Ken Ferrie: The Sweet Spot for Planting Corn is Here

Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist
Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist
(Lindsey Pound)

Those of you who in Illinois who have been waiting for the sweet spot to plant your corn, the time is here, says Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist.

“Let the big dogs run and keep the planters running until we're finished. With temperatures in the mid- to upper 70s, this corn will fly out of the ground,” says Ferrie, who is based near Bloomington, Ill.

Plant Seed Into Moisture
Ferrie says farmers need to save every ounce of water they can to get their corn crop germinated. 

Don't plant seed in dry soil, hoping or praying you're going to ‘rain it up.’ For you guys running horizontal tillage keep that planter right on the tail of that soil finisher,” he advises. “With these low humidities, high temperatures and wind, which seems like every day, the little moisture you'll have will be gone fast.

“With the vertical tillage guys, if you feel you must run to level up some fall tillage, keep it shallow as possible and run with little or no gang angle,” he recommends.

For farmers running vertical tillage on bean stubble, who use it to crack the surface to help dry things out and warm the soil up, that's not needed. 

“This soil will no-till like a dream. Park the harrows and no-till into that bean stubble,” Ferrie says.

For farmers who are using a harrow to incorporate surface nitrogen, he says to save the moisture and buy a urease inhibitor and no-till the field. 

You can listen to Ferrie’s complete Boots In The Field report here:  

Preserve Moisture In The Field
Ferrie says he is getting calls from farmers running high-speed disks that their moisture is gone, and they're trying to figure out what to do now. 

“Guys, these tools are (doing) shallow horizontal tillage. And when we run them on our bean stubble -- while we're fluffing up the top 2 inches of soil -- we're turning it into sugar and laying the soil back down on a 2-inch deep horizontal layer that looks like a garden to plant into. It's giving up whatever soil moisture we need for germination in a matter of hours and is setting you up for both blowing – if it doesn't rain – and crusting if it does.

"As fine and black as these high-speed disk fields look, man, you'd think we're back to the moldboard plow and the disk days," he adds. "We need to plant this corn into moisture. So, planting crews watch your smart firmers as you cross the field to make sure you're in moisture at each of those soil types as you cross them." 

The only way to know whether you’re planting into moisture is to stop and dig behind the planter. Ferrie says to do that multiple times in each field.

“Everyone, stop and dig multiple times a day to ground truth that you are staying in the moisture,” he implores. “The trick is to get into moisture and then to hold onto that moisture."

Consider Your Planter Closing System

Ferrie explains that your planter closing system has two things it needs to do: It needs to close the furrow from the bottom up, and it needs to firm the soil over the top of that seed so that moisture doesn't get away, especially in years like this.

Ferrie says spike wheels struggle with the firming part. “In these dry conditions, go back to the solid wheels if you still have them, especially in tilled fields,” he advises. “Make sure the depth wheels stay snug against the disk opener and don't allow dry surface soil to fall into that trench and get onto the seed before we close it.”

In tilled soils, Ferrie says you may have to increase your downforce on your depth wheels to hold a true V, which can help prevent surface soil from falling in on the seed.

“We need to be at 100% contact but we've got to make sure that we're not sloughing dry soil into the trench,” he says. “You may have to go up on your margin -- up on your down pressure.”

Consider Shutting Off In-Furrow Starter
If you’re concerned about not having enough moisture in tilled ground to get corn germinated, Ferrie says his recommendation is shut off your in-furrow starter. 

“Salt-burn calls go up in dry planting conditions. If you're running the furrow jet, my recommendation is to shut off the in-furrow portion of that, and take the starter to the wings,” he says.

“In the vertical tillage no-till fields, it looks like we still have plenty of water and I don't think you're going to have an issue there,” he adds. “If the water is gone down to planting depth, you have to wait for the rain and then chase it with the planter, or use your row cleaners and push the dry soil out of the way to try and get to the moisture.”

Ferrie says both approaches have drawbacks. “You have to consider how long you’ll have to wait for the next significant rain. Second, if it does rain too hard, the soil could wash back in on top of the seed making it too deep. 

“But these are still better options than planting in the dust and hoping for the rain,” he adds. “And if it does wash the soil in on top of your seed at least you’ll have moisture this time for the replant.”

Are You Prepared For Insect Pressure?

Ferrie says cutworm and armyworm traps continue to catch high numbers. He says a significant insect problem is brewing in central Illinois fields.

“We have a lot of corn out there that's not protected anymore with an insecticide. A number of you guys are planting conventional and Double Pro hybrids that don't have cutworm protection,” he says.
 
Weedy fields and no-till fields are at a high risk. Cover crop fields will be at the highest risk for both cutworm and true armyworm. 

"If you're planting into the cover crops, and your hybrids are not set up to protect you from cutworm you may want to add an insecticide to the planter or add one to your burndown,” he advises. 

“Cutworm are easy to kill if we can catch them before they do too much damage," he adds. "The armyworm will be the biggest threat in wheat fields and in corn planted into covers. I don't want anyone surprised when feeding starts here in about three to four weeks.”

Read more here:

4 Fixes When Your Planter Isn’t Running Quite Right

Do You Plant Corn or Soybeans First?

 Black Cutworm is Moving into the Midwest, Be on the Lookout

The Great Debate: What's the Ideal Row Spacing for Planting Soybeans?

Is A Double Whammy of True Armyworm Underway?

Want more agronomic insights from Ken? The following video shows you the effects of running a vertical tillage tool versus a vertical harrow in dry conditions in central Illinois.

 

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