“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.
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
19th and 21st depending on the various time zones across
the planet.
·
A March 19th equinox can be rare for
North America. The last equinox on March
19th (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
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