While dry field conditions are helping central Illinois farmers with harvest, they are also concerning, according to Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist.
He says the most immediate challenge is for those farmers who want to make fall anhydrous ammonia applications.
“When the soil temperature drops, without moisture available, fall applications of anhydrous are going to be about impossible to get sealed,” he explains.
Soil moisture is needed to temporarily hold the ammonia so it can become attached to clay or organic matter in the soil, according to Iowa State University Extension. If dry soils are cloddy and do not seal properly, the ammonia can be lost at injection, or seep through the large pores between clods after application.
Ferrie has three additional concerns about the current dry conditions.
1. If they persist, corn crops still in the field can be at risk from fire.
2. Soils in production fields need their water reserves replenished before freeze up so the moisture will be available for corn and soybean seed next spring.
3. Tough broadleaf weeds, such as waterhemp, are in the process of adding to the seed bank in fields.
“These fields will take three years of staying on top of that waterhemp to get them back to where they were before this year,” Ferrie says. “So scouts keep pictures and scouting reports of these fields to remind everybody this is going to be a three-year project.”
Silver Linings For Fieldwork
On the plus side, Ferrie says dry conditions in central Illinois are allowing strip-till farmers to build good strips. He reiterates, though, that growers building strips now for next spring will need to potentially bypass some anhydrous applications.
“Give it a thought on some acres, though, so you don’t miss the window to get good strips on all your acres,” he says.
Farmers using vertical tillage are also benefiting from the dry conditions. “One of the big pluses is we get good shatter from fall tillage,” Ferrie says. “For the vertical tillage guys, this means you won’t have to go as deep to achieve full shatter. But be sure to check behind equipment to confirm you’re getting full shatter.”
Frost Impact Is Showing Up
Ferrie says the frost that hit fields in his area on the night/morning of September 28-29 had more impact than he initially thought, especially north of Highway 36.
“In double-crop soybeans it’s going to ding the yields a little, and with some of the corn that was still green and not quite finished putting in black layer, especially in those hybrids that gain a lot of their yield in kernel depth,” he says.
“I am surprised to how much damage we have for no colder than it got for such a short amount of time and assume it had to do with low humidity, low dewpoint, wind speed or all of the above,” he adds.
For Ferrie’s complete report on harvest and agronomic conditions, check out the Boots In The Field podcast filed on Monday:
