html
Regardless
of corn relative maturity, it’ll take the typical corn hybrid about 60 days
from the start of silking (R1) to physiological maturity (R6) or black
layer. So, if we are starting to silk
today, and we have average heat units moving forward, we should see fully
mature corn of 30-35% moisture around September 20th – a great spot
for our region to be regarding the corn crop.
For
soybeans, there are many resources primarily highlighting the same insight on
the reproductive stages, so I’ll just provide the following Pioneer.com site: https://www.pioneer.com/us/agronomy/staging-soybean-growth.html
Soybeans
are in a unique time currently as they are still putting on vegetative growth,
flowering and starting pod formation.
Moisture and temperature conditions look ideal, and I look for the
soybean crop to improve significantly over the next couple weeks in our region.
Product
Spotlight – WideARmatch™
The
EPA has just granted approval to Corteva® for registration of the herbicide
WideARmatch™. This pre-mix for broadleaf
control in wheat will contain clopyralid (Stinger™) and fluroxypyr (Starane™) as
seen in the traditional WideMatch™, and add the new component of Arylex™ active
(Elevore™).
The
Arylex™ active will be a great component to greatly enhance the efficacy on
maristail, kochia, common ragweed and common lambsquarter as well as other
broadleaf weeds. The concentration of
fluroxypyr will also increase in WideARmatch™ when compared to the traditional
WideMatch™.
All these factors should
help delay (not solve) any herbicide resistance development. The initial target crop is small grains –
spring wheat, winter wheat, barley, durum, and triticale.
All
eyes are still on China in the ag-industry as the US tries to move out from
under a large farm commodity supply.
FarmDoc out of the University of Illinois had a nice article on the
topic to start the month of July. Trade
is increasing from month to month into China from the US, but is below pace for
meeting the volumes of the Phase I agreement.
China
continues to suspend some ag imports claiming CoronaVirus infection despite the
lack of scientific data showing a link of virus infections to food. Supposedly, Chinese ports are currently
operating normally so one would think trade volumes will pick-up towards the
end of the calendar year.
Weed Resistance
Over the last two
newsletter editions, we discussed how a genetic mutation and enhanced
detoxification within a weed species can lead to weed resistance
development. I’ll end the three-part
series with a third identified resistance mechanism – gene amplification.
It has been noted in
the past two newsletters that increased genetic diversity comes from high weed
seed bank numbers with examples of the human population in New York City. And, with increased genetic diversity, the
probability of finding individuals that can survive a killing herbicide
application increase significantly.
One fairly typical
method in which a herbicide kills a plant is by inhibiting the normal function
a specific enzyme critical for the day to day success of the plant. For example, most all plants have an EPSPS
enzyme which is critical for producing phosphate substrates for the plant to
live. When a plant with the normal
number of EPSPS enzymes is sprayed with glyphosate herbicide, the glyphosate
would inhibit or block the EPSPS enzyme from properly functioning. The result of this inhibition is the inability
of the plant to produce the substrate, and ultimately the plant is starved of
the critical component and therefore perishes.
In the following
illustration, the normal number of EPSPS gene copies (yellow dots on
chromosomes) is highlighted in the top drawing (A) and would denote a
susceptible glyphosate plant. This plant
will produce EPSPS in leaf chloroplasts (designated by the yellow circles in
the highlighted oval) that is targeted and overwhelmed by the normal usage rate
of glyphosate (red diamonds), and therefore the plant is unable to produce
phosphate substrate resulting in death. In
a resistant individual (B) with amplified EPSPS gene copies present on multiple
chromosomes, there is increased EPSPS, and the normal glyphosate rate cannot
inhibit the vast number of available EPSPS enzymes.
Gene amplification
has been identified as the weed resistance mechanism for palmer amaranth in
conjunction with glyphosate resistance.
Some populations of p.amaranth have such elevated or “amplified” levels
of EPSPS that even doses as high as 100x are not effective!
There are literally
hundreds of documented cases of weed resistance around the world. Gene amplification, gene mutation and
increased detoxification are just some of today’s known mechanisms that an
individual weed may use to overcome a killing dose of herbicide. I’m sure many other weed mechanisms will be
found over time.
If you suspect a patch of weeds are resistant:
·
Close inspection of weed escapes 7-10 days after a herbicide application
will reveal survivors mixed among controlled (dead) individual weed
plants. In some cases, there may be weed
plants with various stages of injury within the survivor population
- Implement a second (or third) application with a different herbicide
mode of action product for desired control
- If the resistant weed patches remain, and are manageable in size, use
mechanical means (tillage, mowing, hand pulling) to remove weeds before
they set seed
- If the resistant weed patch(s) does set seed, consider collecting some
of the weed seed to test and confirm resistance (especially, if there is
some uncertainty around the quality of spray application)
- Adjust future herbicide and cropping practices so that weeds can be
sprayed with multiple modes of action that are effective on the particular
weed type and other at-risk weed species
- Consider implementing some non-herbicide IWM strategies to prolong the
effectiveness of the herbicide resource.
Random
Agricultural Facts – US Canola and Sunflowers
Which is greater for 2020 acre production -- North Dakota acres of canola, or US
acres of sunflower?
Actually, it’s very close with the difference of only 6,500
acres! The North Dakota canola acreage
would be a slight winner.
According to the June ’20 USDA plantings report, the canola
acreage this year came in at 1.868 mil US acres with North Dakota easily the top
canola producing state at 1.550 mil acres or 83% of the US total. Meanwhile, US Sunflower productions is at
1.5435 mil acres.
Here in North Dakota, my math says that canola is the 4th
largest crop in our state for 2019… well behind spring wheat (6.0 mil ac),
soybeans (6.0 mil acres) and corn (2.4 mil ac).
In sunflower, 89% of the US 2020 crop are oils while only
170.5k acres are non-oil (confections for human consumption which are sold as
“in the shell” or dehulled for various uses – sunflower flour, salad and main
dish toppings, etc.).
North Dakota is forecasted to have 620k acres of sunflower
this season which will make it the largest producing sunflower state in the
nation. South Dakota is a very close
second at 615k acres. Any guesses for
the state with the third most sunflower acres?
Kansas comes in a distant third place with 70k acres.
To review the June 2020 USDA plantings report, click on this
link:
In Canada, the acreage difference between canola and
sunflower is vast! The 2020 June Estimated
Preliminary Plantings from Statistics Canada states 20.8 mil ac canola vs only
70k acres of sunflower. The state of
Kansas raises just as many acres of sunflower as the entire country of Canada!
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