Don’t wrong your crop — focus on the details
Every spring, without fail, there is a handful of sins Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie addresses on service calls. The good news is it’s possible to identify the cause of those sins, seek forgiveness and change for the sake of a vertical root system so water can move up and down. Consider these tips.
Cold Soil Sins
Seed Chilling: According to Ferrie, seed chilling can take out ear count, as much as 10% to 15%, so you have to decide if that’s a gamble you want to take. A seed will swell at 40° F but not with the same elasticity as 50° F or warmer and it shreds cells inside, Ferrie says. Remember — it’s the first 48 hours that matter. ”Even if the weather is supposed to warm up in a few days, if you stick corn in the ground and the first 48 hours are cold, it’s subject to seed chilling,” he adds. ”You’ll never see that 10% hit from the road, but you will if you stretch a tape for ear counts and projected counts.”
Seed Orientation: When a seed is planted spike down, it has to make that turn to head to the surface. In warm soils that takes 24 to 48 hours. “In cold soils, a spike down plant can be 15 days behind a neighbor that was spike up,” Ferrie says. ”When a plant breaks the surface and gets the spike out, it’s participating in photosynthesis, so it gets more GDUs per day than one that’s behind.”
Seed Quality: Saturated cold scores are an indicator of how well seed can handle cold soils. If a seed has cracks in the pericarp, it will imbibe water faster, and if that water is cold, you‘ll see more seed chilling, Ferrie says. How is your supplier handling seed? What’s the cold germ? Is there pericarp damage?
Wet Soil Sins
Horizontal Tillage: Around 90% of the compaction sins Ferrie sees happen with the first pass in the spring – particularly not paying attention to the moisture level at the tillage depth.
The shallower the layer, the more problems it will cause. Roots can’t penetrate, and the layer creates a shelf to hold up water and herbicide. As the herbicide moves down the root system is caught, and it’s hard for the plant to get away from that herbicide barrier. The metabolism of that herbicide tends to then start taking its toll on that crop.
Wheel Track Compaction: “The deeper the tillage and the softer the ground, the more you need to pay attention to how much weight is on the tractor,” Ferrie says. ”The tracks can impact emergence.”
Wheel tracks from various trips across the field can impact the future seedbed. If you plant 2" deep but the wheel tracks are 3" deep that will create a seedbed issue, Ferrie says.
Dry Soil Sins
Spring Strip Till: If you’re strip tilling in spring with a knife applicator, you’re counting on enough rain to settle the strip. If a big rain follows planting, it might make the corn deeper than you want, Ferrie warns. You might get by with this in sandier soils, but it’s best to avoid.
If it doesn’t rain after you pull your spring strip, you’ll be out of moisture by planting. In that case, Ferrie says you’ll have to move off the strip to try to find moisture or wait for it to rain.
Planter Pass Too Far Behind the Field Cultivator: It’s a must to fit a field in a matter of hours after the chiseling pass, Ferrie says. You should be able to drop a clump of soil and it shatter into pieces; if the clod doesn’t shatter you waited too long. You’re going to have to live with those clods through planting and they might tie up herbicide.
Identify and Fix
Take time for field diagnostics. Most sins aren’t visible from the road. Get in the field to pinpoint the sin and make a plan to fix it.
Dig below ground. The roots will tell you where the sin occurred, how serious it’s going to be and how challenging it will be to address.
Look at planter data. You’ll see when and how the sin took place — and since nobody bothered to fix it, you’ll know why the crop is paying the price.
Join Ken Ferrie and Farm Journal’s Clinton Griffiths as they further explore the sins of spring. Learn more at FarmJournalFieldDays.com
