July 31, 2022 Edition
"We’re
not giving-up, and you’re not going to give-up either!” – Larry Bird, NBA Hall
of Famer
https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/198601180ATL.html
Well, it’s probably halftime of our row-crop growing season
(or a little past), and just like in basketball, the second half is probably
the most important. How will the crops
endure the mid-summer heat? Will we get
enough rain to maintain yield expectations?
Will the corn and soybeans make maturity before a killing frost? Or maybe the markets will provide a harvest
rally? Many questions remain and many
potential scenarios could develop. Despite
the late start to the growing season, no one is giving-up on this crop today (we
have way too much money invested), and we’re showing our usual excitement for
the season to play out and the harvest to begin.
Weather
With my estimated date of May 24th as a regional mid-point
of corn planting for 2022 and most of the corn in the pollination (VT/R1 growth
stage) currently, let’s evaluate our corn growing degree day (GDD) outlook. Here is our current GDD position in 2022.
Next, we should compare how the GDD’s stack up so far in 2022
versus the prior 30-years. When it comes
to comparing seasons, I’m not a fan of comparing prior years with the current
year under the same late plant date. Yes,
every year is different, but if we would like to evaluate GDD comparisons, we
should compare on a more average plant date.
Therefore, I’ll use the average start date of May 10th for our
comparison. As you can see from the figure
below, even though we had basically a two-week late start to corn planting in
our region, we have caught back-up to the 30-year average with a give or take of
two to three days depending on specific location. Southeastern North Dakota would be the
exception to this where they are consistently seeing a 4-6 day advantage in GDD’s
during 2022 so far versus the 30-year average.
Lastly, what can we expect from this point moving forward to
the end of the growing season for GDD accumulation under an average first frost
scenario (September 25)? For our northern
regions of North Dakota and NW Minnesota, we should see approximately 700-800
additional GDD’s yet for the season. When
we add this to the already 1050 to 1200 GDD’s already accumulated since May 24th,
we should be in a great spot to have our 75-85 RM corn hybrids at (or very
near) physiological maturity (black layer).
Overall, we are currently in a spot that is very favorable considering where we were at the end of May and considering the consequences of a short growing season. Add to this the favorable precipitation we have collected for the growing season to date, our crops are set-up to produce significantly above average.
Corn planted at the end of May or first week of June will
most likely need the entire month of September to remain frost free to get
close to physiological maturity. Given
the situation, these fields have a very good shot at producing quality grain with
respectable yields – albeit with a likely need to manage for a late harvest and
above average grain moisture content.
We’re starting to see more soybean aphids in the region,
and with the presence of grasshoppers in many of our soybean fields the situation
deserves a bit of conversation. First,
we must remember from 2017 that most of the aphid populations in our region are
resistant to some of the pyrethroid insecticides (specifically lambda-cyhalothrin
or Warrior®). Second, with the loss of
Lorsban™ (chlorpyrifos) from the EPA, and third the fact that most of the non-pyrethroid
soybean aphid insecticides target only sucking/piecering insects (which
grasshoppers are not), we see the need for a tank-mix or “in the jug” mix to
control both insects (soybean aphids and grasshoppers).
Corteva’s crop protection team has come to the table with
their option of Ridgeback™. It’s a “in
the jug” mix of a pyrethroid (bifenthrin or Capture™) for the grasshopper
control, and sulfoxaflor (Transform® WG) for control of the sucking/piercing insects
like soybean aphids. Bifenthrin is known
to provide enhanced residual control, so be sure to visit with your preferred
crop protection specialist for details.
https://www.corteva.us/products-and-solutions/crop-protection/ridgeback.html
https://www.corteva.us/products-and-solutions/crop-protection/transform-wg....
IDC - Still Affecting Soybeans
It seems like the Iron Deficiency Chlorosis (IDC) in the
soybeans won’t let-up this year. Yeah,
it’s getting better these past couple of weeks, but many fields around the
region are still showing signs and symptoms plus we’ve lost some plant numbers
in places. A combination of the
continued wet weather, high soil nitrogen carryover in fields, our high soil pH’s,
and significant levels of carbonate/bicarbonate in the root zone is all
significant to the situation at hand.
Now, we could be seeing some infestation of soybean cyst
nematodes (SCN) which can portray similar symptoms, but overall, SCN presence
throughout NE North Dakota and NW Minnesota is fairly minimal, plus we’ve had to
battle against IDC since soybeans came into our region.
The management practices in soybeans for IDC remain the same: variety selection, improve drainage, and implement the use of iron chelate in furrow at planting time. Products containing ortho-ortho Fe EDDHA (i.e. Soygreen®) are the best choice as they contain the water soluble and plant available ferrous (Fe++) iron. I’ve only seen significant yield responses to chelated iron with a planting time application and full use rates under heavy IDC pressure. Post-emerge applications do show visual recovery from the IDC but have not led to significant yield response or ROI. Today, there are both granular and liquid formulations available on the market for chelated iron products.
Below is great photo showing one-row plots of different
soybean genetics with susceptibility/tolerance to IDC.
Dicamba or 2,4-D
Injury?
With the generally lower temperatures and higher
humidity’s of the 2022 growing season (versus 2021), we are not seeing as much
herbicide drift and volatility impacting susceptible soybean varieties. However, we are seeing more herbicide
carryover of clopyralid (Stinger™) than prior years due to the dry conditions
we experienced last season and thus the slow breakdown of clopyralid in our lower
organic matter soils. Stinger™ carryover
symptoms on soybeans looks very much like dicamba injury, but typically you can
find a spray pattern where some overlap has occurred where the injury will be
more pronounced. Stinger injury will
affect both RR2Xtend and Enlist-3 soybean varieties.
The following articles nicely describe the difference
between 2,4-D injury and dicamba injury on soybeans:
https://www.pioneer.com/us/agronomy/dicamba-injury-soybeans.html
https://blog-crop-news.extension.umn.edu/2021/08/growth-regulator-herbicide-injury-on.html
Grand Forks FuFeng
Corn Mill Project
Well, living locally here in the Grand Forks, ND area, I can
easily report that the small city has definite concerns with the local
political leadership as it relates to the development of a wet mill corn plant
for Fufeng Group. The topic is starting
to gain some national headlines as well from many different media outlets. Many articles can be found with a simple
internet search.
The web-linked DTN and NY Times articles from mid-July
outline many of the pros and cons:
·
$750 MM project that would consume 25 million
bushels of corn per year. At 150 bu/ac
corn production output, it would equate to 167,000 ac of corn needed annually
from local producers. For comparison,
the county of Grand Forks had 798,500 acres of total farmland in the 2017 USDA
AgCensus
·
The wet corn milling plant is forecasted to
employ about 1,000 construction jobs and 220 people full-time once the plant is
built and operating, providing numerous job opportunities
·
Concerns about the city’s infrastructure to
handle the increased demand in water, and traffic to support the project
·
Concerns around pollution into the Red River and
odor into the atmosphere for local residents to endure
·
Concerns around the amount of tax being waived
while significant infrastructure (water, roads, natural gas, etc) needs to be enhanced to support the wet mill
corn plant
·
Concerns with prior human rights violations by
Chinese companies (including FuFeng) in their domestic and international
business dealings
·
National security concerns over the proximity of
the Chinese plant to the local national Air Force base and the potential for
espionage
·
Concerns with the local government following protocols
at the federal level for international investment into the USA
·
Concerns about the local government with
annexation of land, adequately allowing the local public to voice their
concerns, and allowing the public to have a ballot vote on the issue.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/17/us/grand-forks-north-dakota-fufeng-china.html
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