“To me, there are three things everyone should do every day. Number one is laugh. Number two is think. And, number three is to spend some time in thought; your thoughts should have your emotions move you to tears. If you laugh, think and cry, that's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.” – Jim Valvano, North Carolina State men’s basketball coach
It’s that time of year where we continue to have full days
even with the dead of winter staring us in the face. However, with
today’s conveniences, it’s somewhat easier to prosper through most of these
issues, as well as the cold winter weather spells. In this regard, I often wonder what our
ancestors of even 2-3 generations back would say if they could experience a
week in our world of today. Would they
think all of today’s conveniences are good for the body, mind and soul?
Hopefully, your full days are enlightening as we continue to
develop our plan for setting the stage to have a successful upcoming cropping
season. I would guess that most
operations are placing the final pieces of their labor and machinery line-up
into the equation and are moving onto field by field planning for crop inputs
like fertilizer, hybrid/variety, and herbicide/fungicide programs.
I’ll give a quick shout-out here to Corteva’s Granular
ag-software program that can help your planning be much more precise, easy to
implement, and effortlessly provide that in-season record keeping for key
analysis at the end of the year. Please
reach-out to myself or your local Pioneer sales agent to learn more. www.granular.ag
Regional Weather
You
would have to travel a fair distance outside our region if you are looking to
escape the sub-zero temperatures. It’s
nice that at least the sun is shining bright to provide us that optimism we are
all looking for. I did hear one older (wise?)
farmer this week say that it takes a significant cold spell like we are
currently experiencing during the winter to help insure our spring and summer
rains occur on a somewhat relevant and consistent level. I’m not sure of the accuracy of such a
statement, but the last mild winter we had was the 2011-12 winter and we did
struggle for widespread rains in the 2012 growing season.
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 National Oceanic Atmospheric Association (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 third full week of February,
the forecast is to have greater chances of below average temperatures, as well
as below average chances on the precipitation front.
The NOAA
organization also provides three month outlooks. If we would like to get a general forecast
for the upcoming summer (Jun-July-Aug), it can be seen here: https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/...long_range/seasonal.php?lead=5
This forecast
currently predicts equal chances on both the temperature and precipitation
potential for our region. Equal chances
notes that the potential is equal for either above average conditions or below
average conditions to develop. If that
wise farmer is correct, we should trend to the side of a bit more precipitation
than average coming our way. Coming off
our dry finish to the 2020 season and a dry autumn/early winter, it would be
more than welcome!
Dicamba Regulations for 2021 Soybeans
Unfortunately, we
will have more regulations during the upcoming growing season regarding
spraying dicamba herbicide formulations on RR2Xtend® soybeans. One such area of increased regulation will be
regarding “endangered species” and subsequent additional buffer protections.
In the map below
(see pic and reference weblink), the pink shaded areas in North Dakota and
Minnesota will have these extra restrictions in play to protect federally
listed, threatened, and endangered species.
Basically, in our region, the affected areas will be Polk and Clay
counties of Minnesota, and for North Dakota, it’ll encompass the counties of
Stutsman, McHenry, Bottineau, McLean, and Ward in the I-94 and north
geographies. For dicamba herbicide
applications to be legal in these areas, both a 310-foot in field
wind-directional spray drift buffer, and a 57-foot omnidirectional in-field
buffer are required.
The
following areas may be included in the buffer distance composition when
directly adjacent to the treated field edges: 1) Roads, paved or gravel
surfaces, mowed grassy areas adjacent to field, and areas of bare ground from
recent plowing or grading that are contiguous with the treated field. 2) Planted
agricultural fields containing dicamba-resistant plantings of cotton and
soybeans. 3) Areas covered by the footprint of a building, silo, or other
man-made structure with walls and/or roof.
www.epa.gov/endangered-species/bulletins-live-two-view-bulletins
I did try to find
the specific endangered species that we are targeting protection towards in these areas, but I
was not successful.
Dicamba On-line Training Available
Speaking of dicamba
regulations, it’s that time of year for the mandatory annual dicamba training
for pesticide applicators. Here is the
site to register and conduct the on-line training: https://training.roundupreadyxtend.com/
After
reviewing the FAQ (frequently asked questions) document by the EPA regarding
dicamba applications (updated in late 2020), there are several other key bits
of information that all farm managers should have knowledge towards regarding
dicamba applications in RR2Xtend® soybean production:
·
On-farm labor personnel who apply or handle dicamba
products for application in soybeans must be certified applicators
·
Certified applicator training is different than
dicamba training. Both trainings are
required by all labor personnel involved in dicamba applications
·
Non-certified personnel may not perform any
activities with dicamba products – including handling, mixing, loading, and purchasing
·
Training will include addressing new restrictions
on buffer distances and adjuvants/drift reducers. Other established regulations will be
reviewed
·
Generic dicamba formulations are not registered
for use in RR2Xtend® soybeans. Today,
only XtendiMax™, Engenia™ and Tavium™ (with metolachlor from Syngenta®) are
registered for use. Generic formulations
have much greater risk potential around drift and volatility.
The
EPA’s FAQ: https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/dicamba-training-requirements....
Corn Starter
Fertilizer
Most
corn planter set-ups in our region do have a hardware system installed for in-furrow
(over the top of the seed) liquid starter fertilizer application. A typical fertility mix will contain 10-34-0
or other source of phosphorus along with some zinc as their base starter
fertilizer components in corn production.
For
a quick review, the research data supports this practice in our region. Here are the top three reasons: 1) the corn
crop has more uniform and consistent early growth, 2) concentrated amounts of
fertilizer are easily accessible and more plant available in our high pH and
often cold spring soils by the corn plant, and 3) achieve faster dry-down rates
compared to corn trials without starter fertilizer. Add it all up and the return on investment is
positive.
https://www.ndcorn.org/corn-technically-speaking-starter-fertilizer/
This is good, but it
should stimulate another question – are we getting the most out of our starter
fertilizer equipment investment? Or,
more specifically what other nutrients should we be testing for a response in
our corn production after Phos. and Zn?
Well, the local Pioneer Field Agronomy teams have been collecting tissue samples in our NCGA state entry trials. The data is presented below. As you can see, Zn still shows up “Below Range” in over half the entries. Boron is “Below Range” in 2/3rds of the samples and Potash (K) is “Below Range” in over 50% of the samples. Now most tissue testing results are expressed in a percentage or parts per million (ppm) concentration. Aluminum, copper, calcium, and magnesium also test “Below Range” at a rate of 25% or greater in this small sampling of data across the region.
As you can see, there were two different growth stages for the tissue testing across three different hybrids and only 6 sample sites, so the data set is fairly small to start, but we’ll add on it in the future. if you are looking for some extra ideas on your farm to drive productivity and profitability, and you can make a bit of room in your starter fertilizer mix for some additional micronutrients, I would highly consider exploring options here. It should be fairly easy to implement – finding of a source of liquid micronutrients and conducting a test of both with and without across a few different fields this planting season. If you’d like, please contact me or your local Pioneer sales rep and maybe we can even conduct some tissue testing this summer to aid in our findings.
Product Spotlight: Drone Swarms
We often always think
that “bigger is better”, but when it comes to drones and agricultural uses,
maybe “more is better”. Rantizo is a US
based company focused on drone/UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) solutions for
agriculture producers. Last summer,
Rantizo was granted approval by the FAA (US Federal Aviation Administration)
for operating a swarm of drones with one pilot and one visual observer in all
locations of the contiguous 48 US states.
Rantizo states that they can spray between 40-60 acres per hour with their swarms, but I’m sure that target is always gaining in efficiency. They also have a dry spreader attachment for their fleet for broadcast applications of cover crop seeds, dry fertilizer blends and even dry pesticides.
Their services
include bringing a team to your farm to conduct field applications, as well
as helping your farm prepare and conduct application of crop protection
products with UAV’s. https://rantizo.com/
This technology will
probably take some time to develop, but my guess is that efficiencies will be
gained, technology simplified, and regulations reduced to where these
applicator UAV’s are fairly common on the farm.
Maybe the aerial applicators will embrace the technology and aid in the
shift towards more unmanned applications to lower the human risk for everyone.
https://www.croplife.com/precision/rantizo-authorized-to-swarm-multiple-drones-nationwide-by-faa/
Random Agricultural Facts – History of Cropland Acre Expansion
Let’s step back and take a look at
the last 50-60 years of global cropland acreage expansion and the USA’s or
North America’s contribution to the topic.
I wish I could have found some raw USDA data or other source(s), but I’m
sure this type of data is would be very tedious to compile. Therefore, I’ll just trust the Agriculture
Economic Insights (AIE) folks for accuracy (reference below).
As we evaluate the cropping acre
history, AIE just kept it at the 13 major crops – corn, soybeans, wheat,
rapeseed (canola/mustard), barley, cotton, millet, oats, peanuts, sunflower,
rice, rye and grain sorghum. From 1960
to 2020, harvested acreage increased about 45% (from 1.7 bil acres to 2.4 bil
acres, or 742 mil acres – chart below).
But, as you can see, the data doesn’t reveal a consistent yearly addition
of acreage, but a somewhat bullish expansion during the 1960’s and 70’s and
then flat-lining during the 1980’s and 90’s before accelerating again from 2002
onward.
A couple weeks ago, we discussed the US Farm Bill culture of the 1980’s and 90’s with programs like PIK (Payment In Kind) and set-aside acres. Those programs contributed greatly to the global leveling-off period of crop acre expansion after a just completed significant rise during the 70’s (next chart). The North American region led the world in crop acre expansion during this time frame (1970-1980) with over 74 mil additional harvested acres of these 13 major crops coming into production. The world seen an increase of 269 mil acres and each region of the planet contributed to the increase. North America’s contribution calculates to about 27.5% of the global increase during this period.
Since 2002, China’s food demand has increased sharply and the ethanol boom occurred to place enhanced value in ag-commodities to stimulate another era of acre expansion. However, this time around, other parts of the world led the charge. The overall acre expansion was similar in size to the 1970’s with approximately 279 mil acres (versus 269 mil ac) increase in overall harvested acres. North America accounted for about 7.2% of this expansion growth. The regions of South America (26.2%), Sub-Saharan Africa (24.4%), East Asia (15.8%), the former Soviet-Union (14.7%), and South Asia (7.9%) all had more harvested acre growth expansion than the USA. It’s also interesting to note that the European Union and “Rest of World” decreased their contribution in this regard.
As we try to look forward and think about the next era of crop expansion, it’s hard to fathom what will incentivize the growth (who would have predicted in the 90’s that ethanol would help fuel the next ag-boom?). To me, it will probably be a factor of several things – more demand will arise due to both a desire for better diets and increased population. But, several questions remain… How will bio-fuels impact future cropping decisions? Will the trend shift from crop acre expansion to livestock expansion? How much will technology and thus increased productivity off-set demand? Which countries will lead the charge? Will people take a greater interest in producing their own food?
Whatever the answers, we’ll have a
front row seat in the coming decades to witness it all!
https://aei.ag/2021/02/01/global-acreage-expansions-old-and-new...
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