#Plant2026 for Success
You’ve weighed the agronomics and the economics — and now the planter is rolling. The decisions don’t stop, though. The weather changes plans, equipment breaks and pests pop up. Every step plays a role in the success of your planting season as well as the growing and harvest seasons to come.
Drought continues to tighten its grip across the Plains, forcing farmers in West Texas to make some very difficult decisions this growing season. It’s also causing concerns about crumbling cotton infrastructure.
It’s been a wet spring for many parts of the Corn Belt, and John Phipps says one of the advantages of his advancing age is the ability to start worrying earlier.
With the impending snowstorm in the upper Midwest and Northern Plains, it may seem like the 2023 planting season will be off to a slow start. However, in states like Illinois and Missouri, planting has already started.
Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie says there’s a lot of value in the concept of “start clean and stay clean” for full-season weed control. He shares some advice as farmers prepare for planting this year.
Two to three feet of snow is forecast to fall over parts of the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest this week. Some market watchers are beginning to question if 92 million acres of corn can actually get planted this year.
More ears at harvest is the key to higher yield. That requires starting with a picket-fence stand with photocopied plants, achieved by adjusting your planter as conditions change from field to field and within fields.
Just ahead of USDA’s Prospective Plantings report, the largest cotton growing state in the U.S. is seeing another year of drought, and with fields resembling the Dust Bowl, crop prospects are dwindling by the day.
Kevin McNew says the company’s survey of 2,000-plus growers shows they will plant 92.5 million acres of corn and 84.5 million acres of soybeans. Both estimates are counter to what USDA projected in February.
Farmers around the Corn Belt are anticipating a big year for corn, especially with improving soil moisture in corn-deficit areas where cash prices have remained strong.
Wet weather in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest is sparking conversations about a growing number of prevent plant acres this year. Is it too early to start conversations about the possibility of prevent plant?