In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers planting progress, replant reports, stand evaluations, sidedressing information and predictions of the ugly corn phase. He also gives his perspective on the wind and water erosion we have seen this spring.

Planting is nearing a close for most operations, but the jobs of the pest scout are just getting rolling. Ken covers what they should be on the lookout for in this week’s Boots In The Field Report. Scouts should be evaluating corn fields for crusting issues and dust storm damage and soybeans for crusting and PPO damage to make hoeing and replanting decisions. They also need to be evaluating timing of post spraying, noting any fields that are experiencing a pre-plant herbicide failure that would need post spraying moved up and fields that are stressed from dust storm damage and need to wait for new growth before post spraying to not over stress the crop. Heat units are significantly moved up compared to a normal year, so scouts need to be watching for cutworm, corn borer, cucumber beetle, June bugs, and flea beetle now. And due to a large number of fields worked in unfavorable conditions, scouts need to take note of fields that now have a compaction layer that needs to be addressed this fall before fields could be taken into or go back to no-till. Due to the large amounts of rain, scouts will also need to be pulling nitrates to check for Nitrogen loss.

Ken Ferrie walks through considerations for planting strategies for this time of year and field moisture conditions in this week’s Boots In The Field Report. Since the window for pre-solstice flowering has passed, focus for planting switches to getting the corn in the ground. Areas that have bathtub rings might need a strip freshener to open up those soils to dry out and whether it is the strip freshener or the planter, make sure they are dancing on top to avoid putting in compaction in these wet fields. Covers that escaped a timely kill, will cause a bigger carbon penalty, but might be better off living at this point to help dry out the soil through transpiration to be able to get in and plant. Ken also reports some growers are seeing PPO damage on beans due to splashing.

How well or long seeds will survive underwater depends on many factors including hybrid/variety type, seed quality, how far along the crop is, and temperature. In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie walks through steps to take as fields dry out including using drones/scouting to figure out how much replant seed might be needed, noting fields that need to be scouted or ponding spots that need nitrates pulled before sidedressing. He also advises growers to get hoes ready to help fields before they develop a crust, utilize spray drones to help take care of herbicide that didn’t get on before rain, take care of cover crops that haven’t been killed, and wheat that needs sprayed.

After Thursday morning’s frost warning is through most of Central IL will be moving to a green light for planting corn and will hold most likely till the end of planting. Green light is in regards to temperature, if field moisture is too high, then growers have to wait for that to dry out first.  Due to weather, several fields have a heavy cover of weeds, crop scouts need to keep an eye on these fields for cutworm and armyworm presence even if they were tilled. Seed quality continues to have a larger number then normal falling into poor quality, if growers haven’t sent off a seed sample may want to keep back a small sample that they can send off later if field shows stand establishment issues. The warmer weather will help lessen some of the risk on these lower testing seeds.

With the predicted weather for Central IL, Ken gives a green light for full season beans on ground that is fit and sees a window for a possible green light for corn starting as early as this weekend. Ken fears some growers will grow impatient and work ground too wet to try to dry it out, creating season long compaction, or mud in corn. He also reminds growers not to let covers ahead of corn get too big, to keep an eye on seed quality and germ when choosing which seed to plant early, be on the look out for herbicide carryover damage in overlap zones, and know your hybrid’s Stewart’s wilt score if we run into heavy pressure from the flea beetle.

As growers start to roll on planting early beans, Ken Ferrie walks through considerations for deciding when the right time for your operation is. Planting beans in March doesn’t show a large yield advantage over waiting to plant the first week in April but can provide some advantages for operations that only have the ability to plant one crop at a time, then having some bean planting done when the ground is also fit to plant corn could bring more benefit. He encourages growers to ask themselves: Are you insured? Are the beans fully treated? Are you a one planter operation? Have you had discussions with landlords to make sure everyone is on the same page? Do you have a hoe ready if the beans need help? These can help a grower decide when it makes sense for their operation to start planting beans.

Ken covers questions about using spring anhydrous strip-till or a Zone Builder when facing the possibility of a dry year. There are options that can make it safer but most of them require water. The drier it is or higher rates of anhydrous make for bigger risks of planting issues.

Time spent on planters now can bypass a lot of headaches later and can keep farmers from jumping the gun on doing tillage passes before the ground is fit. A simple test is taking soil right below tillage depth, balling it up in your hand, and see if you can ribbon it. If it ribbons an inch or more, it will be a compaction layer not just a density change you will be putting in. Ken also advises growers to do some grow outs to check for herbicide carry over due to the dry June of 2023. He also advises checking your last freeze date and backing up 25 days to set your earliest planting date for those early planted soybeans.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie advises growers, if they haven’t gotten their wheat top-dressed, the window to get that on is closing fast.  He comments, if tougher wheat stands are going to corn in case of a winter kill, he would still top-dress it, but if going to beans, might want to hold up on top-dressing. Due to Iowa’s drought conditions, they can start rolling on some field work as long as the soil is dry enough, but he warns to make sure you are not creating a cloddy seedbed or leaving tracks. Ken says 80% of his summer service calls come from the first pass run in the spring, 1 pass systems like soil finisher or high speed disk need to be careful so as not to run too soon. Ken reminders growers “Your neighbor doesn’t decide when your ground is fit.” Conditions in your fields, matched to your tillage practices, need to dictate when you are ready to go. 

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie answers the question of if freezing and thawing will take out a compaction layer and if it could actually make it worse. He also speaks with University of Tennessee State Specialist Ryan Blair on how the growing season went last year and about the expansiveness of the Extension system throughout Tennessee.