“I’m going over to his house and get my MVP!” –
Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon after Game 6 and a Western Conference Finals series
clinching win
https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1995-nba-wcf...
For most large farm operations, naming a MVP
for the entire year would be very difficult as there are a variety of talents that
need to be executed on a successful farm operation over the course of a
12-month cycle. Plus, the potential to
create some jealousy and friction within the team is present. Many leading farms today find it best to
motivate the team with some short-term awards to have a little fun and keep
things lively (i.e. “best harvest helper”), but then provide some longer-term
incentives on an individual basis that is personalized to what the employee and
farm owner both see valuable to drive the working relationship forward. It’s a tough task to keep the team working
together and my hat is off for those in the area managing large farm employee
teams. You have a difficult job of
melding all the talent on the farm, and you make it look easy!
Weather and
Corn Development
A
warmer start to the week – a 74F forecast on Tuesday here in Grand Forks, but
daily high temps are in the 50’s and 60’s afterwards. Warm temps with low relative humidity will
dry-out the crops quickly and I wouldn’t be surprised to see soybean harvest
start in the next 7-14 days for some. With
the below average week of temps, we’ll accumulate another 50-60 GDD’s over the
next 7-day span.
I’m
going to call it a finished growing season in the corn for 2020 (GDD map for
the season – May 15 average plant date through September 9). With last week’s frost on Tuesday morning,
many fields received a killing frost and although there is a lot of variability
around the freeze event with some green leaves remaining in many fields, the
amount of photosynthetic activity is greatly hampered and translocation will be
slow as well.
Even
though the season ended quicker than usual regarding the calendar date, our
growing degree accumulation was ahead of average. I’ll stand by my statements last week of
maturity estimates. This week, most
locations in the Red River valley are seeing hybrids in the 83-91 RM
designation at a third to ¾ starch line.
Locations outside the valley should be near ½ to ¾ starch line depending
on RM of the hybrid and planting date.
I
heard a report from a corn grower in southeast North Dakota by the South Dakota
state line and the report was good for test weight – 58 lb/bu at 18.5% moisture
content. The season’s solar radiation,
heat and moisture looks to have provided conditions for above average test
weight accumulation in the grain. The 58
lb/bu report is a good early sign and starts to confirm that dry corn was on
pace to be heavy this season. Despite the
early frost, we could still have respectable grain test weight – probably ending
in the 53-55 lb/bu range for most locations would be my rough prediction.
The rainfall map for our region over the last month continues to reveal that many locations had a dry finish to the season – especially in the northern half of North Dakota. However, most areas had plenty of moisture leading-up to this point so the dry finish did not significantly hamper crop conditions (unless under sandy or compacted soil conditions).
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/index.php
For the end of September
timeframe, the forecast is to have greater chances of above average temperatures
and below average precipitation.
The NOAA group
also provides three month outlooks. If
we would like to get a general forecast for the upcoming early winter
time-frame of Nov-Dec-Jan, it can be seen here: https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/...
This forecast
currently predicts equal chances for above and below average temperatures, while
also calling for slightly greater chances of above average precipitation as
well. Hopefully, harvest can progress
fairly smoothly from here on out to put us in a favorable position for harvest
progress and fall’s field work before November comes around.
The big derecho storm across the heart of the
Midwest over a month ago and a dry finish to the growing season, continue to nick
away at the U.S. crop condition estimates.
The USDA reports the corn crop condition at 60%
of acreage in the good to excellent category (last week – 61%), and the North
Dakota crop ratings declined significantly with 57% of the acreage in the good
to excellent category (63% last week) due to the frost event. Mature
corn is estimated at 41% of the US acreage (18% for North Dakota). The prior 5-year average for corn maturity
across the US is 32% (18% for ND).
Nineteen percent of the US corn was mature last week. The national corn crop remains ahead of the
5-year average pace for maturity.
For soybeans, USDA predicts that 37% of the acres
are dropping leaves, while 63% of acres rate in the good to excellent category
for crop condition (prior week of 65%).
North Dakota’s soybeans would rate at 54% good to excellent (64% last
week – again the big decline to the widespread frost) and 57% are in the dropping
leaves stage (34% last week).
https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/8336h188j?locale=en
Corn and Soybean Maturity
My best recommendation for estimating the starch
line on corn is to physically bite down with your teeth gently on the kernel
starting at the top of the kernel and work towards the tip. You’ll begin to get a feel of the line
between the hard starch and soft milk and often there is slightly greater
starch in the kernel than the visual appearance may allude.
Despite the killing frost (in most locations),
the kernel will continue to build a bit of starch by converting what few sugars
are available in the milk portion of the kernel into starch and then drydown over
the next 10-17 days will remove the remaining liquid moisture content. As the liquid milk in the kernel transform to
a starch, the kernel will form what I call a “false black layer” or “brown
layer” to physically separate the kernel from the cob.
It is not uncommon to perceive slow drydown
in frost affected corn, but we have to remember we are not starting with 30-35%
moisture grain content like we would with a hybrid that naturally obtained a
full black layer.
For soybeans, our primary concern will be smaller
seed size and shriveled seed coats along with green tinted seeds. If you are a soybean seed production grower,
I’m sure your seed production agronomist will be in communication.
https://www.pioneer.com/us/agronomy/managing_delayed_or_frostdamaged_soybeans.html
https://www.pioneer.com/us/agronomy/Yield-Impact-of-Premature...
https://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/crop-management/pubs/frost-sunflowers.pdf
Sunflower
Desiccation Timing
Since
the sunflowers have good frost tolerance at the R7 and later stages, we should
still be considering desiccation to aid dry-down and ultimately provide an earlier
harvest date for timing – especially if you are in an area with blackbird pressure.
Optimal timing for desiccation is 35% seed moisture content. The best method to determine the seed moisture content across a field is to analyze the sunflower bracts – thick, green, leaf-like structures at the outer rim of the sunflower head. As a sunflower plant matures, the bracts will begin to turn from green to yellow (similar to the back of the sunflower head), and eventually brown to signify the drydown. The bract color change to brown will start at the tips of the bracts eventually move down across the shoulder of the bract. Most of today’s sunflower hybrids have more staygreen in them compared to the past, so you may have to hand-shell a few heads and dry the kernels down in the oven to get a confirmation of your field observations.
The
next question is product choice for the herbicide desiccant. I like to recommend a glyphosate plus
saflufenacil (Sharpen®) mix. It’s a
slower kill and seems to shed rain more easily compared to the alternative of
paraquat (Gramaxone®). Our weather looks
good for the second half of September and we could try a paraquat product for faster
desiccation and quicker harvest if desired.
My only concern is that paraquat as a plant cell membrane disruptor can
act like a sponge if we do get some wet weather – sponges take a long time to
dry-out.
I’ve
already heard of some blackbird activity in the sunflower crop and if we can
speed-up harvest with a pre-harvest desiccant, it typically more than pays for
itself. I’d say sunflower harvest is
shortened by about 7-10 days depending on weather when a desiccant is utilized. If aerial application is desired, I’d recommend
at minimum 5 gpa of water volume carrier to get the coverage needed to kill the
sunflower plant and any weed escapes.
Urea Fall
Prices
Urea
(dry-spread granular nitrogen formulation) is probably the cheapest it has been
for several years for this time of the season, and definitely below the 5-year
average. I know the above chart is only
through mid-June of 2020, but urea prices have continued to erode and prices
are now often quoted in the below $350/ton range.
With the continued good weather and harvest clipping along at a nice pace, plus the decrease in corn acres across the region (less fall harvest time demand), we are in a great spot to utilize some urea this autumn in front of next year’s wheat, canola, corn and/or sugarbeet acres. If you are planning on a fall urea application, please wait for below 50F soil temps to minimize the conversion of urea to the volatile and more leach prone nitrate.
https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/.../urea-anhydrous-lead-retail-prices
Product
Spotlight – Instinct NxtGen™
I’m going to
highlight Instinct NxtGen™ from Corteva® again in my “Product Spotlight” corner
for use with any and all fall nitrogen applications (urea or UAN). In our region, we need to conduct field
operations when the conditions allow, plus you never know what the
precipitation forecast may entail one to two months (or more) down the road. If we get the opportunity to apply some fall
fertilizer in October, spending a few dollars to protect our nitrogen
investment makes a lot of sense.
Different formulations of Instinct™ have been on the market over the years and Corteva® looks to have made another great improvement on the product with Instinct NxtGen™ to vastly improve the handling, mixing and flowability of the product.
https://www.corteva.us/.../crop-protection/instinct-nxtgen.html
https://www.corteva.us/.../corteva/Instinct_NXTGEN_Fact_Sheet.pdf
NDSU has a nice
literature review publication on the topic of nitrogen stabilizers from 2017
with a comprehensive evaluation of products on the market at the time.
https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/nitrogen-extenders-and-additives-for-field-crops
If you have history of detecting nitrogen deficiency late season in corn, or you find yourself significantly above 1.1 lb of nitrogen applied per bushel of crop production goal, then nitrogen inhibitors should be considered and tested on the farm.
Many alternative
nitrogen inhibitors on the market do not have an EPA approved label like
Instinct™. Do your homework and try to
make sure the product has some sound research before purchase. Maybe an on-farm trial could be worthy – Instinct
against another branded nitrogen inhibitor?
Pioneer Seeds App
As a reminder, there is an easy way to get a yield estimate while walking your corn fields – the Pioneer Seeds app. It’s free and you’ll have to input a harvest stand population and estimated kernel size for a more accurate reading. With this season’s early frost, we will probably have smaller than average kernel size.
Random Agricultural Facts – Autumn Equinox
Next week, we will have the first official day of
autumn. Here are some interesting facts
and figures around the autumn equinox:
·
The equinox will occur at the exact same moment
of time for every location on the earth. For a September equinox, it will be the moment
the sun crosses the celestial equator – the imaginary line above the equator –
from north to south
·
For September 2020, the autumn equinox moment
will occur at 8:30am CDT on Tuesday, Sept 22nd
·
The exact date and time of the equinox will vary
from year to year, but will occur between Sept 21st and 24th depending
on the various time zones across the planet.
A September 21st or 24th equinox is quite rare. The last equinox on September 21st
occurred back in the years before Christ was born, but will occur next in 2092
and 2096. The last September 24th
equinox occurred in 1931 and the next one is not forecasted until the year 2303
·
The word “equinox” comes from Latin’s “aequus”
and “nox”, meaning equal and night respectively. However, because of our definition of sunrise
and sunset, the day will contain a bit more daylight than darkness
·
Regardless of your location on the earth this
day, the sun rises exactly due east and sets exactly due west
·
The first full moon after the autumn equinox is
named a “Harvest Moon”
·
The Earth does not move at a constant speed in
its elliptical orbit, therefore the seasons are not of equal length. Roughly speaking for the northern hemisphere,
summer is 93.6 days in length, the spring season is 92.8 days, autumn is 89.8
days, and thankfully, the winter season is the shortest at 89.0 days
·
The amount of tilt in the earth does not alter
over the course of the year. However,
the relation of the earth’s tilt in regard to the sun does alter on a daily
basis. The seasons change because of this
relation. In September and March during
an equinox, the earth’s tilt is directly perpendicular to the sun (not away
from the sun nor towards the sun). A
solstice occurs when the tilt is directly away from the sun or directly towards
the sun (illustration above)
https://www.timeanddate.com/...facts-about-september-equinox.html
https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/autumnal-equinox.html
