March 29, 2021 Edition

 

“If you thought the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait until I whop-up Foreman’s behind!” – Muhammad Ali in his pre-fight banter

“Is that all you got, George?  You can’t be champion with those sissy punches!” – Muhammad Ali during the fight

Despite your thoughts on Muhammad Ali’s personal life, most all would agree that he was one heck of a boxer, athlete, and promoter of his sport.  Plus, he loved to get under the skin and into the mind of his opponent, and with that came some classic talking!  Like all great champions, Mr. Ali could back it up to a high level.

On this particular night in October of 1974, forever known as the “Rumble in the Jungle”, George Foreman was the clear favorite (4-1 odds) as he was the current world heavyweight champion and had been since Jan. ’73.  Foreman was seven years younger than Ali (25 vs 32), and George had easily beaten both Ken Norton, Sr. and Joe Frazier with knockouts inside of two rounds – the only two losses in Ali’s career up to that point had been 15 round decisions to both fighters.  Even Howard Cosell, the famous ABC television sportscaster, didn’t give his favorite boxer of the time (Ali) much of a chance against the punishing bruiser of “Big George” Foreman.  Before the fight, Ali voiced his usual poetic confidence in his ability to win, and warned his detractors to not bet against him.  Ali reminded everyone of his underdog wins against Sonny Liston (twice) and Floyd Patterson – two former heavyweight champions from the 1960’s that Ali beat fairly decisively.  Muhammad Ali self-predicted a win over Foreman with a knockout by the sixth round.

During the fight, Ali continued to challenge Foreman with his legendary verbal lashes and the “rope-a-dope” strategy.  Foreman was so perturbed by all of Ali’s braggadocios talking, that he easily took the bait Ali laid before him.  During the sixth round, Foreman was visibly losing stamina and unable to foster much strength behind his punches.  Somehow, Ali found a way to survive the onslaught and found the energy within himself for a bit of activity in the eighth round to knock-down Foreman.  Foreman did not make the count, ending the match and giving Ali the championship he had sought since March of 1967 (7.5 years since he last fought as champion).

Most farm operations of today have had a time (or two) in their career where they had their backs against the wall and wondered how they were going to keep the business afloat and survive.  But, like all great champions, you found the strength to continue to put-in the long hours and an opportunity presented itself that provided an advantage.  Most great things are achieved by going-out on a limb and taking a risk most others may not even think about.  In Muhammad Ali’s situation, he knew Foreman’s strength was powerful bruising punches, but he also knew himself and his own physical ability to take a heavy barrage of punishment.  All of the sports journalists at the time said that Foreman’s punches were harder and heavier than any other.  It was a high risk for Ali to implement the “rope-a-dope” strategy, but he believed in himself and found a way to make it pay-off.  When you understand both yourself and your opponent, you can more easily find successful paths for positive results.

Regional Weather

Soil temperatures should continue to build slowly this week with most days in the range of 50’s and 60’sF.  Hopefully, we’ll see some moisture develop after the Easter weekend.

The soil temperature chart (^oFahrenheit) comes from NDAWN at 9 am Monday, March 29^th.  As you can see, only a few locations are still showing freezing soil conditions.  The Langdon and Bottineau sites have frost in the top 12 inches of soil, while Adams, Langdon, Pekin and Grand Forks have at least one reading below 32F at 24 inches or deeper.  Fargo and Maddock have a 40F plus reading at 89 inches deep, while Grand Forks is the only location showing above 40F in shallow soils.

 

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 first full week of April, the forecast is towards significantly warmer than average conditions for temperatures.  Regarding the precipitation chances, they actually trend to above average for North Dakota, and equal chances for western Minnesota.  We could use a good 1-2 inches across the region, we’ll see what develops.

The NOAA organization also provides three month outlooks.  If we would like to get a general forecast for the key months of the upcoming growing season (June-July-Aug), it can be seen here:

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/.../long_range/seasonal.php?lead=1

This forecast currently predicts above average chances on the temperature potential, along with below average chances for precipitation across the region.  It continues to be a developing situation that points our thoughts and actions towards conserving as much soil moisture as possible to start the growing season.

Risk/Reward of Early Corn Planting

Currently, the primary question around the countryside is, “when should we start planting?”.  We don’t get the opportunity to plant corn inside of the first 20 days of April very often, so let’s review some tips and tricks:

·         Evaluate the stress emergence score on the farm’s corn hybrid purchases.  Your seed salesman will be able to provide you a hierarchy of products that have a greater ability to handle cold stress.  Pioneer products that have the very best stand establishment ability under 94 RM are P8989AM, P9211AM, P9301AM, and P9492AM.  Other suitable hybrids for planting early include P7527AM, P7632AM, and P8588AM

·         Watch the immediate 2-3 day weather forecast, for any cold fronts developing.  The first 48-72 hours of the seed being in the ground are the most critical for early vigor and seedling development 

·         As cold front systems develop, look to cease corn planting 48 hours before storm arrival.  Corn seeds that get placed into warm soil and then have to immediately (inside 48 hours) go through a stretch of cold conditions will be impacted by imbibitional chilling, vigor loss, and ultimately stand loss.  Once soils warm to a consistent 48-50F and the calendar turns to early May, I would place less value on this precaution as soils have built some temperature buffering capacity

·         Evaluate the weather forecast over the upcoming 10-14 days – specifically looking for nightly temps to remain above the low 40’s, and a GDU accumulation of 85-100 GDU’s over the 14-day span (average requirement for corn emergence is around 125 GDU’s – target corn emergence inside of three weeks)

·         Ideal corn planting depth is 1.75”.  With the dry conditions, we may need to place seed deeper to obtain uniform moisture conditions.  I’ve seen corn seed come from 3+” deep, but it can be inconsistent.  I would recommend a max planter setting depth around 2.5 – 2.75”

·         Continually evaluate soil moisture conditions and seed placement into moisture.  Uniform emergence is a key driver in yields

·         Check with your seed provider so that everyone understands the replant policy and product availability if a replant should occur 

·         Confirm crop insurance protection coverages with the plant dates being implemented.

After all these points, I would still recommend waiting until soil temperatures warm to a consistent daily max of 52-56F range before planting corn.  The long-term experience in the area indicates that being patient with corn planting usually results in better plant stand uniformity, better seedling vigor, higher crop stand establishment numbers, and ultimately better crop yield potential.  Many seasons have produced very good yields with May 15-22^nd corn plant dates.  With today’s big machinery, there is no need to push planting dates in the first three weeks of April under inadequate conditions – either too dry or too cold.

https://www.pioneer.com/us/agronomy/soil_temp_corn_emergence.htmlhttps://corteva.showpad.com/share/ioF4GC15rENpwXhhpoFwL/0

Planting Soybeans Early

Let’s conduct the same exercise for the soybeans:

·         Early plant dates should have a full fungicide seed protection package.  Pythium primarily and fusarium (secondary) are the primary cold soil pathogens

·         Since soybean maturity revolves more around photoperiod length versus heat unit accumulation (corn), increased yield potential is only moderately correlated to plant dates.  A combination of early plant dates with full maturity varieties work in tandem to increased yield potential the greatest

·         Early planted soybeans do benefit from earlier flower dates and thus longer periods of flowering leading to more pod and seed production

·         Today’s soybean seeding rates on the low end of the spectrum range from 115k to 140k.  If your operation is in this range, there is risk in not obtaining full yield potential stands with early plant dates

·         Ideal seed depth placement for soybeans is 1.25 to 1.5 inches.  Field emergence can be erratic with depths in the 2.5-3” range if soils are cold and moisture is limited

·         Soybeans take about 90-100 GDU’s to emerge.  Typically, at the end of April to early May in the far northern plains, it will take about 2.5 weeks to accumulate 90-100 GDU’s.  If we calculate back from a last spring frost date of say May 14^th, we should wait until at least the last week in April before attempting to plant soybeans

·         Pioneer® soybeans treated with our branded LumiGEN® seed treatment package have a re-plant policy which includes the seed treatment package as well.

https://corteva.showpad.biz/webapp2/content/channels... https://corteva.showpad.com/share/dGD5mAvS1QeE1jZgtHpEb/0

 

Corn Seed Germination Tests

If you evaluate the seed tag on the actual bag or ProBox of corn seed delivered to your warehouse, the warm germination score is the only germination category printed on the tag.  This is a legal requirement and there is a standardized test for seed companies to derive the specific warm germination number for publishing.

However, most agronomists would argue that the warm germination percentage is only half the battle.  In the northern two-thirds or more of the US, there has been a lot of work done by seed companies and independent ag laboratory owners in developing and conducting a cold test or a saturated cold test to determine how successful the seed will be under cold field conditions. 

Pioneer’s internal test is called the Pioneer Stress Test (PST).  Every Pioneer corn seed lot destined for shipping must pass the PST before leaving the Pioneer seed plant on a yes/no grading system.  The PST is continually validated on an annual basis with 10-12 field locations throughout US and Canada with extremely early plantings.  The exact procedure is proprietary to Pioneer and continues to be tweaked as more years of data are collected. 

Back in 2013, Pioneer did a blind test with four different hybrids and four different independent labs.  The data is presented below and indicates that commercial laboratories have a difficult time predicting germ percentages under cold stress.  For example, the dark blue hybrid in the chart, tested at 65% of seeds germinating under Pioneer’s PST, but the same hybrid tested over 95% germination with a “cold test” from Lab 1 & 3.  Basically, independent laboratories have a very difficult time simulating cold seedling stress conditions, and thus have a very difficult time in accurately predicting a seed lot’s ability to establish an adequate stand under stressful conditions.

Pioneer’s PST scores are highly correlated to the published “stress emergence” characteristic scores in our seed guide.  Corn hybrids that rate a “4” or “5” for genetic stress emergence have average ability to withstand cold stress, hybrids with “6” or “7” scores are above average.  A score of “3” would be below average, however we do not have any commercial hybrids with a below average rating in our region’s maturity range.

https://corteva.showpad.com/share/tRHIi3a3BfXwx5b2lqhWW/0 https://corteva.showpad.com/share/WoyVLJS2FiyYDp0B9wtAn/0

 

Drought Conditions

You don’t need any reminders of the dry conditions, but here’s a couple revealing items.  The 2021 calendar year is starting off as one of the driest on record, which dates all the way back to 1893.  If you are in the very northwestern part of Minnesota, then it is the driest start in 129 years of records, and if you are in northeastern to northcentral North Dakota, it in the top 94-95% of the driest years.

The US Drought Index was last updated on March 25^th, and shows some “extreme drought” developing in the west central parts of North Dakota (website: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ ).  It’s not too much of a stretch to say that we’ll have some fields with steep challenges to get crops up and established without some significant rain in the coming weeks.

Product Spotlight: P01T92E

Pioneer’s new 01 RM variety with Enlist® herbicide tolerance will be named P01T92E.  This variety’s strength will be yield for the maturity zone.  However, the genetics rate above average for iron deficiency chlorosis (IDC) and white mold – probably the strongest we’ve seen to date for a combination of these two traits with Enlist® genetics in the early Group 0 maturity zone.  The phytophthora root-rot scores are average, but a Lumisena™ fungicide seed treatment will enhance the protection and keep the risk fairly low to phytop root rot.

For a quick review, Pioneer rates their products on a 1-9 scale with 9 being the best/strongest/tallest.  Average characteristic performance scores are typically 4’s and 5’s; below average is 3, and above average strength would rate 6 to 7.  It is fairly rare to see an advanced product with a trait score of 8, but it does happen.  Most all products that would rate below a 3 on any given single agronomic score would not make it through the process to become a commercially available product.

There are still a few units available of this soybean variety and other new Enlist® soybean genetics.  Please reach-out to myself and/or your local Pioneer agent if you’d be interested in trying a field or two.

Random Agricultural Facts – USDA March Planting Intentions Report

This week, we will have USDA’s Prospective Plantings report on Wednesday March 31^st.  It is one of the most anticipated reports of the year for farmers, grain traders and industry personnel.

However, did you know that the USDA has production records dating back on a yearly basis to 1866?  The data collected was fairly rudimentary back then compared to today, but they did have 10 crops (barley, corn, cotton, flax, hay, oats, rye, tobacco, wheat and potatoes) and one livestock category (hogs).  Reports were not forecasted in March, but rather only summarized for the completed season.  Cropping categories included harvested acres, average price received, total production volume and yields in bu/ac format.  They did have records for most states along with summarized national totals (in 1866, there were only 36 states in the Union).

Today, the reports are much more elaborate, but it’s hard to fathom the cost involved to accumulate and generate and update such reports throughout the year.

March 22, 2021 Edition

 

“All my friends kept asking me if Larry Bird is really that good.  I had to tell them, ‘Larry Bird is so good, it’s scary!’” – Ervin “Magic” Johnson

 

Yep, you guessed it – I’m getting low on Larry Bird stories and thus relegated to quoting others talking about the “Legend”.  It doesn’t get much better than this if you are Mr. Bird – one of your main rival opponents openly admitting during the core of your playing days that you have earned his respect.  Plus, you’ve earned it at such a high level, he is telling everyone else that they need to show the respect as well!  After Larry retired, he doled out many accolades to all the great opposing players and teams he and the Celtics played against.  However, during his playing days, he kept those comments to himself as he didn’t want to spark any of their motivation to supplant him as the best in the game.

Every now and then, you come across a few folks in the ag-industry that compete at such a high level to where you don’t receive much honest feedback or insight, but overall most realize the helpfulness and vision that can be gained.  The gains easily out-weigh the concerns one may have around the specifics of the dialogue.

There is a lot of positive momentum currently underway in the ag-industry these days, and most all operations are readily exploring ways to fully capitalize on the circumstances.  Pioneer is more than just a seed and crop protection provider as we’re here to assist you in many areas of the business.  We may not know the specifics around each unique circumstance that arises on the farm, but I bet we could bring some good perspective and at least help point the effort in the right direction.  We have a team of resources dedicated to making farms successful from farm business software to detailed agronomy insights, from product specialists to marketing insiders, and more.   

Regional Weather

Soil temperatures should continue to build for the week with days in the range of 40’s and 50’sF for the week.  With nighttime temperatures falling into the mid-20’s, we are currently experiencing fluctuating soil temperatures in the top 2-4” of soil.  With all the daily sunshine, some NDAWN locations are seeing temperature swings of 10F or more from early morning to mid-afternoon.

As an example, this soil temperature chart (^oFahrenheit) comes from NDAWN at 4 pm Monday, March 22.  As you can see, most locations are getting into the 40F plus temperature range at 2 inches deep by mid-afternoon, but still remain in the mid to lower 30F range at 8-12 inches and deeper.  I would throw out the Grand Forks data as it seems to be an outlier.  At this time of year, all it takes is one cold snap with some wet weather and we’ll witness our soil temps remaining in the range of 40F and under.

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 very end of March to first few days of April, the forecast is towards significantly warmer than average potential for temperatures.  Regarding the precipitation chances, they remain below average as well with stronger chances of being dry in North Dakota versus Minnesota.  Normally, we will receive a spring storm or two in the late March to mid-April timeframe, but it’s looking like we may have to potentially wait until the latter half of April for any significant moisture to build into our region.

The NOAA organization also provides three month outlooks.  If we would like to get a general forecast for the key months to start the upcoming growing season (April-May-June), it can be seen here:

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/.../long_range/seasonal.php?lead=1

This forecast currently predicts significantly above average chances on the temperature potential, along with equal chances for precipitation across the region.  It continues to be a developing situation that points our thoughts and actions towards conserving soil moisture as we start the season.

Brazil Rains Causing Concerns

Many of you follow the South American weather and crops closely, but I thought it would be a good topic to review currently with their on-going delayed harvest and second crop planting.  Reports last week indicate over 30 inches of rain have been received over the prior 45 days in the Mato Grosso region.  The precipitation has not only damaged crops, but also infrastructure, creating additional difficulties to producing and marketing farm commodities.

Nation-wide for Brazil, the soybean harvest is estimated at 46% complete while the second crop planting of corn is estimated at 74%.  Typical ranges for these two categories would be 13-15% higher by mid-March.  It’s getting late enough in most areas of Brazil that corn planting will cease – the dry season is too close on the calendar.

For a quick review, Brazil’s primary crop is planted in the September and October time frame and then the second crop is planted in February to early March.  This second crop is termed the “safrinha” crop, and in Portuguese safrinha means “little harvest”, as it was typically small acreage due to the dry season quickly approaching in June, July, and August.   However today, the safrina corn crop is about 2/3rds of the nation’s overall corn production. 

It was estimated in late February that Brazil’s corn crop acreage estimate for the 2021 year would be around 48 mil acres.  If only 75% of the safrina corn gets planted due to the wet conditions, it calculates out to about an 8 mil acre hit.  If we estimate 90 bu/ac yields, the acreage reduction calculates to be about 720 mil bu or 18.3 mil MT loss in production.

For historical perspective, Brazil has produced over 100 mil MT of corn the last three calendar years, making the loss of 8 mil acres about 18% of their recent yearly production history.

https://financialpost.com/...declares-state-of-emergency-after-rains https://www.world-grain.com/...brazil-corn-acreage-likely-to-expand... https://www.mckeany-flavell.com/expanding-acreage-in-brazil-to-boost... http://www.soybeansandcorn.com/Brazil-Crop-Cycles https://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture...corn&graph=production

Seed Company Consolidation

Rob-See-Co announced an acquisition of NorthStar Genetics last week.  NorthStar is a Minnesota based company with representation in our area.  Rob-See-Co is headquartered in Nebraska with some representation in our area as well.  Rob-See-Co’s statement on the topic is they are looking to gain market share enhancement with the acquisition.

In today’s world with many seed brands, additional consolidations are probably on the horizon.  Small to medium sized seed businesses will be the target for combining resources to try and make a more significant impact in the market.

http://news.agropages.com/News/NewsDetail---38411.htm

Other Crops for Corteva™ Crop Protection

Over the last several weeks, we’ve covered the crops of spring wheat, soybeans and corn for crop protection herbicide products from Corteva™ to use with the TruChoice® program.  This week, let’s review a quick snapshot of other products for other crops and other pests.

·         Aproach® - fungicide for white mold (sclerotinia stem rot) protection in soybean and dry edible beans; cercospera, rhizoctonia and powery mildew in sugar beets.  The label requires for two applications in soybeans for control of white mold

·         Aproach Prima® - addition of cyproconazole with the picoxystrobin (Aproach®).  Provides control of tan spot and powdery mildew in spring wheat along with suppression of scab.  Also, would be a great fit for a “plant health” strobularin fungicide in corn and soybeans

·         Dithane F-45® - fungicide for cercospera in sugarbeets.  Tank-mix partner for additional mode of action to aid in resistance management.  Rainshield® technology has surfactants and wetting agents built into the formulation to maintain the product on the leaf longer.  Provides longer leaf protection as well as help aid in chemical redistribution/diffusion through the canopy after application

·         Enable® 2F – fungicide for cercospera in sugarbeets.  Tank-mix partner for additional mode of action to aid in resistance management

·         Durango® - glyphosate; DMA salt formulation.  Best glyphosate formulation to mix with 2,4-D choline in Enlist-3® soybeans

·         Stinger® HL – new copyralid formulation of “high load” or stronger concentration for lower use rates per acre in sugarbeets, canola, corn and/or wheat

·         EverpreX® – metolachlor formulation for use as pre-emerge or layby applications in sugarbeets, dry beans, soybeans and/or corn

·         Instinct NXTGEN® – Nitrogen stabilizer for urea applications

·         N-Serve® - Nitrogen stabilizer for NH3 applications

·         Transform® WG – insecticide for soybean aphid control

·         Cobalt® Advanced – insecticide pre-mix of chlorpyrifos (Lorsban®) and lambda-cyhalothrin (Warrior®).  Excellent on cutworms, grasshoppers, and Armyworms.

·         For the potato grower - Blackhawk®, Delegate® WG, and Radiant® SC insecticides all have Colorado potato beetle on the label.

Please keep Corteva™ crop-protection and these products in mind as you’re solidifying your crop protection plans for the season.  Myself and our Corteva™ territory representatives are always willing to engage and help you manage some your crop protection inputs and place a plan around pest resistance management.

LumiGEN® Seed Treatment

LumiGEN® is the brand name of Corteva’s™ seed treatment business platform.  As you’ve seen many times, any company can pump-up their marketing campaign and tout their product as best in the business.  However, at the end of the day, it’s performance that counts. 

As you can see in the below illustration, Lumisena™ has become the new industry leading soybean fungicide to target phytopthera root-rot.  Metalaxyl was the industry standard against the pest over the past several decades.  The average yield enhancement of Lumisena™ is 3-5 bu/ac in high disease pressure environments.  With the wet spring conditions our region normally experiences most years, I would estimate we are consistently driving at least this much of a yield difference with Lumisena™ seed treatment.  Of course every year is different, but over the long-haul, the wet spring environmental conditions in eastern N.Dakota and northwestern Minnesota will provide great opportunities for phytophthora to flourish.  Consequently, a product like Lumisena™ will demonstrate a solid return.  Please ask your Pioneer sales agent about Lumisena seed treatment.

Fertility Management

Last week, I provided some groundwork for moving away from broadcast fertilizer applications and exploring the more efficient practices of banding fertilizer.  The chart below further illustrates how effective fertilizer placement can lead to more efficient use by the corn plant.  Whether placement would be pop-up, 2x2, side-dress, Y-drop (shown as a surface dribble band), or pre-plant strip-till deep placement, a person can visualize how these bands can be readily available by the plant’s roots at critical times during the growing season.

Anytime you can make it easier for the plant to access nutrients and place the nutrients in a heavy concentration that is readily plant available, it will be a win at increasing fertilizer uptake by the plant and ultimately driving yield potential.

If you are looking for some of the latest research on fertility of high yield crops, this Crop Insights article from Pioneer agronomy dives into the topic.  If you have been conducting (or would like to start) tissue analysis on your corn and/or soybean plants, read here for new sufficiency range data for tissue test analysis: https://corteva.showpad.com/share/756fVF2YM5WnxX5BpndLM

 

Sunflower and Canola Markets

I’ve heard from at least a couple of you, that very nice returns can be locked-in with crop insurance for canola in the 2021 season.  Below is a snapshot of the current prices at Cargill in West Fargo.  The sunflower pricing has option of Act of God (AOG), but the canola is cash bids only.  Yep, they are inverted markets just like the other commodities, but often inverted markets can lead to some quality marketing planning strategy discussions for your operation.

Product Spotlight: P009T18E

Moving on to soybeans for our “Product Spotlight” section, we’ll start off with P009T18E.  It’ll be Pioneer’s earliest Enlist-3® offering with tolerance to 2,4-D choline, glyphosate and Liberty® herbicides.  This variety will rate only average for iron deficiency chlorosis (IDC) and below average for white mold.  However, with the average plant height and canopy scores, the potential for white mold to develop is lower.  The phytophthora root-rot scores are average, but with the addition of Lumisena™ fungicide seed treatment from the Pioneer sales agency, we should see above average protection.

For a quick review, Pioneer rates their products on a 1-9 scale with 9 being the best/strongest/tallest.  Average characteristic performance scores are typically 4’s and 5’s; below average is 3, and above average strength would rate 6 to 7.  It is fairly rare to see an advanced product with a trait score of 8, but it does happen.  Most all products that would rate below a 3 on any given single agronomic score would not make it through the process to become a commercially available product.

There are still some units available of this soybean variety and other new Enlist® soybean genetics.  Please reach-out to myself and/or your local Pioneer agent if you’d be interested in trying a field or two.

Random Agricultural Facts – Daylight Savings Time History

Over the weekend, we had the first official day of spring.  Here are some interesting facts and figures around the spring equinox:

·         Although we designate an entire day for the equinox, the instance will occur at the exact same moment of time for every location on earth.  For a spring equinox, it will be the moment the sun crosses the celestial equator – the imaginary line above the equator – from south to north

·         For March 2021, the autumn equinox moment did occur at 4:37am CDT on Saturday, March 20th

·         The exact date and time of the equinox will vary from year to year since the earth’s yearly orbit is not complete in a whole number of days, but rather in a fraction of whole days (365.35).  The spring equinox will occur between March 19^th and 21^st depending on the various time zones across the planet.

·         A March 19^th equinox can be rare for North America.  The last equinox on March 19^th (central time zone) occurred in 2020, but before that it was 2016 and then 1896

·         The word “equinox” comes from Latin’s “aequus” and “nox”, meaning equal and night respectively.  However, because of our definition of sunrise/sunset, and the earth’s atmosphere refracting the sun, 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 Earth does not move at a constant speed in its elliptical orbit, due to its distance away from the sun and resulting gravitational forces.  Currently, in the winter, the earth is closest to the sun and therefore gains gravitational forces and moves faster in its 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 inconsistent speed of the elliptical orbit also creates variability around the amount of daily daylight loss or gain throughout the seasons

·         The amount of tilt in the earth’s axis obviously does not alter over the course of the year, however the relation of the earth’s tilt to the sun does alter on a daily basis.  The seasons change because of this changing position in regard to the sun (see illustration).  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 at its maximum distance either away from the sun or towards the sun (June and December).

https://www.farmersalmanac.com/spring-equinox-first-day-spring https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/seasons.html

March 15, 2021 Edition

 

“Now, what problems are we having on offense?” - John Gigliardi head football coach at halftime with his team up 35-0

 

Despite any given situation, there is always room for improvement.  Sometimes the situation may look so bleak that improvement is the only option going forward (commodity markets in July of 2020).  However, there are situations where things are going well and most would just hope to maintain the momentum.  Usually, it takes a unique individual to take a good situation and continue to find ways to push forward to make it even better.

Coach Gigliardi (pronounced Gil-ardi) was one of those folks and a big reason why he is the winningest football coach in college history (486 career wins).  You most likely have never heard of the guy as he coached at the Div. III institution of St. John’s University in central Minnesota.  Regardless of his team’s position during a game, season, or off-season, John didn’t let-up on his focus to keep the program’s football team at a consistent high level as well as provide the student athlete a rewarding college experience. 

Many large farms have been highly successful over the past half-dozen seasons despite the depressed farm economy – they just have a knack at finding ways to succeed no matter the circumstances.  Now that the agriculture landscape is changing again, new challenges will arise and I’m sure many of you will continue to find ways to challenge your teams and maintain your status as top farm operations in the region.  Good luck!

If you’d like to read more on coach John Gigliardi, check out Boz Bostrom’s book on John’s life, “Legacy Unrivaled”:  https://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Unrivaled-Story-John-Gagliardi/dp/168134016X

Regional Weather

The above average conditions are forecasted to continue again for the week, and we’ll even have some mornings without freezing.  It’s starting to be very difficult to even find snow in the tree rows!  Our next chance of significant precipitation looks to be forming for the first part of next week. 

Well, I couldn’t even get out a soil temp chart for the region before a couple farm operations found a chance to sow a quarter or two of spring wheat.  It’s not very often we get the chance to place some seed in the ground before May (let alone before April), but taking a roll of the dice doesn’t intimidate too many large successful farm managers.

This soil temperature chart (^oFahrenheit) comes from NDAWN at 9 am Monday, March 15^th.  As you can see, most locations are bordering on the frost/freeze point in the top 1-2 foot of soil depth.  There is some slightly warmer soil much deeper.  Fargo, Logan Center, Carrington, Maddock, and Williston all have soil temperatures above 32.0F at all depths – some locations, like Logan Center, just barely make the cut.

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 fourth full week of March, the forecast is towards significantly warmer than average potential for temperatures.  Regarding the precipitation chances, they remain below average for central and western North Dakota, and above average for northwestern Minnesota.

The NOAA organization also provides three month outlooks.  If we would like to get a general forecast for the key months to start the upcoming growing season (May-June-July), it can be seen here:

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov.../long_range/seasonal.php?lead=3

This forecast currently predicts significantly above average chances on the temperature potential, along with equal chances for precipitation in northwestern Minnesota.  For most of North Dakota, the precipitation chances trend towards drier than average.  It continues to be a developing situation that points our thoughts and actions towards conserving soil moisture.

Pre-emerge Herbicide Concerns in a Dry Spring

I’ve fielded a few questions over the last couple weeks on pre-emerge herbicide use during a dry spring.  The farmer concerns are around the herbicide potentially volatilizing into the atmosphere or not providing much control if it has sit on the soil surface for numerous days to a couple weeks without a 0.5” to 1” rain for thorough incorporation.

Fortunately, most herbicides break-down by microbial activity and/or complex chemical reactions in moist soil (hydrolysis).  Therefore, these herbicides will remain stable on the soil surface in concentration for prolonged periods.  Yes, not all herbicides fall into this category and a couple do break down by sunlight and UV wavelengths. However, we typically apply these herbicides with immediate soil incorporation – Eptam® and Far-go® primarily come to mind.  The yellow herbicides of Sonalan®, Prowl®, and Treflan® also degrade by UV light and work best with soil incorporation.  Metolachlor (Dual®/EverpreX®) has recently been found to have some breakdown by sunlight as well – however, other similar herbicides in this class of chemistry are not affected.

Unfortunately, if conditions do remain dry and only minimal small rains of say 0.15” or less do occur, then usually the herbicide does not become fully activated.  However, the weeds have enough moisture to germinate and become established.  The good news is that unless the weeds get large (over ½” to ¾” tall) most good pre-herbicides will “reach-back” to provide control once that incorporating rain is received (Valor™, Zidua™, Sharpen, and sulfentrazone products).  Once the incorporating rain is received, a good activation period will ensue to prevent new weed seedlings from emerging.

https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/.../fate-of-soil-applied-herbicides-05-26-16

A 2016/’17 study by NDSU found that when incorporating rain was delayed 7 days after per-herbicide application, the pre-herbicide products of Fierce® (flumioxazin (Valor®) + pyroxasulfone (Zidua®)) and Spartan® (sulfrentrazone) maintained very strong weed kill performance.  Meanwhile, metribuzin (Sencor®) did degrade slightly in performance with a 7 day wait for incorporation.  Unfortunately, these were the only three herbicides tested in the trial.

https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/drought/crops/soybean-pre-herbicide-activation

Corn Herbicide Options from Corteva™

Having an early weed control mindset for our crops this season should help maintain a jump on the weeds and conserve moisture.  It seems like the weeds always seem tougher to kill post-emerge under dry conditions when they get some size.  In the corn, more and more operations are finding the early V-1 to V-3 crop growth stage is about perfect for applying a robust herbicide mix to control emerged weeds as well as adding some residual control.  For Corteva™ based options in our region, a couple ideas come to mind.

·       

  Keystone LA® NXT + WideMatch® – this herbicide mix is gaining popularity has it has minimal crop rotation restrictions.  Actechlor, atrazine, copyralid (Stinger®) and fluroxypyr (Starane®) are all in this mix.  If you add some glyphosate we’ll have at least a couple active ingredients targeting most weed species.  At an application rate for Keystone of 1.8 qts/ac, it equates to only 3/8 lb. of atrazine, providing adequate crop rotation flexibility.  Keystone label: https://...agrian-cg-fs1-production/pdfs/Keystone_LA_NXT1d_Label.pdf

·        

Resicore® - this product fits more of our corn-soybean-wheat farm operations, but is a robust pre-mix that does an outstanding job of  controlling all of our tough broadleaf weeds plus provide that critical residual control.  Resicore® contains acetochlor, mesiotrione, and copyralid.  Add some glyphosate and atrazine, and you have another great tank-mix combination of at least two to three active ingredients working together to control most weed species.  It’s the mesiotrione that gives us a crop rotation restriction of 18 months to sugarbeets, potatoes and dry edible beans.  Check the atrazine load as well.  Resicore® label: https://...agrian-cg-fs1-production/pdfs/Resicore1u_Label.pdf

·         Resolve Q® - If you are unwilling to apply HPPD inhibitors (like mesiotrione (Calisto®)) you most likely will struggle to control volunteer canola in your corn crop.  Therefore, Resolve Q® is a fantastic option to add to your tank-mix in the post-emerge application.  Resolve Q® has a 20” or seven collar crop growth stage application restriction, but works best on volunteer canola less than 4-5” in height.  Resolve Q is a pre-mix of rimsulfuron (Basis®) and thifensulfuron (a component of Affinity®).  https://...agrian-cg-fs1-production/pdfs/...Resolve_Q_Label.pdf

Corn Fertility Management

Even though you may be hitting strong yield levels in your corn production, is there room for improvement?  Earlier this winter, I had the pleasure of listening to one of our Pioneer managers down in the Texas panhandle (high dessert plains region) assisting his growers with top production practices.  If you’ve never experienced the area, they are significant into irrigated corn and alfalfa to support the large cattle feedlot operations in the region.  The elevation is 5-6000 feet in general with only about 10” of average annual precipitation.  Soils are fairly sandy with very low water holding capacity, thus the need to irrigate over 20” per summer for 98-107 RM corn hybrids.

Anyway, a few things from his presentation really stuck with me and some ideas we may look to implement in the Northern Plains.  First, was the emphasis on getting away from broadcast spreading dry fertilizer.  With our region’s high clay content and high pH soils (above 7.8 in many areas), having our fertilizer become plant available can be a challenge.  The primary method to over-come the obstacle is the banding of fertilizer in the fall or pre-plant in the spring.  This doesn’t have to be too complex with special equipment – no reason the air-seeder couldn’t perform some fertilizer only applications in the autumn.

If we evaluate an acre-furrow-slice (AFS) – that is a slice of soil covering one acre to a depth of 6” – it will generally weigh around 2.0 mil pounds.  A broadcast application of a dry blend (N-P-K-S-Zn) at 400 lbs/ac which is incorporated to a depth of 3”, results somewhere in the realm of 100 to 200 ppm concentration of fertilizer in the top half of the AFS.  On the flip side, banding can create zones of fertilizer concentration significantly much larger and thus less available for soil tie-up, making more fertilizer obtainable for plant uptake.

Second, was to implement more than one pass of fertility application in the corn crop.  As you know, corn is a very full season crop with a large nitrogen demand.  However, what you may not realize is how late in the season the plant needs a good portion of that nitrogen.  It is estimated that today’s corn hybrids need about 40% of their nitrogen requirement after the tassel growth stage.  So, for the end of July through the month of August in a 180 bu/ac corn crop in our region, the crop will require about 65-75 lbs/ac nitrogen in that time span alone. 

Another benefit from an in-season application would be to gain on the nitrogen use efficiency.  Often, the combination of banding fertilizer applications – pre-plant along with starter fertilizer use and at least one application side-dress, the nitrogen efficiency can be improved to 0.8 to 0.9 lbs N/bu corn produced.  If only a pre-plant broadcast application is applied, the recommendation moves to 1.2 to 1.3 lbs N/bu of Yield Goal.  I know our soils can hold more moisture and thus more nitrogen than the dessert high plains region, but I would bet we could improve both yields and nitrogen use efficiency in our region if we invested in a method to apply nitrogen to our corn crop at least once during the season and in combination with banding other fertilizer applications.

With better late season fertility, most operations are also able to maintain better late season plant health and standability.  Many folks look for plant health benefits from late season fungicides/ insecticides, but we shouldn’t forget about the nutrition aspect as well.  My guess would be the fertilizer probably has more of an impact on the overall impact of corn yield production and standability for our region than mid-season pesticide application.  Typically, we have very low presence (most years) of late season disease and insect pressure.

At the end of the day, nitrogen is just one component of the season’s corn fertility needs.  Don’t forget about the other elements like sulfur – typical corn production in our area needs 12-20 lbs/ac sulfur.

 

Product Spotlight: Instinct® NXTGEN

To continue with the topic of fertilizer management, not all farm operations have the time, manpower, and/or capital to apply nitrogen in two or more different applications to the crop.  Therefore, maybe there is an alternative solution to where we can improve our efficiency with our nitrogen dollars and still obtain top production goals.

Optinyte™ technology (nitrapyrin) has been around since the 1960’s, and there is plenty of university data out there to support the product and confirm that it performs as stated.  However, there has always been issues around the formulation and mixing thoroughly with the nitrogen source for it to gain significant traction.  Many manufacturers have tried to take the off-patent product and bring it to market, but they have also experienced valid concerns with the products ability to mix.  Anyway, Corteva has a new formulation out with Instinct® NXTGEN to use with urea and the product has dramatically improved the flowability and mixing for fertilizer retailers as well as in on-farm application systems.

In corn, split applications of nitrogen most often reveal a positive response and are viewed as an “ideal” nitrogen management program as a corn producer can modify the plan as needed on the fly.  If the spring has been wet and thus the potential high for nitrogen leaching or denitrification, then we may want to add more nitrogen than originally planned.  Conversely, if a fairly dry spring and the outlook for below average yields, then we may adjust downward on the nitrogen rate. 

In more heavy clay loam soils, our nitrogen applications are more protected from leaching due to the clay slowing the water infiltration movement through the soil profile.  However, under very wet saturated conditions nitrogen loss occurs to denitrification.  Optinyte® technology keeps the nitrogen stable under both leaching and denitrification scenarios.

If you have history of detecting nitrogen deficiency late season in corn, or you find yourself significantly above 1.1 lb of nitrogen planned per bushel of crop production goal, then nitrogen inhibitors should be considered and tested on the farm.

https://...agrian-cg-fs1-production/pdfs/Instinct_II_Label1i.pdf

NDSU has a nice publication on the topic from 2017 with a comprehensive evaluation of current products on the market.  https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/publications/crops/nitrogen-extenders-and-additives-for-field-crops

Product Spotlight (2): P9193AM

The last product in our series of new Pioneer corn genetics for the spring in our region is P9193AM.  It’s another strong agronomic hybrid with above average trait characteristic scores for drought, stress emergence, brittle-snap, late season standability, and Goss’s Wilt.  It’s medium for plant height at 91 RM (relative maturity).  Yield potential is solid as our IMPACT data reveals a bit more horsepower than other industry hybrids in the 90 RM zone – including P9188AM.  If this P9193AM can demonstrate as much consistency as P9188AM, we’ll have another strong hybrid in the 90 RM segment.

For a quick review, Pioneer rates their products on a 1-9 scale with 9 being the best/strongest/tallest.  Average characteristic performance scores are typically 4’s and 5’s; below average is 3, and above average strength would rate 6 to 7.  It is fairly rare to see an advanced product with a trait score of 8, but it does happen.  Most all products that would rate below a 3 on any given single agronomic score would not make it through the process to become a commercially available product.

There are enough units of this hybrid to be included in Pioneer’s PKP strip trial plots for the upcoming season, plus have some additional supply for large side-x-side comparisons against competitive hybrids.  If you’d be interested in having a strip trial or comparison trail on your farm, please reach-out to myself and/or your local Pioneer agent and we’ll put a plan in place.

 

Random Agricultural Facts – Daylight Savings Time History

Most all states in the US implement Daylight Saving Time (DST), but can you name the two that don’t?   If Hawaii was the first state that came to mind that would be correct as they are our country’s southernmost state and therefore daily sunlight hours do not vary as much throughout the year compared to locations with more northern latitudes.  Arizona (most locations) would be the other state as they feel an energy savings is more consistent during the spring and summer months without the added extra hour of evening daylight.  The fact of cooler temps earlier in the evening and throughout a longer stretch of the nighttime sleep hours should justify the state legislature’s actions.

Most of the US territories also do not observe DST: Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, US Virgin Islands, and the Northern Marina Islands – also due to their daylight hours being fairly consistent over the course of a 12-month period.  Any potential advantages of DST in these locations would be very minimal.  With today’s amenities imbedded in our culture, one would think DST’s impact in saving energy is fairly minimal.

Across the globe, DST is primarily implemented in North American and Europe.  It’s interesting to note that countries such as Iceland, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Russia no longer implement DST, despite their northern latitudinal location.

https://www.timeanddate.com/time/change/usa https://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/statistics.html