Production Blog

DECATUR, Ill. (DTN) -- One of my favorite parts of the job is calling farmers and crop consultants and chatting about what's up. After you've been in this business awhile, you start to think you've heard it all. Hardly.

This week a southern Illinois farmer told me he's been doing his herbicide spraying at night. Not because he wanted to, mind you, but it's the only time the wind hasn't been blowing. A limited number of good spray days has been a big problem as growers grow acreage, but this year the wild and wacky weather is adding to the problem. Weeds also have plenty of moisture to get a head start. Waterhemp and giant ragweed are growing like champs in central Illinois.

Bob Griffin, a Jonesboro, Ark., crop consultant told me that his region has never started planting cotton so late and at the same time, had never finished so early. "Nearly everything was planted in a week's time," said Griffin. He talked to me from a wheat field that was starting to ripen and had some armyworms beginning to clip heads. It's always something.

A news release Friday from Mississippi State University talked about the nearly unbroken string of rains that kept farmers mostly out of the fields through the early-spring planting window. Soybeans in that state are 46% planted, when normally this crop would be about 88% planted. Cotton is still far behind the norm, with just 36% of the crop planted rather than the five-year average of 84%. Rice planting is farther ahead at 72%, compared with the normal 96% planted. Corn planting is all but finished.

Trent Irby, soybean specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said poor conditions also have forced growers to replant some acreage. Some growers had to pause planting to spray herbicides on soybean fields that had already emerged.

"Windy conditions made it difficult to catch up on herbicide applications," Irby said. "With only a limited amount of time between rains, making timely herbicide applications has been difficult, especially in areas where producers are battling resistant pigweed."

Irby said he expects the statewide delay in planting all crops could increase soybean acreage by as much as 10% in Mississippi. However, late-planted soybeans face late-season insect and disease problems. Tom Allen, MSU Extension Service plant pathologist at the Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville, said later-planted crops require more vigilance, additional scouting and better management to be successful.

"One of the main reasons we adopted an early soybean production system was to prevent late-season disease issues," Allen said. "You get to the end of the growing season and often tropical storm systems can delay harvest and bring added moisture, which can increase the incidence of some diseases."

In Ohio, rains that have kept growers out of the field have entomologists warning growers that the smaller corn crop is more vulnerable to insect pests. "We've had more calls about alfalfa weevil than in previous years, with quite a few people cutting early to help stem the pests," said Ron Hammond, Ohio State University extension entomologist, in a news release. "And we've had reports of Asiatic garden beetle grubs that have caused stand losses in corn fields in Tuscarawas County, which is much further south than we expect to find them.

"We always assumed Asiatic garden beetle grubs were in north and northwest Ohio, parts of Indiana and Michigan, but we've now found them in much wider area. We recommend growers throughout the state check corn in sandy soils, particularly paying attention to fields in river bottom areas where sandy soils are often found," Hammond said.

Livestock producers that were getting short on feed this spring hate to look a gift horse in the mouth. Pastures and hay fields that suffered through drought last year sure needed the rainfall, but my neighbors have given up the idea of baling hay and turned to chopping last week.

I guess if farming were easy, anyone could do it.

Pamela Smith can be reached at Pamela.smith@telventdtn.com

(AG)

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