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Farmers Emphasize Demand, Not Payments, Is The ‘Bridge To Better Times' For Agriculture

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 22:25:36 GMT

Two Midwest farmers are pinning their hopes for the future on stronger demand for corn and soybeans — especially the latter — as they navigate tight margins, high input costs, and an uncertain price outlook.

Northern Illinois farmer Steve Pitstick and south-central Iowa farmer Dennis Bogaards say they have exhausted most cost-cutting options for this season. They believe future profitability now rests on whether demand for both crops — particularly from domestic soybean crush and fuel markets — expands enough to support higher prices.

One silver lining currently, Pitstick says, is his relatively strong position on fertilizer heading into the 2026 planting season.

“We will do pretty much the dry spread program we always do,” he says. “We cut the rates a little bit on the phosphates just because of price. We booked our 32% in September, something we traditionally do. We have all the nitrogen bought, so I feel good about 2026 from that aspect.”

While he believes additional fertilizer is available, he notes it will likely be priced at a premium.

“I believe I can get more if I need it. I may not like the price, but I can get more,” he told AgriTalk Host Chip Flory during the weekly Farmer Forum segment.

Little To No Expansion On The Horizon

As the season begins, both farmers emphasize that the coming years will have farmers focusing on survival and strategic adjustments rather than acreage expansion.

One adjustment Bogaards is making is front-loading some of his nitrogen needs this season while leaving a portion open in case prices break.

“We booked anhydrous early on for this year, back in early fall, and got an OK price,” Bogaards says. “I have a little bit of sidedress that we do. We book about half of that, and I sit open on the rest of it. I’ll wait and see where it goes.”

Bogaards remains committed to sidedressing as long as product is available and prices do not continue ratcheting up. “If I can get it, I’ll put it on, unless it is a crazy, crazy price,” he says.

Like many U.S. growers, both Bogaards and Pitstick say there is virtually no room left to cut fertilizer use without risking yields.

“There is no place to cut back. We are being as efficient as we can be,” Pitstick says.

Bogaards agrees, noting that nitrogen is not the place to skimp. “Maybe a year or so, you can cut back on the P and K a little bit, but you do not want to get caught in three or four years of that.”

He also remains reluctant to drop fungicides. “Fungicides really pay off,” he says. “In the past, we did not use them, but the last few years they really paid, and I would hate to not spray them.”

Uncertainty About The 2027 Crop Mix

While the 2026 crop is largely “business as usual,” both farmers told Flory that 2027 brings real uncertainty—especially regarding nitrogen supplies. Pitstick is concerned about how global demand could impact costs for U.S. producers.

“I am worried about the price of the nitrogen,” he says. “It may not be an issue in the United States from a supply standpoint, but the rest of the world… could export our product because of opportunity cost, and that drives the price up. It is a total wait and see.”

Flory underscored how global trade flows directly shape what American farmers pay, noting that some fertilizer shipments originally destined for the U.S. were recently rerouted.

“Some boats are diverted from the U.S. to other countries,” Flory says. “If you want your share, you have to beat the next guy in line with the price.”

If nitrogen prices soar while corn prices stagnate, Pitstick says his rotation could shift. “That might change how we do things in 2027. We may have to go to more soybeans,” he says.

Bogaards also expects to alter his corn–soybean mix, given the potential demand from domestic crush and renewable fuels.

“In the past, we were probably 60% to 65% corn,” he says. “We have been backing off of that. I still do a little bit of corn-on-corn, but I might try to go to a 50–50 rotation.”

Flory believes this shift could help rebalance supplies and improve price prospects. “If we can pull some acres away from corn and get this thing rebalanced, maybe that is our bridge to a better time,” Flory says. “Our bridge to a better time is more demand across the board and crops competing for acres — not another payment.”

Bogaards says the shifting economics are already evident. “A couple of years ago, people said soybeans are a drag on our financial statements. It looks like almost the opposite right now.”

Even so, Bogaards is cautious about making long-term decisions based on short-term signals. “I can change acres right now, but by next fall, it might be the worst decision. I think you have to go with your rotation and stick with it.”

Pitstick links his long-term outlook to fuel sector growth, noting that both corn and soybeans increasingly function as energy crops.

“Some of the most profitable years of my career were when we had high fuel prices because we were also a fuel crop,” he says. “I have some optimism that these high fuel prices will cause some demand and increase our crop prices.”

For now, both farmers say their immediate job is to manage through 2026 while keeping their options open. With high costs for fertilizer, fuel, and machinery, they see expanded demand as the only realistic path forward.

“It is just survival at this point,” Bogaards says. “We just have to make sure we can survive and keep plugging through it.”

You can listen to the complete discussion between Bogaards, Pitstick and Flory on AgriTalk at the link below:

Fall NH3 Emphasis Set the Stage For Ugly Corn Syndrome

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 17:00:32 GMT

Farmers who leaned hard on anhydrous ammonia last fall could be in for an unwelcome surprise this spring. Despite having enough N on the books, many fields of corn across the Midwest are likely to struggle soon after planting—thanks not to how much nitrogen was applied, but where it is located now in soils.

Ken Ferrie says the current situation came about as a result of prices and product choices that drove many growers to change their N programs last fall.

“Due to price, some guys cut out or pulled back on their MAP and DAP and AMS,” says Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist. “Many farmers put on their N—all their N—as anhydrous ammonia last fall due to that price difference between liquid and smoke.”

Those choices made financial sense at the time, but they also resulted in more nitrogen being placed deeper in the soil as NH₃ — away from where young corn plants can access it this spring.

“If we dropped the dry last fall and put all of our N needs on as anhydrous ammonia, we have nothing to fight the carbon penalty stage,” Ferrie says. “The NH₃band is too deep. It’s below where the ‘fence post rots off.’ Corn roots will have to grow to it to pick it up.”

That creates a Catch-22 situation.

“The challenge is, roots will need to grow to find the nitrogen, but the carbon penalty will have them stalled out,” Ferrie explains.

Ferrie shares the example of one grower he works with who normally applies 220 pounds of nitrogen per acre, split between dry fertilizer and anhydrous. This year, that grower dropped the dry program and instead applied 250 pounds of nitrogen as fall anhydrous.

“His question: Will he still need to worry about the carbon penalty with the extra 30 pounds of nitrogen he has on? The answer is, yes. His corn will stall out for a period this spring,” Ferrie says.

How Big Is the Yield Risk?

In Ferrie’s field research, the yield impact from corn crops stalling out early in the season is clear.

“With corn on soybeans, it’s not uncommon to see a 15- to 20-bushel loss per acre,” he says. “With the G and L1 hybrids, it could get to be 15 to 30 bushels. And it gets a lot worse in corn-on-corn.”

Despite those potential yield losses, he says some growers still downplay the issue.

“This grower says his neighbor told him he has corn turn yellow every year, and he says it never affects yield,” Ferrie recounts. “Well, if you don’t check it, you’ll never know. Ignorance is bliss.”

If yellow corn in the spring has become part of your farm’s “normal,” Ferrie offers a pointed warning on hybrid choice. “If yellow corn in the spring is your MO—you just don’t feel right without having some yellow corn—I would not plant G or L1 hybrids—those that flex in girth and early length,” he says.

Inches That Matter: Banding and Carbon Penalty Rates

Ferrie’s field studies in central Illinois help quantify the amount of nitrogen needed near the surface to pay the carbon penalty.

“Our studies here show us that it takes about 60 pounds of N, minimum, placed where the fence post rots off, for bean stubble to pay this carbon penalty, and a minimum of 100 pounds worth when we’re in corn-on-corn,” he says.

One common approach growers use to build that total amount is with surface-applied fertilizer.

“Typically, we take what was surface applied as our fall fertilizer—let’s say 30, 40 pounds—and then add more surface-applied spring nitrogen to it to get to that minimum for our crop rotation,” Ferrie explains.

Another option is strategically banding nutrients near the row with the planter or a row freshener. “When it comes to keeping small plants happy, inches matter,” Ferrie notes.

He emphasizes how close the bands need to be.

“Staying within 2” to 3” of the row makes a big difference, so those crown roots can find this N in that band before the carbon penalty kicks in,” Ferrie says. “Banding some N with the planter or row freshener allows you to cut these minimums in half.”

By putting nitrogen where young roots can reach it early—near the surface and close to the row—growers can help corn push through the ugly phase instead of being stuck and languishing in it.

Don’t Let The Neighbor Decide When You Roll

Nitrogen isn’t the only factor that will shape how well corn roots perform this year. Ferrie warns that spring tillage timing and traffic decisions will also have lasting consequences.

“As our thoughts turn to spring tillage, getting the seedbed ready, remember, 80% of the compaction calls I will go on this next summer will be caused by the first pass in the spring,” he says. “Yes, the one you’re getting ready to make.”

He cautions against letting social pressure dictate when to roll.

“Don’t let the coffee shop or your neighbor set when you go to the field,” Ferrie says. “Make the decision based on your own field conditions.”

You can listen to Ferrie’s complete recommendations on spring nitrogen use in his current Boots In The Field podcast, available at the link below:

Are You Planting Second-Year Soybeans And Skipping Corn?

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 20:26:30 GMT

As input prices and markets fluctuate, many U.S. farmers are considering a shift from corn to soybeans this season. For some, like northwest Missouri farmer Todd Gibson, continuous soybeans aren’t just a one-year pivot—they are a long-term strategy to capture ROI on challenging soils.

Gibson, based near Norborne — a farming community that proudly bills itself as the “Soybean Capital of the World” — keeps a traditional corn-soybean rotation on his Missouri River bottom ground. But most of his fields with tougher, gumbo-type soils haven’t seen a corn planter in two decades.

“Growing corn on some of this heavy ground just doesn’t pay,” Gibson explains. “I’ve got some fields that have been in continuous soybeans for 20-plus years now.”

More Second-Year Soybeans In U.S. Farmers’ Plans

Gibson says he will grow more soybeans this season and on his better ground. “I’m going to cut my corn acres maybe in half. I’ll have more beans on the better dirt this year, mainly because of input prices,” he says.

Other U.S. farmers – many without Gibson’s experience – are looking to grow second-year soybeans. The Allendale Report released March 18 says private acreage estimates point to a shift toward more soybeans this season, notes Rich Nelson, chief analyst. He estimates U.S. corn planted area at 93.678 million acres, down about 5.1 million acres from 2025, while soybean acres are pegged at 85.659 million acres, up roughly 4.4 million acres over last year.

In southern Illinois, farmer and broker Sherman Newlin says the conversations he has with farmers these days are dominated by input costs and fertilizer availability concerns. While some tell him they’re sticking to their corn-bean rotations, others are considering a 100% shift to soybeans. Newlin is keeping his options open.

“I’m not planning on switching, but we’ll see,” he says. “We’ve still got a few weeks to go where we can swap out seed if we need to.”

Iowa Soybean Association Agronomist Lucas DeBruin says the farmers he works with in the state are sticking with their regular rotation and planting corn if that’s what the original plan was for this season.

“We use a lot of fall anhydrous here, so most guys are pretty locked into growing corn,” DeBruin says. “A lot of them also need the corn for livestock feed. Sometimes you can still squeeze a little bit more margin out of corn than the soybeans,” he adds, “and guys like growing corn more than soybeans. It’s more fun to pick corn.”

Look Before You Leap: The Ferrie Checklist

For farmers looking to change their seed order, Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie suggests taking a hard look at your balance sheet and your fields first. Here are some of his key recommendations:

Consider What You’ve Invested To Date: If you’ve already applied fall anhydrous or dry fertilizer for a corn crop, the “switch to beans” math doesn’t work. “You can’t afford to go to beans, because you’ve already spent the money,” Ferrie contends.

Account for the Yield Penalty: In a beans-after-beans scenario, Ferrie tells growers to expect a 5-to-7-bushel yield drag due to more stress from potential disease, insect and weed pressure. His question: “If you take 7 bushels off your bean yield, does it still cash flow against your corn APH?”

The Management “Claw Back": You can potentially mitigate some of the yield penalty in second-year soybeans by moving your planting date up from May to April, Ferrie says. Early planting helps the crop get an earlier and longer flowering period which can help recover some of the lost potential.

One morning this past week, Ferrie noted that the market was leaning back toward corn and that the see-saw between crops could continue this spring — another factor to keep in mind.

“Looking at the markets this morning, I think a lot of guys would prefer growing corn at $4.90 than beans at $11.10,” he contends.

The Continuous Soybean Playbook

For Gibson, success with continuous soybeans works based on a disciplined management system he relies on every year:

Fertility is Foundational. Even if you shift from corn to soybeans, Gibson says be aware that the beans could require more nutrients. He monitors his soil fertility closely, noting that continuous beans often require extra sulfur, phosphorus and potassium. He also keeps a close eye on micronutrients to ensure the crop won’t hit a hidden yield ceiling.

Non-Negotiable Seed Treatments: In continuous soybeans, the soil is more likely to become a reservoir for pathogens. Gibson hasn’t put a bare seed in the ground in 20 years. “Seed treatment guarantees me 100% replant,” he says. “It lets you sleep better at night knowing that if you get a heavy rain, you have that insurance to fall back on.”

Row Spacing and Canopy: Gibson plants in 15-inch rows at a rate of roughly 130,000 seeds per acre. The goals are quick emergence and a quick canopy. He believes a fast-closing row is your best defense against weeds and helps preserve soil moisture in the heavy gumbo. Seed treatment use and regular scouting help him feel confident in using narrow rows.

Keep Your Boots In The Field: In a corn-bean rotation, the “break” in the cycle helps farmers manage various diseases, insects and weeds. In continuous soybeans, you lose that advantage.

Gibson compensates by routine scouting and being prepared to address problems. “If you hear your neighbors have bug pressure, assume you will, too,” he says. “Don’t have the attitude that you can ‘get by,’ because you probably won’t.”

He has similar thoughts regarding weed pressure – “be proactive.” His program typically starts with a pre-emergence/burndown or early post application, with residual herbicides used to hold back weeds. If weeds break through, he is prepared to return with a post pass.

“We kind of wish sometimes we didn’t have to worry about weeds so much,” he says. “But if you don’t, then next thing you know, you think, ‘Oh, I wish we would have sprayed.’”

The Genetic Advantage: The final piece of the puzzle for Gibson is the advancement in soybean technology. He recalls the days when he says Williams 82 was his only real option for continuous soybeans. Today, advanced traits have made managing weeds and disease in continuous systems much more manageable, he notes.

On his continuous soybean acres, Gibson consistently sees yields average in the 50-to-60-bushel range. When he factors in the lower input costs compared to growing corn on heavy gumbo ground, he believes the decision to go with continuous soybeans is a good one. For Gibson, it’s not about following a trend— it’s about knowing what his land does best and having the management practices in place to succeed.

Could Strip Tillage Be Your Key To Lower Costs And Higher Yields?

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 21:51:29 GMT

Strip tillage has provided Ron Verly with a valuable resource nearly every farmer wants more of during planting season: time.

The southwest Minnesota farmer says he is able to create a good seedbed while leaving residue between rows for erosion control and moisture conservation. The result is a significant head start on every season.

“I build strips in the fall, and then I plant right into those strips in the spring,” he says. “While [conventional till farmers] are trying to figure out which field they can go hit with the field cultivator, I’m already out setting my planter.”

Verly’s experience reflects a key benefit: using strip-till can reduce field time by nearly 50%, according to the Strip-Till Farmer 2025 Operational Benchmark Study.

Efficiency in Fuel and Horsepower

Five years ago, Verly was looking for a way to transition away from conventional tillage. The move to strip-till allowed him to reduce his high-horsepower needs and fuel consumption.

“With conventional till, we run a 500 QuadTrac, which can burn over 25 gallons of fuel per hour, and I’ve eliminated a pass,” Verly explains. “I’m running a smaller tractor with my strip-till. There’s a lot of variables to doing strip-till, but if you add them all together, there’s savings to be had.”

Beyond time and fuel, strip-tillage allows for better precision in nutrient management. Verly aligns his fertility program directly with the strip.

“My fertilizer is right where I’m putting my corn and soybean seed,” he says. This targeting helps him maximize every nutrient dollar spent on the ground his grandfather started farming more than 80 years ago.

Before making the switch to strip-till, Ken Ferrie advises farmers to balance pH levels since soil will no longer be mixed. “After you begin strip-tilling, you can then apply smaller lime applications more frequently,” notes Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist.

Navigating the Learning Curve

Transitioning to strip-till is a management shift that requires a flexible mindset. Garrett Asmus, a fifth-generation farmer from north-central Iowa, suggests that new adopters be prepared to deal more with residue.

“You’re not working the ground and hiding the residue, so there can be times when there’s a lot more of it on the surface to manage,” Asmus says. “Make sure your planter is equipped to handle it.”

Asmus also emphasizes the important role technology plays in the process: “GPS lines are very important with strip-till because you’re putting that narrow strip down (usually 6” to 10”), and then you have to come plant directly over that, so accuracy is really important.”

Verly agrees that “tinkering” is part of the process. “Every year is different. Some years it’s a breeze, and some years you’re out there struggling a little bit,” he says. “There’s a ton of adjustability on these machines, and you need to be willing to make adjustments for your conditions and for each season.”

Asmus, who farms with his dad, Harlan, says they started their journey to strip-till in 2002, working with an experienced custom operator who could teach them the ropes and minimize the potential for costly mistakes. They continued the arrangement for nearly a decade.

“At that point, we invested in our own strip-till bar, and went 100% strip-till,” Asmus recalls.

Timing and Resilience

While Verly and Asmus prefer to build strips in the fall, Ferrie notes that creating spring strips are an option, provided the weather cooperates.

“We’ve built strips in March and early April, and when we got rain to settle them we got a decent seedbed,” Ferrie says.

However, in dry years, he notes that spring-built strips can dry out too much — but there is a Plan B available. “If it’s too dry to plant in the strips, it’s usually dry enough to no-till,” he adds.

The Long-Term Payoff: Yield and Soil Health

Strip-till requires a “long game” strategy. Verly notes that the most valuable results can take a few seasons to achieve.

“You’re not going to see results the first year. You’re going to see results the third year, the fourth year, the fifth year,” he says.

For Verly, the proof is in the bin. Before the switch, he says his soybeans had hit a yield ceiling of 50 to 55 bushels. “By my fourth or fifth year with strip till, I was getting 70 to 72 bushels,” he says, adding he expects to see additional yield increases over time.

“Soil health equals plant health, plant health equals yield,” he says.

Is Strip-Till Right for You?

Ken Ferrie offers five questions for you to consider if you’re contemplating making a move to strip-till:

How well can you manage disease pressure?
Are you willing to take the time to adjust your planter for conditions in each field?
Can you control gully erosion in strips on rolling ground?
Can you control weeds with a burndown herbicide?
How will you manage traffic so you don’t drive over the strips with herbicide and fertilizer applications?

Is Zero Tolerance For Weed Escapes The New Standard?

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 21:08:08 GMT

Across the country, Extension weed scientists are rewriting the rules of acceptable weed pressure in corn and soybeans. For many, tolerance for a few late-season escapes of tough weeds—like Palmer amaranth and waterhemp—is a thing of the past. Increasingly, the Extension community is encouraging farmers to draw some harder lines. One of those is for zero tolerance for weed seed production.

“We have really kind of shifted to this idea largely because of herbicide resistance. That is a huge threat for our crop production systems,” explains Sarah Lancaster, Kansas State University weed management Extension specialist and assistant professor.

Lancaster emphasizes that effective weed control is no longer about picking one or two individual tools to address weeds and prevent seed dispersal. Instead, it is about stacking as many tools as feasible into a single season.

“If you think about this as a multiple-choice answer, it’s not about using A, B, or C. The right answer is D—use all of the above,” she says.
Herbicides, cultural practices, strategic tillage, cover crops, rotations, and sanitation all play a role in stopping weeds.

During a recent episode of The Crop Science Podcast Show, available here , Lancaster addressed specific tools and practices to help farmers work toward the “zero tolerance” goal this season. Here are five for consideration:

1. Herbicides Will Still Be A Core Tool For Weed Control.

Despite the push for diversification, Lancaster believes herbicides remain the central tool for row-crop farmers.

“In our conventional broad-acre ag systems, herbicides are still going to be the most efficient, most economical way to [control weeds]—I’m going to say for the rest of my career,” she says.

However, decisions about product selection, rates, application timing, and application quality are increasingly critical—even more so under stress conditions like heat and drought. In western Kansas, Lancaster sees farmers adjusting their practices to meet these challenges.

“When it gets hot and dry, our farmers are really good at modifying their herbicide applications to make sure they’re still going to be efficacious in those very difficult conditions,” she explains. “They know that if they skimp on the water, they’re wasting their time, so they do a good job of accounting for that, modifying their adjuvants, and knowing when to adjust.”

2. Use Cultural Practices To Make The Crop Competitive.

Lancaster stresses that managing the crop can be just as important as managing the weeds.

“Other things that we talk about would be cultural control practices, looking at planting dates and row spacings,” she says. “How do we manipulate that crop to make it as competitive as possible and maybe support our herbicides a little bit better, so that we have fewer weeds to control?”

For growers, this means considering narrower rows, if suitable for the cropping system, and using optimal planting dates to favor the crop over the weeds.

These tactics don’t replace herbicides, Lancaster adds, but they make every herbicide dollar go further.

3. Consider Using Strategic Tillage In No-Till Systems.

In Kansas, no-till is widely adopted to conserve soil and water, but Lancaster points out that it can reshape the weed spectrum and the tools required to manage it.

“Here in Kansas, no-till is a very important soil conservation practice, but it brings its own set of weed management challenges,” she notes. “The number one reason that tillage is a good thing is to kill weeds. When you remove that, you’re 100% reliant on herbicides.”

She believes there are scenarios in no-till where strategic or occasional tillage has a place. One example is the return of perennial warm-season grasses in long-term no-till fields, such as tumble windmill grass.

“That’s an example of a situation where strategic or occasional tillage is becoming a more accepted, more common idea for managing some of these key weeds,” Lancaster says.

Her bottom-line message is to use tillage strategically whenever tough weeds require it.

4. Technology Can Help Improve Control, Reduce Rates, Cut Costs.

Lancaster sees real promise in camera- or sensor-based systems that spray only where weeds are present, such as “See & Spray” or “Weed-It” systems. She finds the technology is especially beneficial on fallow ground or in stubble.

She notes that in some cases, these tools are what make no-till financially viable. Referencing one farmer she works with, Lancaster sayss they used this technology to stay aggressive on weed control while actually reducing input costs.

“They’ve looked at the economic numbers, and now they know that they can kill the weeds with herbicide applications and drop that herbicide cost below the cost of running a sweep plow,” she says. “It’s allowed them to gain those benefits of conserving moisture.”

5. Prioritize Prevention and Sanitation.

Lancaster urges farmers to lean into prevention and sanitation—two tools she believes are often undervalued. In Kansas, where many farmers also raise cattle, she sees clear risks in how feed and manure are handled.

“Livestock manure is very valuable, but if it’s not been composted well, or if that animal has had a diet that’s full of weed seeds, that’s going to introduce a whole other set of problems,” she warns.

People, vehicles, and animals are potential vectors for weed seeds. Lancaster advises farmers to be intentional about cleaning all equipment—including combines—to prevent spreading seeds from one field to another.

She extends this advice to anyone moving between multiple farms, especially.

“I remind students that if they’re a field scout in the summer, they need to be careful to not make their four-wheeler or their work boots a weed seed dispersal instrument,” she says. “It only takes one instance of seed introduction to have a serious problem for a long time.”

Put More Spray Where It Pays

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:58:40 GMT

When you pull the sprayer into fields each spring, you’re banking that the product coming out of the nozzles will land where you need it to work. That’s where drift reduction adjuvants (DRAs) can become one of the most profitable—and protective—ingredients in your tank.

Consider what happens when you spray a crop protection product. Each nozzle throws out a spectrum of droplet sizes, from big “marbles” that fall quickly to tiny “dust” droplets that hang in the air, explained Greg Dahl, director of adjuvant education for the Council of Producers & Distributors of Agrotechnology (CPDA), during a recent Agricultural Retailers Association webinar.

Those tiny droplets, called driftable fines, are the troublemakers. They lose energy fast, ride the wind and can move well beyond your field. That’s not the case for larger droplets.

“Big droplets have to land. They are going to land, and they’re going to land close to where you spray,” Dahl says. “Small droplets, they probably are not going to land. They will lose their speed, and then they’ll just float in the air and go wherever the air goes.”

By design, DRAs shift more of your spray volume into larger, heavier droplets that are still effective but far less likely to drift. Across a wide range of nozzles, Dahl says industry research shows that adding a DRA can reduce the spray volume made up of driftable fines.

“Going across the whole system of nozzles, we get about a 50% reduction in the amount of spray volume that is made up of driftable fines,” he reports.

In practical terms, that means less product left hanging in the air and able to drift toward your neighbor’s crops, garden or yard.

There are at least four benefits to adding a good quality DRA in the tank.

(WinField United)

Drift Control Is Only Part Of The Benefit From DRAs

Many farmers are concerned that bigger droplets going out of the nozzles will automatically result in poorer coverage, particularly in post-emergence applications. In some cases — especially with ultra-coarse sprays — that’s true, Dahl says. Coverage can suffer, and penetration into the crop canopy can be weak. The right DRA, though, has been shown to increase droplets’ speed as they leave the nozzle, which improves penetration into the crop canopy.

“If we look where we have added in a DRA, it has actually increased the amount of speed of those droplets, so they’re going to go farther before they run out of energy, and we’re going to get better penetration of the canopy, better deposition farther down,” Dahl says.

Side-by-side comparisons in corn and soybeans using fluorescent dye tell the story more completely (see below). Without a DRA, Dahl’s slides illustrate that coverage is good on the top leaves of the crop but falls off quickly as the product moves down into the plant. With a deposition-type DRA, coverage is more balanced from the top to below the ear leaf in corn and throughout the soybean canopy.

A good quality DRA helps provide good product coverage all the way through the crop canopy, as noted in the plant on the right.

(Greg Dahl)

The ROI Of Improved Product Applications

Better coverage does show up in yield results, Dahl reports. Across hundreds of corn fungicide trials, for instance, he says adding a DRA to the tank delivered an average yield increase of about 5.7 bushels per acre compared to fungicide use alone.

In wheat, similar work showed nearly a 4‑bu.-per-acre advantage.

There’s also an economic advantage in terms of product retention. When you reduce the number of driftable fines, more of the active ingredient you paid for actually lands and stays in your field instead of drifting away.

Dahl says not all DRAs and nozzle combinations are created equal. Some thicker, polymer-type products can narrow the spray angle or even increase driftable fines with the wrong nozzle used, especially Venturi designs. That’s why choosing proven products matters. He says oil-emulsion DRAs, in particular, have shown they can cut driftable fines without creating an overly thick spray or sacrificing pattern quality.

“There’s almost 500 labels that recommend using CPDA-certified adjuvants, and there’s over 200 products that are CPDA-certified adjuvants,” Dahl says, referencing the website CPDA.com . “We think that’s where you should go for information, and we thank you for that,” he adds.

Master Your Emotions To Drive More Profitable Crop Decisions

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 16:55:43 GMT

As plans for the coming season take shape, many corn and soybean growers continue looking for places to cut expenses. That’s understandable, but if those cuts are driven by emotion instead of hard numbers, they can create expensive mistakes.

“I truly believe that to improve on what we are going to do, we need to evaluate what we have already done,” says Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist. “Then, a good evaluation of our existing plan can involve actual numbers and less emotion.”

Ferrie likes to start the evaluation process with information from calibrated yield monitors and a disciplined, field‑by‑field review from the previous season.

“[It’s important to] sit down with your farm crew to evaluate each field, seeing how last year’s plan worked out, looking for answers to both the success and the disappointments of the past year,” he says.

Consider What You Had Control Over

A central theme to consider in the process is learning to separate what factors were under your control from those that weren’t. “Be sure to separate Mother Nature’s effect on yield from your management decisions,” he stresses.

Soybean crop performance is a good example of how weather impacted performance and was out of farmers’ control in parts of Illinois. Ferrie explains that in recent years, many growers have used a spread of maturities to manage risk, from roughly 2.6 to 4.2 group beans. That strategy experienced a hiccup when weather turned against full‑season beans this past summer.

“In areas where we saw little to no rain in August and early September locally, these full-season beans lacked the moisture needed to give us big beans,” Ferrie says. “What we saw is that the 3.5 to 4.2 group had kind of lackluster yield compared to the 2.5 to the 3.3 beans.”

The danger, he says, is if farmers react to this single year as if it provides a rule to follow. “If we don’t rely on past yield history and don’t plug in this last season’s weather conditions, we can make an emotional decision that late maturity beans don’t work for me, that I need to cut them from my lineup,” he explains.

But the whole point of using a wide maturity range is risk management. “When you plant a wide range of maturities to mitigate risk, you shouldn’t plan on hitting it out of the ballpark with all of them, because that seldom happens,” Ferrie says. “We don’t know what lies ahead for [2026] weather. We might have a drought. We might not.”

Corn tells a similar story. Weather during pollination—like the “days that we had the heavy fog during pollination” — are showing up clearly on yield maps. Good scouting records are critical for interpreting those maps correctly.

“Good scouting records from the pest team can help sort out pollination issues caused by weather,” he says. “When you combine your past data with this year’s scouting records and weather data, we make better decisions, what worked, what didn’t and why.”

Is Soil Insecticide On Your Cutting Block?

With budget tightening well underway, another recurring question Ferrie has been fielding from farmers is whether to cut soil insecticide on the planter. The answer, at least in Illinois, is to consider how much damage your corn crop is incurring from rootworm.

Field scouting this past season underscored how uneven rootworm pressure can be, according to Ferrie. One consideration is watching root feeding and beetle traps and beetle activity, because many times you can see the problem advancing toward your fields. But he cautions against knee-jerk reactions. For instance, he says to avoid making a decision to eliminate soil insecticide on the planter just because your neighbor is cutting it.

On the other hand, field data can support some risk‑taking where rootworm pressure truly is low. “If we’ve dug and done root washes that show very little rootworm feeding, and we put in some insecticide plots, and I’m seeing little to no response, it’s a lot easier to take the insecticide off the planter,” Ferrie says. But he adds a firm warning: “There’s no rescue for rootworm damage. Once the corn goes down, we can’t make it stand up.”

Assign A Pest Boss For Your Farm

Ferrie frequently addresses the importance and value a pest boss can deliver for your crops. He says to make sure and involve them in your planning meetings for the upcoming season.

“We talk about the importance of a good pest team and a pest boss… they can save your operation a lot of money and/or hassle,” he notes. “The insights they can provide during your winter meetings can help you create a successful and more cost-effective input use and management plan for the upcoming season.”

Reviewing calibrated yield data, scouting records, and using an honest assessment of weather and pest pressure by field are the tools that separate smart cuts from costly ones, Ferrie adds.

Here more about Ferrie’s instructions on making smart cuts for 2026 in his latest Boots In The Field podcast:

End of an Era? Glufosinate's Tight Grip On Waterhemp Finally Breaks

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 19:55:10 GMT

For many farmers, glufosinate quietly became the last dependable post-emergence option to control tough broadleaf weeds like waterhemp in fields where glyphosate, ALS, PPO, and HPPD herbicides had already slipped in performance. Glufosinate’s “last herbicide standing” status is why what’s happening in Illinois now should grab your full attention.

University of Illinois weed scientist Patrick Tranel and his colleagues announced in December that they have confirmed several glufosinate-resistant waterhemp populations in Carroll County, in northern Illinois.

That confirmation is a big deal. Boiled down, what this means for Illinois farmers is stark: Every post-emergence herbicide available to control waterhemp in the state—seven different herbicide groups—is now compromised to some degree.

Tranel adds that some preemergence chemistries are also declining in efficacy. How that plays out in fields: he says pre herbicides that might once have provided four weeks of residual control now keep weeds in check for only three weeks.

“Let that set in for a moment,” he says. “That means we can’t just go out there and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to use this herbicide to control waterhemp.’ You might not have resistance in your field yet to that particular herbicide, but it’s out there in the state, and if you rely on that single post product, you are going to get resistance.”

Farmers in states outside Illinois aren’t off the hook, either. The problem of glufosinate-resistant waterhemp is suspected in at least six other states including Missouri, Indiana, Iowa , Nebraska, Ohio and Tennessee.

“ Missouri farmers are facing declining control of waterhemp with two of our most common post products—glufosinate and 2,4-D—and that continues going into 2026,” says Kevin Bradley, University of Missouri Extension weed scientist.

Why Waterhemp is a Driver Weed

Waterhemp is considered a “driver weed” for many row crop growers across the Midwest and South due to its ability to severely impact yields.

Yield Losses: Uncontrolled populations can cause extensive yield losses—up to 74% in corn and 56% in soybeans—according to research by Larry Steckel, University of Tennessee Extension weed scientist.
Dominance: In the 2025 Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) broadleaf crops weed survey, waterhemp surpassed Palmer amaranth (pigweed) as the most problematic weed.
Biological Challenge: The reasons for waterhemp’s dominance include prolific seed production (up to 1 million seeds/plant), season-long germination, rapid growth, dioecious nature (male/female plants for high genetic diversity), and widespread resistance to multiple herbicide sites of action (SOA).

One Of The Challenges: Subtle Resistance and Regrowth

Tranel calls what Illinois researchers are seeing the early stages of resistance evolution. Critically, what they observe isn’t the obvious kind of resistance where the herbicide does nothing. This low-level resistance makes it difficult to detect in the field.

“It looks the same as what the symptomology looks like on a glufosinate-sensitive plant, except not as severe… you’re going to see that burning, but you’re not going to see the continued progression of that control,” Tranel says. “You’re going to start seeing regrowth.”

In Illinois field trials, resistant plants were sprayed small, with full rates, under near-perfect conditions (hot, humid, sunny, with ample soil moisture), and still, some waterhemp survived.

Tranel’s research suggests some resistant plants may be able to detoxify glufosinate faster at higher temperatures:

“We saw actually worse control of the resistant population under higher temperatures… we think that’s because the resistant population is able to metabolize or detoxify the glufosinate, and at higher temperature it’s able to do that faster,” he says.

Bradley agrees, reporting similar scenarios in Missouri. This low-level resistance can be easily confused with application issues, which makes confirmation difficult. Farmers often report poor glufosinate control due to weeds that were too big, poor spray coverage under a canopy, or less-than-ideal temperature and humidity.

“It can be difficult to distinguish between, ‘Do I really have a resistant population, or was my application not quite right?'" Tranel explains.

The Harsh Reality: No Chemical Safety Net Left

The urgent message for farmers is that they can no longer rely on any single product to deliver control of waterhemp and other tough weeds. Furthermore, the old rule of simply rotating sites of action is no longer sufficient.

“Fifteen years ago, almost all our resistance was due to target site change,” Tranel explains. “All the new mechanisms we’ve discovered in the last 15 years have been due to mechanisms other than a target site change.”

This shift in the plant’s biology means that merely switching group numbers will not keep growers ahead of waterhemp for long.

“You can’t manage chemical resistance with chemicals,” Tranel says. “We cannot exclusively rely on herbicides like we have been able to do in past decades.”

Strategies for the Long Haul: Don’t Cut Weed Control Rates

Farmers face going into the 2026 season with paper-thin margins. During a recent farmer panel discussion, Kevin Bradley asked several high-yield Missouri growers what keeps them up at night.

“Every single one of them said input prices,” he recalls. “Many of our growers are just doing what they believe they have to do to be able to stay on their land and farm. The problem is we are just seeing more performance failures with our post herbicide products that we rely on now,” he adds.

Bradley and Tranel are concerned about farmers choosing to trim herbicide programs. They both strongly recommend that farmers use full rates of herbicides, especially in fields with tough weed issues. Cutting herbicide rates will save few if any dollars.

“With glufosinate, we’re talking pennies between lower and full rates. It’s not going to be a whole lot of money to get better control of weeds and prevent them going to seed,” Bradley says.

Diversify and Aim for Zero Seed

Glufosinate must be treated like a valuable resource. The weed scientists encourage farmers to protect it by making every application as effective as possible and reducing the number of weeds it has to kill. Key practices they recommend include:

Use Multiple Products: Tranel advises against leaning on a single post-emergence herbicide. Instead, “use two or more, either tank mixed or in sequence,” and use an overlapping residual.
Integrate Non-Chemical Tools: Practices like using cover crops that produce significant biomass can suppress waterhemp and other weeds, reducing the number of weeds that ever see a spray pass. New technologies such as weed zappers, harvest weed-seed management products, and weed flamers are also gaining traction. As these options prove viable, they give producers additional tools to the current chemical options for weed control, notes Matthew Woolard, WSSA Science Policy Fellow and Texas Tech University graduate assistant.
Have a ‘Zero-Seed’ Goal: The ultimate long-term strategy is to deplete the soil seed bank. “At the end of the growing season, if you don’t have a weed going to seed, you’re not going to get evolution of resistance,” Tranel says. Achieving this goal will reduce pressure on your herbicide program.

Tranel says he sometimes ponders where the farming community would be today with regard to weeds if glyphosate had been stewarded better. It’s a lesson he hopes row crop growers take to heart.

“Glufosinate might be the best thing we have for the next 10 years. How can we make sure we can keep using it for the next 10 years?” Tranel says.

The answer is not more glufosinate use on its own. Better systems—using multiple SOA products, more crop diversity, more scouting, and allowing fewer escapes to go to seed—can help keep the chemistry in play.

Bottom line: The clock on glufosinate is already ticking down, and how fast it runs out is now largely in farmers’ hands.

Corn Yield Champions Share Their Top 4 Hybrid Selection Strategies

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 19:54:56 GMT

Yield potential is always top of mind for farmers in the middle of evaluating and selecting corn hybrids for the next season, and this year is no exception. If anything, farmers are more tuned in than ever on hybrid evaluation, given the outlook for commodity prices in the year ahead.

Here are four ways David Hula and Randy Dowdy are approaching their hybrid selection process for 2026 and, in sharing, they hope their information will be helpful to you as well.

1. Balance yield potential with the other top two or three agronomic benefits you need.
“My No. 1 focus for a hybrid is it had better be standing when I get ready to harvest it, because there is nothing more miserable than having to take more time and risk equipment damage in harvesting down corn,” says Dowdy on the latest Breaking Barriers With R&D podcast.

His second priority is grain quality. Dowdy says he studies data from hybrid field trials and the performance of hybrids he tests on his own farm to evaluate plant health and what vulnerabilities they might have to specific diseases and insects common to the area.

His third priority is yield. While this ranking might differ from what most agronomic experts recommend, Dowdy puts it in perspective this way:

“We can make high yields with nearly all the hybrids out there that fit our farm today, so for me it’s more about managing the risks associated with them than just the yield potential alone,” explains Dowdy, who farms near Valdosta, Ga.

Dowdy and Hula share more insights on how they pick hybrids during their discussion earlier this week on AgriTalk:

2. Select hybrids for broad acreage use only if you have tested them on your own ground first.
Hybrids change so quickly today that Hula says it’s more important than ever to have evaluated new seed technology on your own ground.

“I challenge growers to try just a couple, three to five, new hybrids and evaluate them,” says Hula, Charles City, Va. “The results from your own personal management style, soil type, and weather conditions are going to give you the best data.”

Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie agrees with Hula.

“I’ve seen the same hybrid vary by 20 bu. to 40 bu. per acre because of different management practices used in a company test plot versus a farmer’s field,” Ferrie says. “Few farmers do plots, but the cost of seed today makes it worthwhile.”

Hula adds that he makes a point to split his planter with two different hybrids. “So when we’re going across most of our acres, that’s a way for us to compare a hybrid we know against a new one,” he says.

3. Look at a variety of performance data beyond your farm
While Hula and Dowdy are especially tuned in to how new technologies perform on their respective farms, they believe it’s still important to evaluate hybrid performance trial data companies provide.

“I like to consider how the trial is harvested, whether the data is just done by a yield monitor on a combine or with an actual weigh wagon,” Hula notes. “Sometimes the winning hybrid is not the one that the yield monitor says it is, so you have to be careful to filter out data that might not be accurate.”

Look for hybrids that perform consistently across locations and are well adapted over a wide range of climates and conditions, advises Jon LaPorte, Michigan State University Extension farm business management educator.

“Alternatively, evaluate data for testing locations nearest to you and your soil types. Make sure you consider at least three years of data for each hybrid. This will provide insight to how a hybrid performs over different weather scenarios. No two years are the same. Hybrids that are consistently performing at the top indicate that they are well adapted to various climates, LaPorte says in his article, Seed Selection: Beyond Yield and Disease Resistance.

4. Build relationships with seedsmen whose companies have a good product lineup for your area and who will help you succeed with their products.
Good seed dealers have integrity, a deep understanding of their company’s products, are good problem solvers and are looking for mutual success.

“Ask your seedsman what hybrids you need to be looking at,” Hula advises. “They’ll want to stack the cards in your favor and theirs, so they’re going to tell you the best hybrids to look at out there from start to finish.”

Talking to your seedsman and reading his company literature can give you some insights into product performance, but be prepared to ask more questions to get answers to the nitty gritty details about yield potential--especially for those new-to-you hybrids.

“Sometimes you have to read between the lines to figure out how a hybrid will perform,” Ferrie says. “With disease ratings, which can go from 1 to 9, the company literature might only use the 7 to 9 ratings and nothing lower because they know the competition would pick them apart otherwise. A good seedsman knows this information and will tell you the weaknesses to look out for, where to put that hybrid on your farm or whether you should even grow it,” he adds.

Your next read: 8 Expert Tips for Choosing the Best Seed Corn for 2026

Watch this week’s Breaking Barriers With R&D on YouTube . In this episode, lifelong farmers and founders of Total Acre, Randy Dowdy and David Hula, explore how technology, genetics, and innovation continue to redefine what’s possible on the farm.

In This High-Stakes Farming Economy, Some Practices Still Deliver ROI

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 20:47:14 GMT

Some agronomic decisions do provide an annual return-on-investment (ROI) you can count on, according to corn yield champions David Hula and Randy Dowdy. One of those, they say, is soil testing fields in 1-acre grids and then using the resulting information to guide fertility decisions.

“If people are used to going across the field and watching a yield monitor vary significantly, say from 300 bushels down to 200 bushels in a pass, there’s a reason why that is and a lot of it has to do with soil fertility,” says Dowdy, who farms near Valdosta, Ga. “Pulling samples in a 1-acre grid can help you identify where variability is in the field better than a 2.5-acre grid or a zone sample can.”

Hula agrees and uses a medical analogy to explain the value of 1-acre grids. “It’s like the more detailed information you can get from an MRI versus an X-ray,” says Hula, who farms near Charles City, Va.

Dowdy and Hula encourage farmers to prioritize soil tests this fall, starting with any ground they own. “Every acre I own would definitely get tested, starting with the tiled ground because it’s going to give you the biggest ROI versus the not tiled ground,” Hula says.

Making Assumptions Can Be Costly
Growers who are reluctant to soil test this year because of costs might want to reconsider, as one of Hula’s recent experiences demonstrates.

Hula says he had not limed his farm ground for several years, due to a lack of product availability. “First, the lime quarries broke down, and then they ran out of lime, so we just couldn’t get it done,” he recalls.

As a result, Hula anticipated spreading 6,000 tons of lime across his corn ground this year. But instead of simply making that assumption, he pulled soil samples in 1-acre grids across 4,000 acres.

To Hula’s surprise, soil sample results showed his fields needed a lot less lime than anticipated.

“We only needed 2,600 tons of lime spread,” Hula reports. “Yes, there were costs associated with the testing, but the savings we got was more than enough to cover that.”

Dowdy and Hula, who work as partners in Total Acre , offered more money-making and saving ideas during their latest Breaking Barriers With R&D podcast, available on YouTube.

Consider Lime Type And Source
The goal, Dowdy says, is to have a soil pH in the neutral to 6.8 range across all acres. “An old timer told me a long time ago, ‘the cheapest fertilizer you’ll ever buy is lime,’ because it’s going to help you get the maximum efficacy from all your nutrients,” he explains.

If tests indicate soils need a pH adjustment, give careful consideration to the type of lime that will provide the biggest ROI in 2026.

“Understand the source of lime, whether you need magnesium or not and also understand whether it is a coarse or a fine-textured lime,” Hula advises.

The finer textured lime is what’s needed for a spring application. A coarse lime can take a couple of years to break down and become available for soil uptake.

Farmers who applied a coarse lime last fall need to be aware of that, so they don’t over-correct on lime applications this next spring. “You don’t want a situation where it all kicks in on the same year,” Hula cautions.

“Likewise, don’t use that as an excuse to not lime, if what you applied two years ago still hasn’t shown up. Understand what kind of lime or other fertility need your soils have now going into the season,” Dowdy advises.

Dowdy and Hula addressed the value of soil testing in more detail during their recent conversation with Chip Flory on this episode of AgriTalk. Listen to it here:

Your next read: Add 75+ Bushels Of Corn Per Acre With Better Closing Wheel Performance

8 Expert Tips for Choosing the Best Seed Corn for 2026

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 16:07:55 GMT

Think of seed selection for next year as an opportunity for profit enhancement. With low commodity prices and higher input costs, identifying corn hybrids that are a good fit for your soil types and environmental conditions is more important than ever – and can give you a leg up on higher yields from the get-go next spring.

Here are eight top tips Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie offers that will help you in your seed corn selection process.

1. Put performance and yield performance above the price. Yes, seed corn is expensive, but focus on what the hybrid can deliver instead of how much cheaper one hybrid is over another and pencil out the potential ROI.

“If I ask a grower what hybrids he is going to plant and he reels off a list of maturity ranges, rather than specific hybrids or traits, I know he spent too much time looking for the best deal and too little time seeking the best performers,” Ferrie says.

2. Spread your risk. Midwest corn growers often plant their crop in five to seven days so don’t plant just one or two outstanding hybrids. That could create the unacceptable risk of all your corn pollinating at the same time and being subject to heat and other stresses that are present at that point.

“Not long ago, one hybrid had two big years, so growers planted a lot of it the following season,” Ferrie says. “Only then did they discover that the hybrid couldn’t handle 96°F temperatures during pollination and ear fill — it got kicked in the teeth on yield. That hybrid still won a lot of plots that year, but only in northern areas, where temperatures were cooler. If a disease problem had shown up, growers could have managed it by applying a fungicide; but you can’t manage against heat.”

3. Make new hybrids prove themselves. Don’t build your whole starting lineup for next season with hybrid rookies or one-hit wonders.

“Put a few of them on the bench, and keep them on a small number of acres until they prove their way,” Ferrie advises.

“Also, don’t throw out hybrids just because you’ve been told they’re old, and that the new kid is here to replace them. Keep those hybrids as long as they continue to perform, and make the new kids earn their way into the lineup through performance,” he adds.

Back to spreading risk — once your draft board is picked from multiple maturities, and are all-star performers, then group them into early- mid- and late-season hybrids so you have a large pool of hybrid candidates to choose from.

4. Use information from test plots. The purpose of test plots is to help guide your seed choices for next year. But you must know the right way to use the information.

“First, understand the difference between show plots and test plots,” Ferrie advises. “Don’t make your seed choices based only on show plots. Show plots have value in demonstrating higher-end genetics. But they are planted next to a road to show off hybrids in ideal conditions.

“Show plots may have received extra nitrogen and two fungicide applications. If you don’t sidedress nitrogen or apply fungicides on your own farm, show plot results may be meaningless to you.”

Study actual test plots that were planted with soil, climate and management practices similar to your own. Taking factors like these into account may add another 15 bu. or 20 bu. per acre, compared with picking hybrids based on general plot performance, Ferrie says.

Although test plots are valuable, it’s possible to rely on them too much, he cautions. “Weather makes hybrids shine,” he says. “Look at regional plot data over a period of years. It will tell you if a hybrid is not suited for your conditions, such as high temperatures.”

5. Make sure you are getting a mix of genetics. When analyzing test plot data, keep in mind that genetically identical hybrids may be marketed by several companies.

“I have seen growers plant the three or four top hybrids in local plots and then discover they all contained the same genetics, only from different companies,” Ferrie says. “That does not diversify risk.”

To avoid planting identical genetics from several companies, check the seed tags. Under the Federal Seed Act, companies are required to include the unique variety name (as opposed to the company’s brand name or number).

You also can ask your seedsman to help identify similar genetic lines sold by other companies. Or you can buy all your hybrids from one company.

6. Consider each field’s environment and match it to your hybrids. Look at each individual field and make a list of its strengths and weaknesses.

“We need to add players to the team that will help strengthen the weak areas in our present hybrid lineup,” Ferrie says. “In the process of truly identifying a field’s weaknesses and strengths, the farm management, operators, and the pest team must come together and compare notes.”

The reason to involve those various individuals or teams is because each one has a different perspective on what’s important and needed in a hybrid and in each specific field.

“Management may be looking at volume discounts or non-GMO contracts; whereas, the operating crew is looking at how tough it is to get corn up in a certain field or how quick it runs out of water in another. Likewise, the pest team may be concerned about diseases or resistant weeds that they are trying to control,” Ferrie explains.

7. Follow your plan and keep good records. “Often, I see growers lay out a nice plan, showing where each hybrid is going to go, based on soil conditions,” Ferrie says. “But in the stress of planting season, they fail to plant each hybrid where they intended.

“This leads to all kinds of unfavorable consequences. I’ve witnessed growers put a hybrid that resists deer damage next to a highway instead of next to their woods. Others plant herbicide-resistant hybrids where conventional hybrids were supposed to go, leading to misapplication of herbicides,” Ferrie says. “Losing track of which hybrids go where has caused some growers to plant their refuge hybrids without an insecticide.”
As you implement your plan, record keeping is critical.

“If planting conditions force you to deviate from your plan, be diligent in recording what you did. It will keep you from spraying a conventional hybrid with Roundup or Liberty herbicide or failing to apply an insecticide on conventional hybrids,” Ferrie says.

With newer planter monitors, you can build an as-applied map, showing what hybrid was planted in each field, on which date.
“If you have an older planter, you can record this information in a book in the tractor cab,” Ferrie says. “Some growers do both, in case they have a computer problem and lose some data.”

8. Make sure you utilize your best resource – your seedsman. Many farmers don’t use their seedsman enough, Ferrie contends.

He says there are a lot of good seedsmen out there, and they understand their products. Most have seen all of their hybrids under a variety of conditions and management styles, and they can relate that experience to your operation.

“Discuss your situation and your management techniques, such as your rotation, tillage and fertility program. Talk about your harvest schedule and things like how much wet corn you can handle,” he says.

Drill down and ask about hybrid strengths and weaknesses—like disease and insect resistance, drought tolerance, emergence and standability. “If you identify a top-yielding hybrid, ask your seedsman how you can farm out its weakness and manage around it,” Ferrie advises.

Darrell Smith contributed to this article.

Your next read: Manage Corn Yield Drag with Hybrid Selection

Analyst Flags Potential Overshoot in Corn Yield Estimate And Why It Matters

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 20:58:22 GMT

Looking back over the past 18 months, Scott Davis, founder of Bullpen Trading, said he hadn’t seen any surprises coming out of USDA reports in all that time.

Then Tuesday arrived. Davis was taken back by what the agency predicts for 2025-26 corn and soybeans, he told Chip Flory, host of AgriTalk.

“They double-barreled it,” Flory said.

“I think there might have been even more barrels than that. They reloaded and shot again,” Davis replied.

The eyebrow-raising USDA-NASS August 12 report pegs the U.S. corn crop at 16.7 billion bushels, with an average yield of 188.8 bushels per acre (bpa). For soybeans, the agency predicts a record 53.6 average bpa, up 2.9 bushels over 2024.

Both crop yields would be U.S. records. However, USDA predictions for 2025 harvested acres were a mixed bag.

For soybeans, the agency cut 2.5 million acres, lowering the total to 80.9 million planted acres. At the same time, USDA increased its corn acreage estimates by 2.1 million acres to 97.3 million acres planted.

Numbers Are Likely To Miss The Mark
Davis said he believes USDA overshot on its corn acreage estimate, as well as the corn and soybean yield estimates based on data from previous years.

Flory agreed, citing information from a Pro Farmer article published last week that said USDA typically shoots too high with corn, specifically.

“In the past 32 years, USDA has raised its corn yield in August 17 times. Final yields came in below the August estimate in 15 of those years,” the Pro Farmer article states. “Each time in the past decade USDA has increased their yield estimate in August, yields have come in below that forecast.”

In addition, the satellite imagery USDA used, along with feedback from farmer surveys, might not have been able to detect pollination or disease problems that could trim yield.

Davis also weighed in on the difference in the corn carryover number for 2025 versus 2024 and the importance of demand.

“On this date, a year ago, we were staring at a corn carryover estimate of 2.073 billion bushels. We had a December corn contract that was trading within cents of where we are right now,” he told Flory. “This year, we’ve got a 2.117 billion projection from USDA, with a 44-million-bushel increase from a year ago, is all, and that’s with a 10-bushel jump in yield from our previous record on tremendous acreage. Just highlights how much demand bailed us out this last year.”

That doesn’t mean corn will now suddenly get bullish, according to Davis. While USDA estimates went low on usage a year ago for corn, he doesn’t believe that’s necessarily the case now.

“I think usage is going to be very good, but it’s going to be harder to get carryover under 2 billion,” he said. “Still can happen, I think, potentially, but it’s not going to be tight anytime soon.”

The Demand Story For Soybeans
Davis also questions the 53.6 bpa average yield projection for soybeans, noting there is considerable disease pressure in Midwest soybeans this summer.

“More than anything I’m hearing there’s a lot of yellow early soybeans. They don’t like wet feet,” he told Flory. “There’s tremendous vegetative growth out there, but that doesn’t mean that there’s going to be a tremendous pod set or pod fill.”

Davis also offered a look back on soybean demand now versus August 12, 2024. Prices were $9.55, at the end of this week for November 2025. He adds that the carryover number on August 12, 2024, was 560 million bushels.

“With soybeans today, carryover is half of that. With a record yield plugged in, we have 290 million bushels carryover projected,” he said.

A 290-million carryover on beans is not a particularly big carryover, in his opinion.

“If you took a bushel off that then we’re talking tight, and we can’t do that,” he said. “We would already be at a price point today where you could almost afford to bring beans out of the U.S. into Brazil to reload and ship to China, and that, of course, makes zero sense.”

Davis said some level of positive demand from China is the ticket to breaking soybeans out of their demand slump. While some farmers, analysts and others are concerned a deal won’t happen with China, Davis doesn’t see things that way. He cited social media comments noting agriculture has President Trump’s ear, with regard to soybeans.

“He did address the fact that beans could be something that China would benefit from buying from us,” Davis said. “A lot of people might say, ‘Our math doesn’t work. They’re not going to buy from us.’ But the math doesn’t have to work. Beans could be just the sweetener.”

What could occur would be a type of quid pro quo, a scenario where China would buy soybeans in order to have more access to something else — like chip technology from companies such as Nvidia and AMD.

“Don’t assume China won’t be willing to pay up for a few U.S. beans to play in the chip market,” Davis contends. “If they pay an extra billion dollars for U.S. beans to get access to Nvidia chips, for China, it would be the equivalent of throwing an extra fortune cookie into the takeout container.”

Listen here for more insights from Flory and Davis on AgriTalk regarding the latest crop estimates and outlook from USDA.

Your next read: Soybeans Rally Post WASDE Pulling up Corn: Are the Lows In?

Gorgeous Corn Crop Masks A Tough Reality For Central Illinois Growers

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 21:01:25 GMT

For more than a decade, Jerry Gidel has done annual yield checks on corn in central Illinois – walking fields, making estimates, and evaluating how the crop is stacking up compared to those in previous years.

On Tuesday, Gidel reports field checks in seven counties that circle the community of Bloomington, Ill., indicate corn yields there are going to average 198.3 bushels per acre.

At first blush, that might sound like an OK corn crop average until you look back at the yield average he calculated for the area in 2024 – 213.7 bushels. That’s a whopping 15.4 bushels more per acre than what Gidel and scouting partner, Jack Scoville, an analyst with The Price Futures Group, found in central Illinois fields last Saturday, August 9.

Gidel and Scoville say the crop there looks big, lush and beautiful, so what gives?

“I think it had to do with high overnight temperatures, which continue to be a nemesis,” Gidel told AgriTalk Host Chip Flory on Tuesday.

Pollinating Corn Likes Cooler Nighttime Temps
When corn gets little to no relief at night from high daytime temps, yields tend to suffer.

“When you keep the humidity in the atmosphere, you prevent the temperature from cooling off at night. And what ends up happening is you keep those stressful night lows around. And so it’s just not ideal,” explains Eric Snodgrass, senior science fellow at Nutrien Ag Solutions.

Cooler nights (in the 60s) help to slow respiration, preserving sugars for grain development and maximizing yield, reports the Agronomic Crops Network .

Above-average nighttime temperatures were common the past few weeks in the Midwest, according to news reports on AgWeb .

What Happened In Central Illinois?
In central Illinois, the pollination issue was not only heat related, according to Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist, who is based there. Nor was it a result only from the phenomenon of overly tight tassel wrap Farm Journal has reported on extensively.

Instead, Ferrie believes wet conditions at the wrong time contributed to much of the poor pollination in corn crops around the Bloomington, Ill., area.

At pollination time, many farmers saw three or four consecutive days of heavy fog and rainfall. The moisture prevented corn pollen sacks from opening on time, essentially interrupting the pollination process, Ferrie recalls.

“It caused some significant issues with our kernel set,” says Ferrie. “I’m seeing yield losses of 15- to 40-bushel hits in affected fields.”

What Corn Stand Evaluations Show
As Gidel and Scoville scouted central Illinois corn, they saw the results of poor pollination throughout the seven counties.

“When you get in there and pull husks off the ears, we found smaller ears and a lot of tip back, and that’s really what seemed to do this crop in,” Scoville says.

“That’s how you end up getting our averages for our central Illinois tour,” adds Gidel.

Flory honed in on Gidel and Scoville’s yield estimates from three Illinois counties that show how significantly they are off this season versus last year:

Ford County: 221.5 bu/a in 2024; 207.6 this year
Iroquois County: 236 bu/a in 2024; 221.9 this year
Woodford County: 257.2 bu/a in 2024; 213.6 this year

“These three are the biggest-yielding counties you guys have seen over the past couple of years,” Flory told Gidel and Scoville. “That is a fairly consistent reduction on top-end yields from a year ago, and it certainly makes me think that that the central Illinois crop is not going to be what it was a year ago.”

Gidel agrees, noting that the highest yield he and Scoville found in central Illinois this year was 222 bushels per acre. “Last year, it was 257 bushels – so 35 bushels less is a huge difference. That definitely eliminates some of your potential,” he says.

Gidel adds what he and Scofield saw in Illinois has him concerned about what the national corn yield average will total.

“It definitely doesn’t give you [the confidence] that we’re going to see the nationwide number that some people are projecting, that 185, 187 bushels versus last year’s 179.6,” he says.

Will Pro Farmer Find The Same Yield Potential As USDA?
With USDA’s bigger than expected production estimate announced Tuesday — a record high 188.8 bushels per acre for corn and 53.6 bpa for soybeans — farmers will be analyzing Pro Farmer Crop Tour reports to see if in-field observations support or contradict the agency’s estimates.

The annual Pro Farmer Crop Tour gets underway next Monday, August 18. Scouts will be sharing reports from 2,000-plus fields across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota. Learn more about the event here .

Get more of the details on what Gidel and Scoville shared regarding the central Illinois corn crop with AgriTalk’s Chip Flory here:

Your next read: USDA Shocks the Market With Corn Yields

Insights From Seed Companies on Tackling Tassel Wrap Challenges

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 15:47:14 GMT

Probably no crop has been scouted better through pollination than in 2025 says Austin Schleich, a technical agronomist with Channel. Across his geography in western Iowa, Schleich says the phenomenon of “overly tight tassel wrap” has agronomists, farmers and scouts walking the rows, looking up, and evaluating from stalk to tassel.

“In the last two weeks, it’s really blown up and had a lot of questions about it [overly tight tassel wrap,]” he says. “Myself alongside the Channel seed professionals I work with are out in the fields, monitoring our pollination pretty intensely. We are extremely happy with our pollination progress so far. However, we have seen the tight tassel wrap in other products within the geography outside the Channel lineup.”

Overly tight tassel wrap has been reported by farmers and agronomists from Ohio to Nebraska and Missouri to Minnesota. Matt Montgomery from Beck’s Hybrids says this agronomic issue “does not, at the moment, appear to be at epidemic levels but at elevated levels.” The agronomic issue is attributed to many factors including environment, genetics and rapid growth stages.

Regarding this year’s growing season, Corteva provided this statement: “The weather conditions we have seen this year have really been an anomaly – in some areas we’ve seen as much as double the normal rainfall with sustained, higher-than-normal temperatures. These same conditions can lead to the presence of disease-causing pathogens. Our field teams and agronomists are working with customers to proactively monitor and manage the potential for disease development and treatment.”

Identify The Issue

Montgomery and the team at Beck’s are encouraging farmers to make two scouting passes this year.

“We are telling farmers to conduct at least two scouting tours where they find tassel wrap,” Montgomery says. “If they detect the issue and do some preliminary scouting, they should follow that visit with a second visit a few to several days later. In many (but not all) cases, we have found that the wrapped portion of the tassel eventually does emerge.”

“The best thing we can do this year is get out in your fields and scout and evaluate your pollination,” says Lance Tarochione, agronomist with Dekalb in Western Illinois. “If the tassel was wrapped up a month ago, you weren’t really going to know that if you weren’t there at the right time to see it because the tassel gets unwrapped eventually.”

He provides this scouting guide:

Do you see long silks?
Do you see clipped silks, for example from insects?
Do you see strange pollination patterns on the ear?
Do you see kernels on the ear that are in vastly different stages–most of the kernels on the ear are at the same stage, but if you’re having pollination problems and the pollination window gets strung out longer, you might have kernels of different sizes on an ear
Did the tip fill?
Did the butt fill?
Does the tassel look normal, small, have only one spike and no branches?

“We’ve observed that tassels with a big flag leaf are more likely to wrap,” he says. “And perhaps tassels with a hybrid with a tassel with a single spike and no branches might be more prone to tassel wrap. Hybrids that don’t exert the tassel well up above the leaves in the corn plant might be more prone to tassel wrap. There’s a lot of hybrids that have a very upright leaf structure.”

What to look for is one aspect, and equally as important is how to scout for pollination issues.

Brian Weihmeir, sales agronomist with AgriGold in central Illinois says, “Do scouting in the right way. We don’t want to go out and shuck back one ear and think you have a problem. Take multiple samples. Look at multiple hybrids. Multiple planting dates. Make sure we get a handle on what we are seeing.”

Weihmeir says his geography across central Illinois has not seen an overabundance of tassel wrap.

In western Iowa, Schleich says he’s seen a field where a majority of the plants were exhibiting tight tassel wrap—tassels gripped by the flag leaf to where pollen will not shed to reach silks below.

Is it Genetics or Environment?

Tarochione says opinions vary widely as to what is causing overly tight tassel wrap. But he believes undoubtedly it’s a function of genetics and environment and he strongly affirms there are more pollination issues in 2025 than just tight tassel wrap.

“Obviously, it’s ‘G by E.’ We talk a lot about how genetics and environment interact in all things agronomy. This is no different. But I don’t know that I feel confident we have a good handle on if there are specific environmental conditions that are causing it,” Tarochione says.

Genetics

Weihmeir points to plant characteristics exhibited by hybrids—pointing to hybrids with more inline tassels—less branching.

“It’s a more condensed tassel structure,” he says. “We have hybrids with condensed tassel types, but I haven’t seen tight tassel wrap in our portfolio widespread.”

In western Iowa, Schleich has observed the most consistent observation for tight tassel wrap has been in hybrids with tassels having a single branch.

Planting Dates

Schleich says he’s seen the tassel wrap phenomenon across a wide variety of planting dates–from April 15 to May 7.

Tarochione adds, “I don’t think that there is a specific planting window. It’s been observed in many states as pollination has progressed northward in the corn belt. I do not think it is restricted to a particular planting date window. I’ve seen May planted corn doing it. I’ve seen early April planted corn doing it. To me the planting window is the 2025 growing season.”

Other Pollination Issues

While tight tassel wrap brings a novelty interest in pollination issues, there are many other agronomic concerns during this important time in the corn crop.

“The tassel wrap phenomenon itself is a little bit unique based on my experience, but there’s other things that are causing pollination issues that are not unique,” Tarochione says. “In some cases a little bit too much attention is being paid to tassel wrap when there’s other things that can cause pollination issues.”

He points to timing issues such as when hybrids miss the nick, and silks aren’t adequately pollinated. Additionally, he reports many fields with smaller than average tassels and tassel development issues.

“Tassel development happens at about V6 in a corn plant. So we’re talking a long, long time ago that the tassel was formed in the corn plant long before you could see it. I see lots of very small tassels. I see lots of tassels with no branches. I see tassels with skeletonized branches. I see tassels that are probably producing less pollen than a normal healthy tassel would. So I think that can be playing into the pollination issues as well.” He says.

Schleich agrees says timing is paramount for successful pollination—from the emergence of silks, the length of silks and the spread of pollen once it sheds. In his geography—but not necessarily within Channel hybrids—he’s seen elongated silks which also cause pollination issues.

“If you are seeing pollination issues now, go back in a couple of weeks and evaluate pollination success with overall ear development to see how any of these problems contribute to overall yields,” he says.

What could tight tassel wrap mean for yield?

Tarochione says you can have tight tassel wrap and acceptable pollination.

“You can have tassel wrap and have acceptable pollination in a field with tassel wrap. And you can have poor pollination in fields that aren’t struggling with tassel wrap,” he says. “So it’s more complex than just does it have tassel wrap or not when it comes to pollination. Because if you’ve got two hybrids in a field like in a split planter scenario where you had hybrid A on the left side hybrid B on the right side of the planter. It might pollinate just fine, even with a wrap tassel, because the other hybrid will pollinate it.”

What does this mean for next year?

Clayton Robinson, Channel Corn Brand Portfolio Lead says, “ultimately, our breeding organization is very aware of that this issue [tight tassel wrap] is going on in the industry, and we are probably looking at this with a finer tooth comb moving forward. We’re really happy with how Channel corn products have pollinated in the field this year, but it’s always a good reminder to continue to be vigilant, to look for potential genetic issues that can present themselves when the environment is right.”

And for next year’s seed selection, AgriGold’s Weihmeir says this agronomic phenomenon highlights the need for genetic diversity across the corn hybrids planted.

“Every year is different. With our research, it’s important to have genetic diversity to mitigate risk and maximize yield,” Weihmeir says.

Farm Journal reached out to all major corn seed companies who supply the Corn Belt. Some did not respond. Stine Seed and Wyffels Hybrids said their agronomists are not seeing the tight tassel wrap in their portfolio and therefore chose not to comment further.

Put On Your Scouting Hat: Check for Southern Rust in Corn and White Mold in Soybeans

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 19:37:08 GMT

Significant disease pressure is showing up in corn and soybeans earlier this summer than what Daren Mueller saw in 2024 crops. The Iowa State University plant pathologist says the early onset of disease pressure he has seen in Iowa – southern rust in corn, and sudden death syndrome (SDS) and white mold in soybeans – is concerning.

While he is closely tracking diseases in soybeans, he says there is “worse news” about the diseases showing up in corn.

“We actually are seeing a lot of southern rust in Iowa already. That is the one thing that I’m probably the most nervous about. I think we’ve found it in six or seven counties now,” he says.

Southern rust has been confirmed in at least 14 states. In Iowa, there’s a band of the disease that stretches east to west across the state, says Daren Mueller, Iowa State University pathologist.

(Crop Protection Network)

Along with Iowa, the Crop Protection Network (CPN) has confirmed southern rust in at least 13 other states – including Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska – and a “probable” finding in Indiana.

Southern rust can be difficult to distinguish from common rust .

While both are fungal diseases that affect corn and share similar symptoms, they have distinct characteristics. Common rust tends to favor cooler, wetter conditions, while southern rust prefers warmer, humid weather.

Southern rust can also be more aggressive and potentially more yield-damaging than common rust, especially in later planted fields.

“Southern rust likes heat, and we don’t have good levels of resistance. And it can move very, very quickly through a cornfield,” Mueller told AgriTalk Host Chip Flory on Thursday. CPN reports yield losses up to 45% have been reported with severe infections.

“Last year was the first year in a long time where we really had to deal with southern rust, and we’re finding it about 10 days earlier than last year.”

The good news in Iowa, so far: the incidence (number of plants affected) and severity (area of leaf diseased) are low, adds Alison Robertson, Iowa State professor of plant pathology and microbiology in an online article she posted on Thursday.

Mueller is encouraging farmers to get out and scout for southern rust now, so they can take action to address the disease.

“In a year like this, if we catch a couple more rains like we’re supposed to in the next week or so, and this inoculum is out there, a timely fungicide application is going to be very beneficial,” he says.

The Crop Protection Network, a multi-state Extension resource, offers a new mapping tool called Crop Lookout farmers can reference to identify various diseases and their locations.

“If you just click on that, there’s a couple of hot links on that map for tar spot and southern rust. When we find new spots of disease, it’s updated in real time,” Mueller says.

Speaking of tar spot, Mueller says the disease can still take a huge toll on corn, but that farmers are learning how to deal more effectively with the disease.

“I think we’re getting more used to tar spot, and I think people aren’t panicking as much,” he says.

Soybean Diseases Showed Up Early This Season, Too

Mueller says he found SDS and white mold (also known as Sclerotinia stem rot) in soybeans in mid-July.

“That was about a month earlier than what we want,” says Mueller, who serves as the coordinator of the Iowa State integrated pest management program. “The fact that (SDS) was showing up a good month in advance, it has us a little nervous.”

SDS is most severe when soybeans are planted in cool, wet soils and has delayed emergence – conditions that were prevalent this past spring in parts of Iowa and further into the East and Southeast.

Severe SDS can result in yield losses greater than 50%, according to University of Minnesota Extension.

To address SDS, there’s no curative action farmers can take, but Mueller offers one action farmers can take to address the problem.

“You get your pad and paper out and you take notes in the field. Record what varieties you selected, what seed treatments you put down. That’s all valuable information for the next time you plant soybeans,” he says.

This is an important action because key soybean planting states, like Iowa, have had three or more years of fairly dry weather in the latter half of the summer, so crop advisers and farmers have little data on which of the newer varieties perform best in the face of SDS.

“Use it to your advantage to just collect the data,” Mueller advises.

For white mold, Mueller says farmers can still apply a fungicide in many cases and get enough of a response to warrant the cost of treatment.

“We’re still, early enough, you can get a fungicide out there if you feel like the risk is staying high. You could spray all the way up to R3 and still get some money back on your fungicide,” he says.

“You’ve got to get some penetration through the canopy [for white mold],” he adds. “All the activity is done in that lower canopy. Anything you can do to get the fungicide as deep into that canopy as you can, that’s what we want.”

Unlike SDS, white mold is fairly easy to pinpoint definitively in the field. At this point in the season, Mueller says to look for individual dead plants “here and there” in the field.

“Then just peel back the canopy, and look for the white powder, it’s called mycelia, the fungal growth. You know that’s a telltale sign that you have white mold,” he says.

Mueller’s complete conversation on AgriTalk is available here:

Your next read: ‘Overly Tight Tassel Wrap’ Is Affecting Pollination In Corn

Illinois Legislature Passes Bill to Improve Pesticide Applicator Process

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 13:39:05 GMT

Illinois lawmakers have passed a bill to amend the pesticide applicator licensing process. In what’s expected to be in place by 2027, the current exam renewal required every three years will be replaced instead with continuing education requirements.

“It’s finally good to be on offense down at the Illinois State Capitol rather than being on defense,” says Kevin Johnson, president of the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association, the organization which initiated the legislation.

The bill passed the Illinois Senate 50-4 and the state house 116-0.

“That’s not usual. Many ag bills in the state of Illinois don’t get those kind of kind of numbers, so we’re proud of that,” Johnson says. Now, it’s on to Gov. Pritzker’s desk for consideration to be signed into law; he has 90 days to act.

There are more than 36,000 registered pesticide applicators in Illinois — of which 11,000 are farmers.

In the potential new process, for the initial license issued by the state’s department of agriculture, a first-time applicant would need to pass the 100-question exam. Then, going forward, they could renew their status via the continuing education requirement.

“We have been an outlier for quite a few years. A lot of states have done this for 20 years,” Johnson says. “Our applicators are specifically asking for this, and so this has been a thing that we’ve worked on many years.”

Assuming the governor signs the bill, Johnson says it will go into effect Jan. 1, 2026, but industry stakeholders should expect about a year for the entire process to be developed with the official availability in 2027.

Not only will the new structure provide an in-demand change by pesticide applicators, but it will also give the department of agriculture an opportunity to provide timely, ongoing training for industry professionals.

“The continuing education will focus on the general standards, but it does give us the opportunity to update some topics every year,” Johnson says. “So, for example, it could be about the herbicide and insecticide strategies for the Endangered Species Act, so in coming years more about tank clean out.”

Former CEO's Favorite Resources For Becoming A Better Leader

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 14:05:35 GMT

Doug Stark worked for Farm Credit Services of America for 37 years, eventually becoming the organization’s CEO until his recent retirement.

He joins the Ag Inspo podcast with hosts Ron Rabo and Rena Striegel to share the best ways to enhance your leadership skills.

“Leadership is learned, so you can teach leadership to other people,” Stark says. “I was in leadership roles before I knew what leadership was. I was a terrible leader, and I recognized that. I changed the way I was approaching things.”

He says attending conferences can be helpful, but are admittedly not his first pick.

“You can go to some good conferences and pick up some things on leadership. I pick more up from individual presenters or speakers here and there,” he says.

Stark’s favorite leadership development resource is more easily accessible: books.

“There’s tons of leadership books on the market - I was reading probably two or three a month,” he says. “Some of them would say the same things, just in a different way. But sometimes that would trigger a thought.”

He compares reading to taking a shower.

“It cleans my mind of all the challenges, created a positive mindset and started inspiring me with thoughts and ideas in which I could deploy to make myself and our team more effective,” Stark says.

Stark is even basing a university course on one of those books: The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner.

“It’s based on research, not just a general philosophy,” he says. “They have five attributes of exemplary leaders, and that’s kind of been my Bible over the years.”

Starke has also found a lot of value in hiring leadership coaches, even if you’re already in a company’s C-Suite.

"[Employing a leadership coach] was one of the most powerful things I ever did,” Starke says. “Not only did he humble me, but he really taught me a lot of the things that I abide by today and on a daily basis.”

He believes good leaders create good culture, and that leads to satisfied employees who will go the extra mile.

“When you start respecting people, trusting them, treating them like adults and inspiring them with where you’re trying to go, things happen that you can’t even imagine,” Starke concludes. “They do things that make you go, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’”

7 Key Details To Know: New Endangered Species Act Herbicide Standards

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 21:02:33 GMT

“This topic is one that can get very technical very quickly. It can be a very deep topic, and there’s a lot of nuances,” says Kyle Kunkler, director of government affairs at the American Soybean Association.

He’s referring to EPA’s Final Herbicide Strategy, which puts forth new guidelines for herbicide registration and use per the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

In order to simplify the ag industry’s understanding and therefore be in compliance, he and other industry pros are encouraging ag retailers and crop consultants to know the details of the work plan.

They shared more on a recent webinar hosted by ASA, CSSA, and SSSA. Webinars are free and open to certified crop advisers, certified professional soil scientists, and tri-science society members.

“The Endangered Species Act is in and of itself nothing new. It was first enacted by Congress and signed into law in 1973, and it’s a very well intentioned law,” Kunkler says.

So how did we get to the Final Herbicide Strategy? And what does it mean for applicators, crop consultants and farmers? Here are seven key details to know:

1. Pesticides pose a unique challenge in how ESA is administered through the federal agencies.

“Pesticides could have dozens of crops registered for which it could be used on hundreds of millions of acres, and it may intersect with nearly all of the or most of the 1,700 listed species [overseen by U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service]. What further complicates the situation as well, is that there’s a requirement under FIFRA that pesticides have to be reviewed once every 15 years.”

He says this sets up an enormous workload for EPA.

2. In some cases, the litigation process was moving faster than regulatory process.

As Kunkler points out, “federal judges can issue rulings on these registrations that may not be compliant with the law, faster than the service can conduct a consultation. The farming community and the applicator community were losing pesticide registrations as a result of these lawsuits and ESA non compliances.”

So instead, EPA agreed to do this in a court settlement and work to find efficiencies in the process. Instead of going chemical by chemical, species by species, the agency agreed to develop a common set of mitigations for classes of chemicals. First, is the herbicide strategy (final in August 2024), next is insecticides (final version due March 2025), and third will be fungicides (final version due in November 2026).

3. These upfront mitigation menus will be relevant as new pesticides receive registration and existing products are reregistered through FIFRA.

“You’ll see changes on the labels, and online at Bulletins Live Two!,” says Leah Duzy, Agricultural Economist at Compliance Services International. She highlights how this is applied to agricultural uses which include cultivated land but not pasture grass or rangelands.

It is the responsibility of the users to check the label and the EPA website before application to be sure they are in compliance.

4. The development process of the rules has involved stakeholder and industry feedback.

“The strategies as a whole impact production decisions that are being made at an individual level and also at an operational level because agriculture is not simple, and there’s a lot of complexity,” Duzy says.

As such, there is a points system for runoff/erosion mitigation practices that growers can use to match the necessary points assigned to product (the maximum is 9). In the process of the herbicide rule going from draft to final, many are pointing to additional practices being added for increased flexibility necessary for successful adoption.
And these practices mirror others which qualify farmers for NRCS programs.

“To their credit, EPA and USDA did a great job of trying to harmonize these mitigations with those that are made available also through NRCS programs and practices, so that in instances where there might be cost share dollars available through NRCS programs,” Kunkler says.

5. In addition to the runoff/mitigation practices there are two additional considerations for herbicide application per the new regulations.

There are spray drift buffers outlined based on application method, landscape, and more.
And there are geographic considerations.

6. Two big questions remain around who is responsible for sharing this information and how it will be enforced.

“There’s a lot of confusion right now on who is actually going to be the ones responsible for educating and disseminating the information. Is that going to be your State Extension Service? Is it going to be your State Department of Ag? And nobody really has a solid understanding or has really taken ownership of that,” says Megan Dwyer, Director of Conservation and Nutrient Stewardship at Illinois Corn Growers Association.

She’s also watching how it’s being revealed what the exact record keeping will be.

“The EPA has released a couple tools. There’s a PDF version. There’s also an Excel version. You can go to determine how many points you have in a field,” she says.

And while there is no written requirement outlining record keeping, Dwyer encourages crop consultants and farmers to have a proactive approach.

“You can get points for keeping records. And I would strongly recommend that where we’re going to see the challenge come in is when there there’s a question raised. So when there’s a concern about a discrepancy if they have enough points to apply a certain product, did something happen that shouldn’t have happened, and more. This is going to be a great place to start by saying, Oh, I printed off my Bulletins Live! Two, and I’ve got a copy of my point sheet that I filled out, and have that initial base record to back up what you were doing,” she says.

7. Another big unknown is if the Trump administration and newly confirmed EPA director Lee Zeldin will change the current trajectory of what is outlined.

“The idea of ever going back to a period of non-compliance like we had, I don’t think would be appropriate or ever acceptable. We don’t want to think back to a point where we’re losing pesticide registrations to court vacatures. But at the same time, we want to make this as workable for agriculture as possible,” Kunkler says. “Our hope is, is that an incoming administration would be receptive to our concerns, and we could find ways to continue to work together to make these the landing zone for these strategies, and any registrations that result from them even more workable for agriculture.”

Safety Initiatives To Maximize Efficacy And Well-being For Aerial Application

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 16:12:13 GMT

By The National Agricultural Aviation Association

Many aerial application service customers do not realize the significant impact they can have on the safety of ag pilots who treat their fields. Before a farmer or landowner considers leasing land for the construction of wind turbines, meteorological evaluation towers or broadband towers, they should understand how these decisions can affect aerial applicators’ ability to treat fields safely.

Without careful planning and placement of these structures, farmers risk losing the option for aerial spraying, which is the often quickest method for applying pesticides, fertilizers and seeds that is unobtrusive to the crop.

Towers, such as those used for meteorological monitoring, pose a significant danger to agricultural pilots and other low-altitude aerial operations. Unmarked towers, especially those shorter than 200 feet, can be nearly invisible if backlit, hidden by an overcast sky or camouflaged by a crop or soil. As such, these towers and the wires that accompany them can pose a grave risk to pilots and lead to accidents and fatalities. Ag pilots do their due diligence in scouting fields by using GPS with integrated maps that may show towers and checking tower databases, but at times, these towers appear in fields overnight, or they are not geospatially referenced in GPS databases.

According to the National Agricultural Aviation Association tower accident data from 2014 to 2023, 12 tower accidents occurred during this period, and five aerial applicator pilots perished in tower collisions. The most common cause of accidents in 2023 was wire strikes, which accounted for 28% of the total accidents and 67% of the fatal accidents.

Landowners must consider the potential upsides and downsides before signing agreements to lease their land for such structures. Engaging in conversations with hired ag pilots can provide valuable insights into whether these towers should be erected and how the specific placement or marking and lighting of these structures has the ability to facilitate safer aerial applications. If a farmer or landowner intends to have towers or turbines erected, then it is important to share that information and estimated timeframe with the hired ag pilot. Remember, the presence of wind turbines or towers in or near cropland targeted for an aerial treatment may result in an ag pilot declining to treat fields in close proximity to the structure, delaying treatment of the field until all safer fields have been treated or charging a higher rate for the work.

Some ag pilots are beginning to incorporate uncrewed application aircraft or drones into aerial application operations to enhance safety when treating areas near towers, wires or other obstacles. But this isn’t a fail-safe solution. Drones can complement crewed aerial application. However, the large hopper capacity and quick speed at which the field can be treated means a crewed airplane or helicopter is the fastest way to eradicate yield-shrinking diseases, weeds and pests. Landowners need to be aware of this and recognize the potential revenue that will be lost by sacrificing land to construct towers.

Landowners can ensure the safety of aerial applicators by thoughtfully planning the placement of structures on their land. Through a commitment to safety and collaboration, a safer aerial application environment is created to protect farm fields and sustain agricultural growth.

Chemical Safety: Every Breath You Take, Every Step You Take …

Wed, 31 May 2023 17:44:46 GMT

Residual chemicals from sprayers can not only contaminate operators but also their families — even when gloves, goggles and aprons are worn.

Operators often crawl into cabs wearing chemically-contaminated gloves to briefly reposition machines. Chemicals on the gloves easily transfer to the steering wheel, hydrostatic control handle and control switches, and then from those surfaces to bare hands.

According to a study by the University of Nebraska- Lincoln Extension, if skin on the forearm absorbs chemicals at a rate of 1.0, then the skin on the forehead absorbs at 4.2, the ear canal at 5.4 and the groin area at 11.8.

Using chemically-contaminated fingers to take a dip of chewing tobacco or eat a snack while operating a sprayer is like licking a used chemical glove. Smoking a cigarette isn’t safe either because chemicals absorbed by the cigarette’s paper are burned and inhaled into the lungs.

Leather footwear absorbs chemicals and holds them against socks, where perspiration transfers them to the skin of the foot. Boots can carry mud from minor chemical spills into the cab. Over time, the mud on the floor dries and is ground to a fine dust contaminated with chemicals that are easily inhaled, or it lands on surfaces where it’s transferred to hands.

Cab ventilation systems are designed to filter dust particles. Chemical fumes from sprayers are vapors and undeterred by conventional cab air filters. Special activated carbon/charcoal cab air filters, available from most tractor/sprayer cab manufacturers, are designed to literally absorb chemical vapors.

“If you’re smelling chemicals in a cab, you’re smelling vapor,” says Michael Schmitz, founder of Clear Air Filters. “No matter how good a standard particulate filter is, it won’t stop vapors.”

Sprayer operators for a large Midwestern seed company complained of nagging headaches and sinus congestion during their long herbicide, insecticide and fungicide spraying seasons. Standard particulate cab air filters were replaced with activated carbon filters and the headaches and sinus problems went away.

Chemicals Come Home
Chemicals can travel home with sprayer operators. A study by Cornell University noted chemicals can transfer in washing machines from a sprayer operator’s clothes to their family’s clothes. The study recommends “sprayer clothes” be handled and washed separately.

The study also found elevated levels of agricultural chemical residues in the carpets of rural homes, presumably carried into the homes on shoes or clothing. It was noted vacuuming did little to remove the residues. In fact, vacuuming actually stirred and redistributed the chemicals into the air. Vinyl or hardwood floors in entryways and changing areas retained fewer chemicals than carpet.

Applicators to Reap Benefits from $15 Million Investment by EPA

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 20:55:09 GMT

With planting season around the corner, applicators are in the midst of obtaining and renewing chemical licenses.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is looking to evolve the existing national licensing program to offer more education and training in restricted use pesticides (RUPs) .

Under current federal law, anyone using RUPs must be certified in accordance with EPA regulations and state laws and trained through Pesticide Safety Education Programs (PSEPs).

According to the press release , a more cohesive, revamped national PSEPS will ensure that RUPs are used safely by teaching applicators how to:
• Avoid pesticide misuse
• Clean up spills
• Properly use personal protective equipment

“Pesticides are an important agricultural tool, and we must make sure that the people using them are trained to do so safely,” said Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention . “The work done through this grant will help enhance pesticide safety and protect workers, communities and the environment from pesticide exposure.”

More than 50 land-grant universities will reap benefits of the grant, each receiving $3 million per year for five years.

With these funds, EPA expects universities will offer:
• Additional education and training
• Protection of humans, communities and ecosystems from exposure to pesticides
• Collaboration between partners and stakeholders for continued program evolution

EPA helped move 825,000 pesticide applicators across the RUPs certification finish line in its past programs. With grant recipients being named in coming months, opportunities for new applicators are likely to be made available.

Prevent Grain Bin Accidents by Keeping Grain in Good Condition

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 14:56:48 GMT

Every year we hear of accidents involving farmers who are entrapped in grain bins as they try to dislodge spoiled grain. However, these incidents can be prevented if stored grain is kept in good condition.

For the past 40 years, Bill Field, with the Purdue Ag Safety and Health Program, has been documenting farm accidents across the country, including grain entrapments. He says the resounding theme in all cases is the accidents could have been easily avoided with proper grain management practices.

“There’s a direct correlation between grain that’s out of condition or spoiled and the increased probability of someone becoming entrapped,” he says. “They’re actually trying to work to get the grain out of storage, it’s crusted, it’s moldy, it’s plugged, so people get in there and try to get it. They fight with it to try to get it out and that’s when they get in trouble.”

Remember — storing grain when it’s too wet can cause it to spoil and crust in the bin. It’s important to dry down crops to 15% moisture or below and maintain that level while the grain is in storage. Monitor grain bins regularly because it only takes a few days for grain to spoil.

“As grain begins to warm up, it’s spoiling, it produces heat. If you can monitor the grain before it gets too bad and start moving it out of storage, getting it utilized, getting it shipped off to market, whatever needs to be done, you’re going to save an awful lot of grain,” according to Field.

The ultimate goal is to maintain grain quality in storage, so farmers won’t have to enter a bin to try to move spoiled product, thus preventing a potentially costly and deadly entrapment.

For more information, visit Purdue Extension’s Ag Confined Spaces website .

Farm Journal Test Plots: A Phantom Lurks in Your Corn Fields

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 21:51:24 GMT

As harvest approaches, it’s important to recognize there’s an invisible enemy lurking in your corn fields. Phantom yield loss occurs when a crop is allowed to naturally dry down to a certain point before harvest.

Does the elusive dry matter lost equate to bushels? If so, is it enough to justify switching up harvest timing and paying for drying? Those are the questions Farm Journal Field Agronomist Missy Bauer set out to answer in 2019 and 2020.

Today’s genetics have changed, Bauer explains, and kernels are taller, wider and deeper.

“I’ll date myself, but when I graduated from Purdue, we divided yield calculations by 90,000 kernels per bushel,” Bauer says. “In 2018 and 2019, our hybrid plots averaged 70,000 kernels. In 2020, because of the dry weather, we’re a little higher at 76,000, but that’s nowhere near 90,000. That means kernels are different today than in years past.”

Kernel is Alive

When studying if phantom yield loss is a bigger issue today, with fewer kernels per bushel, Bauer learned several key takeaways.

“Even though the crop is at the black layer stage, the kernel is still alive, and that kernel is going to continue to go through respiration, which can result in the loss of kernel weight,” she explains. “Basically, the weight loss is a result of the metabolic activity within the kernel.

“That kernel is going to remain alive until we kill it with heat. When you dry it down in your dryer to 15%, then we’re basically killing it at that point,” Bauer adds.
When the crop remains in the field it’s burning itself up, so to speak, with respiration. That’s the concept of phantom yield loss.

Combine is Not to Blame

When studying phantom yield loss, Bauer and her team monitored harvest loss counts on the ground. They found no difference when comparing the earlier versus later harvest dates. It wasn’t that as the corn dried down there was more shatter and shelled at the head and more kernels on the ground. The difference came from phantom yield loss.

In 2020, Bauer selected one hybrid in an irrigated field to study in terms of phantom yield loss.

A portion of the field was harvested early, on Sept. 23, when the stalks were still green to a large extent. On Oct. 30, the remainder of the field was harvested, which was a little later than Bauer preferred, but that’s how harvest goes some years.

On average, the corn harvested early had a yield advantage of 15.6 bu. per acre at 214.2 bu. versus 198.6 bu. for the corn harvested in late October. Across management zones, the earlier harvest yielded from 11.6 bu. to 22.4 bu. more.

When it comes to moisture levels, the corn harvested on Sept. 23 was at 27.9%. By Oct. 30, moisture levels fell to 18.4%. That 9.3 points in moisture dried “for free” in the field.

Obviously, an early harvest means drying corn is necessary. That can cost from 1¢ to 4¢ per bushel per point of moisture, depending on on-farm or elevator options.

At the time, corn was at $4.20 per bushel. After paying the drying cost, the corn harvest in late September made money — anywhere from $5.95 to $45.76 per acre, depending on drying costs.

In 2019, there was nothing early about harvest after a late start to planting due to the wet weather. For Bauer, early harvest occurred Oct. 29 and late harvest was Nov. 18. With three weeks difference, the late October harvest had a 10.6-bu. advantage (266.4 bu. versus 255.8 bu.) with a 2.7% difference in moisture.

“In terms of economics, at 1.5¢ for drying costs per bushel per point we put $31.40 an acre back in the farmer’s pocket,” Bauer says. “Even at 4¢ per bushel per point drying costs, he still made money.”

Take Advantage of Half-price Drying

When considering drying costs, don’t forget some elevators and ethanol plants will offer half-price drying in early fall.

“In September and sometimes even the first few days of October, elevators and ethanol plants in our area in Michigan need corn, so they’ll offer half-price drying. Take advantage of that,” Bauer says.

There’s also something to be said about starting harvest earlier. Take advantage of warmer weather, Bauer adds, and stretch out the harvest window to ease up on logistics when there’s not enough hours in a day.

Thank You to Our Plot Partners

BASF, Bayer Crop Science, Pioneer, Case IH, Clarks Ag Supply, Great Plains, Kinze, New Holland, Unverferth, AirScout, Trimble, B&M Crop Consulting, Finegan Farms and Welden Farms

Make Pest Scouting a Priority in 2022

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 20:06:20 GMT

Scouting ﬁelds for pest problems is a vital component of crop health and yield outcome. “Yet too many producers don’t rank scouting high enough on their list of priori-ties,” says Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist. “Don’t let that be the case on your farm. Think about pest control as an investment in protecting your crops.” Mid-west entomologists report these pests invaded fields this year. They encourage farm-ers to monitor for them in 2022 to determine treatment options.

BROWN STINK BUG

Adult: Broad, flat, shield-shaped bugs that are brown on top with a yellowish underside. About ½" long.
Nymphs: Look similar to adults but lack wings.
Eggs: Round, laid in clusters and orange with a ring of white hairlike structures on the top.
Timing of damage: VE to R3
Type of damage: Holes in the leaves that are often ringed in yellow. Tillering, wilting and plant death can also occur.
Scouting: Examine 20 consecutive plants in each of five different locations in the field (100 plants total). Record per-centage of damaged plants and level of infestation.

CORN ROOTWORM

(Western and Northern)

Adult: Western: Small yellow bug with three black stripes on the forewings. Northern: Small bug; color varies from cream to pale green.
Larvae: Slender, about ½" long and white with a brown head and dark spot on the posterior end.
Eggs: White, football-shaped and very tiny.
Timing of damage: V8 to R5
Type of damage: Larvae feed on and tunnel into roots. Adults feed on and clip corn silks.
Scouting: For larvae, dig up 10 randomly chosen plants and check soil for rootworms. For adults, count the number of beetles on five plants each in five separate locations.

FALL ARMYWORM

Adult: Gray and brown moth. Forewings are marked with triangular white spots.
Larvae: Smooth-skinned caterpillar, ranging in color from light tan or green to black with three light yellow stripes down the back and a white inverted “Y” on the front of its brown head.
Eggs: Dome-shaped with a flattened surface and a rounded point at the tip. Female covers the egg mass with a layer of gray scales.
Timing of damage: V12 to R6
Type of damage: Primarily feeding on the leaves and whorl but later larvae will move to the tassel and young ears.
Scouting: Check for damage on about 20 consecutive plants in five separate locations.

SLUG

Adult: Slimy, soft-bodied, gray or mottled, legless mollusk.
Larvae: Like adults but smaller.
Eggs: Clusters of eight to 60 clear jellylike eggs laid on the ground in sheltered areas.
Timing of damage: VE to V8
Type of damage: Ragged holes in leaves or leaves that appear shredded, starting with the lower plant. Look for silvery slime trails on leaves or ground; this is a telltale sign of slugs.
Scouting: Examine 20 plants in five separate locations. Note the number of damaged plants and estimate the percent-age of defoliation.

SOYBEAN GALL MIDGE

Adult: Tiny (1/10"), delicate flies with slender bodies, mottled wings, long legs banded with an alternating light and dark color pattern and orange abdomen.
Larvae: Small and legless maggot-like larvae, clear to white-colored when young, turning bright orange as they ma-ture.
Timing of damage: V2
Type of damage: Wilting or dead soybeans along field edges with decreasing damage into the center of the field is usu-ally the first sign of infestation. Look for dark discoloration at the base of the stem. Heavily infested plants eventually wilt and die.
Scouting: Look for eggs at the base of soybean plants or darkened and swollen soybean stems.

SEEDCORN MAGGOT

Adult: Small, gray, bristly fly with black legs. It is less than ¼" long.
Larvae: White to yellow-white maggot with tough skin, pointed head and round tail.
Eggs: Laid singly or in clusters in moist soil; each female lays an average of 270 eggs.
Timing of damage: VE to V4
Type of damage: Maggots burrow into seeds and eat the germs, reducing stands.
Scouting: Dig up un-germinated seeds and look for maggots.

JAPANESE BEETLE

Adult: Metallic green beetle with bronze wing covers, about ½" long. Six tufts of white hair on each side of the abdomen just below the wing covers.
Larvae: Grubs are creamy white with a brown head capsule, C-shaped and about 1" long.
Eggs: White to translucent, small and elliptical to spherical in shape.
Timing of damage: VE to R8
Type of damage: Adults skeletonize leaves. Larvae feed on roots.
Scouting: Examine five plants in five locations to determine percentage of defoliation.

Transform Nutrient Regulations from Headaches to Opportunities

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 13:59:19 GMT

Farming success requires operating inside three environments — natural (weather), physical (conditions in each field) and human. Where they overlap is the Sustainable Triangle.

As we mentioned last issue, the human environment includes many factors, and one of them — government — is growing more important.

Concern about water quality has spurred nutrient reduction incentive programs and, in some cases, regulations. If you haven’t been affected by one, you probably soon will be.

INCENTIVE VERSUS REGULATION

Nutrient reduction incentive programs can be an opportunity, says Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie, as long as you understand what you are committing to.

But if regulations come to your area, you simply have to deal with them.

“The good news is much of what you will need to do under incentive programs or regulations is exactly what you need to do now on your farm because of high fertilizer costs,” Ferrie says. “And the better your 4R nutrient management program, the easier it will be to adapt it for official incentives or regulations.”

Be prepared to explain your system to your conservation agency staff.

“You may discover your current plan doesn’t meet the requirements of incentive programs or regulations,” Ferrie says. “Those plans use a government form called a Nutrient Management 590 Conservation Practice Job Sheet. Its standards are based on guidelines for your area, such as the Illinois Agronomy Handbook or the Tri-State Fertilizer Recommendations (for Indiana, Ohio and Michigan).”

State guidelines might not incorporate the latest practices, such as zone management and variable-rate application, Ferrie notes.

“Your VRT fertilizer program may be based on years of data from soil maps, topographic maps, electro-conductivity maps, aerial images and yield results, plus your own experience,” he says. “But if the local handbook calls for soil sampling on 2.4-acre grids, and the staff member you’re working with has little actual farming experience, they may want to follow the handbook to make all plans uniform and simplify their task.”

As such, it will be up to you to persuade them your system is more efficient, using patience and tact, Ferrie says.

PRACTICES MIGHT NEED TO CHANGE

You can walk away from incentive programs that cost more than they return, but if your locality adopts regulations, you’ll just have to adjust. And you can, Ferrie says, but it will require changes.

“If you’ve been applying all your nitrogen and phosphorus in the fall, you’ll need to go to multiple, timely applications,” he says. “You may have to start incorporating or strip-tilling phosphorus. Every new operation will require equipment and people, and you may need to turn to custom application.”

But farmers in areas such as the Chesapeake Bay and Lake Erie watersheds are proving they can operate successfully even under regulations, Ferrie points out.

“We have learned having a 4R nutrient management plan and variable-rate application system in place make the transition easier,” he says. “And every nutrient management plan starts with a current soil testing program.”

What to Do Now

“Develop a 4R nutrient management plan — right product, right rate, right timing and right placement — for each management zone,” Ferrie says. “If possible, implement variable-rate technology (VRT).”
Make backup plans in case weather throws you a curve.
Think about how you can modify your plan to meet government standards. Evaluate equipment and labor requirements to implement split application and precise placement of nutrients.
Test new practices, including cover crops, on limited acreage. “Cover crops will be a big part of incentive programs and regulations,” Ferrie says. “See how they affect your return on investment (ROI).”

What to Do After You Sign Off on a Plan

Explain your 590 plan to your entire farm team, including your retailer. “Review what you did in the past, and explain why it may not work under a 590 plan,” Ferrie says.
If new practices are involved, arrange to meet labor and equipment needs.
Get approval before deviating from your 590 plan. If your conservation staff agrees to a change — because of adverse weather, for example — note the agreement in writing, including the date and the name of the person you spoke to. “Never rely on verbal approval,” Ferrie says. “Failing to document approval for a change could cause you to be found out of compliance and subject to financial penalties.”
Keep detailed application records. You might need them to prove you followed your 590 plan.

Read more in the “ Farming the Sustainable Triangle ” series.

Darrell Smith, who’s been with Farm Journal for 40-plus years, works alongside Ken Ferrie to break down the systems approach to farming.

Fear Not the Spider Invasion

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 18:53:20 GMT

Have you heard? There’s a spider invasion expected along the East Coast. However, it comes with a bit of good news: Experts say you don’t need to worry about the bright yellow, blue, black and red Joro spider.

A University of Georgia entomology professor says the spider doesn’t pose a threat to people or animals. Instead, the Joro is one of the few creatures that prey on stink bugs, which are a significant problem for southern crops.

“It constructs a huge web,” says Dr. Nancy Hinkle, professor of entomology at the University of Georgia. “This web, incidentally, collects anything that flies around it, which means they are no longer presenting a threat to our crops.”

Native to Asia, the species mysteriously showed up stateside around 2013. The Joro spider has since thrived, and it’s relatively common to spot in Georgia and the Southeast these days.

A study published in the Royal Entomological Society compares the Joro spider with the golden silk spider, which moved to the Southeast about 160 years ago. The golden silk spider hasn’t been able to spread due to its susceptibility to cold. Despite their similarities, the study found the Joro spider has about double the metabolism, has a 77% higher heart rate and can survive a brief freeze compared with its relative. These findings mean the Joro spider functions better than its relative in a cold environment — and that means it can likely survive outside Southeast.

Wisconsin Farmer Shares Climate Positive Tips For Producers, Trusted Advisers

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 15:12:13 GMT

A series of extreme rains prompted Wisconsin farmer Brad Clark to change the way he operates and begin integrating more regenerative practices. The transition began three years ago on the row-crop and dairy operation, which included his older brother, Brian, and younger brother, Bruce.

“We’d have 5” to 7” in an hour,” says Brad. The operation manages 1,000 dairy cows, 2,500 tillable acres and also raises dairy replacement cows.

They started collaborating with Adam Kramer, co-founder of Black Sand Granary, their certified crop consultant, and work together to support local farmers with services including custom seeding and support in converting to no-till and integrating cover crops.

Making Cover Crops Pay

In the near-term, Clark says, the biggest ROI from regenerative practices will come from using dairy manure on his farm’s fields.

“We added a small grain into our rotation so we could get early manure application on our ground,” Clark explains. “If needed, we can follow that manure application with fall direct-seeding of alfalfa into that or cover crops to carry through till the next spring.” In some cases, the cover crop—such as rye—can be harvested for forage for the cows.

On other parcels, the operation uses a 10-way mix of different covers including clover and sudan grass.

Environmental and economic benefits extend beyond cover crops. Converting to a no-till system has reduced fuel and labor costs by cutting equipment passes across the field, Clark notes.

Those benefits are especially important given the farm’s location smack dab next to the Mississippi River in the Driftless Area, a 24,000-square-mile region spanning four states.

“It’s rolling hill ground with ridgetops and pretty decent slopes,” Clark explains. “We also farm river-bottom ground. It’s kind of unique that way with different soil types including sand and black timber soil.”

The location presents opportunities and challenges. “It depends on the day,” Clark jokes. They have ready access to river and rail services, and they have plenty of fresh water for grazing throughout the summer. Yet the hills, bottoms and tapestry of soils make it important to steward natural resources well to keep local recreation areas clean for the public.

Regenerative Farming In Action

In the past several years, Clark and his operating partners have begun participating in a demonstration network that invites other farmers to see regenerative farming in action. He’s encouraged by the feedback he’s getting from members of his dairy peer group as he speaks publicly about his experiences. A peer recently told Clark they’d made a recent article about Clark’s operation mandatory reading on their farm operation.

For farmers curious about applying regenerative practices within their operations, Clark has some advice.

“Talk to someone that’s done it, and get a plan down in front of you that you can see yourself realizing from start to finish,” Clark says. “Keep an open mind. You’ve got to have willingness to change the old ways. Change is hard. And follow through. You’ve got to have follow through and commitment. Because there will be failures, but there will be successes, too. And hopefully Mother Nature gives you a little good karma, too.”

Trusted advisers supporting farmers on this journey can do their part by researching contact information for “everyone and anyone involved” in regenerative farming efforts, Clark adds. “They need to offer value-added programs or incentives. That would really get people on board—monetize it in some way,” he says.

Another item high on Clark’s wish list? “Campaign to make cover crops insurable,” Clark says. He notes that today, cover crops can’t be insured.

For now, Clark is willing to risk a loss on the covers because “they’re doing the work.”

He’s seen the benefits. He isn’t turning back.

Clark will participate in a free virtual event titled, “Can regenerative agriculture unlock the connection between food consumers and agricultural producers?” from 10 to 11 a.m. CT Nov. 17, 2021. Registration is now open for this America’s Conservation Ag Movement experience sponsored by Corteva Agriscience. Corteva recognized Clark earlier this year as one of nine winners of its Climate Positive Leaders Program .