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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
