No doubt about it, it’s been a challenging spring for farmers across the Midwest. Soggy field conditions kept us from planting for week after week after week throughout April, May, and into June. Some farmers still haven’t had the chance to get into the field to plant and likely won’t at this point given how late it is in the season.
Fortunately, we were able to finally plant. It was late, for sure, but the crop still has a chance to do well this summer and it’s better than the alternative of leaving fields fallow for the year. Besides, what fun would fall be without combine rides?
Now that I’m closer to the farm (and not 2.5 hours away by interstate), I’ve been way more involved and am actually in the process of buying part of our farm (not as exciting as it sounds – pretty much just a lot of paperwork so far). And since I know I can get pictures every week, I’m bringing back my #FollowTheField posts so you can keep track of our crop’s progress. We’ll be looking at three different fields this year:
-> Soybeans planted into a green cereal rye cover crop on May 17, which was the first field we planted this year. Check out this video of what it was like to plant into that 4-foot tall cover crop – first time I’ve planted into a cover crop that tall!
-> Corn planted in the field adjacent to the cover cropped soybean field, which was planted on June 4. Most of our fields were planted this first week of June when we finally saw a stretch of more than three days without rain for the first time since early April.
-> Soybeans planted in a field that was half cereal rye and half no-till. By the time we got into this field, the cereal rye was almost taller than I am. This was our last field planted on June 8 and is the field I’ll hopefully be buying this summer. 😊
6/28/19 update:
Cover crop soybeans (42 days)
These beans are nearly 10 inches tall now, having been planted in a brief dry window we had in mid-May and getting to enjoy the next two weeks of rains. They’re now tall enough that you can tell that the field is a soybean field and not just a big yellow field of straw left by the cover crop. The cover crop was terminated (killed) the same day we planted but would’ve looked green for a few days after. Once it did die, the straw provided a nice layer over the soil and has kept weeds from growing and competing with the soybeans.
We’ll continue to scout these soybeans regularly, but they should be good to go for a while, especially with the cover crop weed control program we’ve got in place. 😉
Corn (24 days)
It seems like summer suddenly decided to happen this week, with daytime highs in the 90s for the first time this year. We’ve had a few evening rains this week, too, totaling less than an inch. Let me tell you, this corn is LOVING this weather. I forgot the ruler when I took a few pictures on Sunday, but the corn had to have doubled in height between Sunday and last night. It’s now about 16 inches tall, so not quite knee-high, but it’ll definitely be there by July 4th.
So what’s the deal with “knee-high by the 4th of July”? Traditionally, corn that was, you guessed it, knee-high by the 4th of July was the sign of a good crop. Today, we plant earlier and generally have a taller crop than in the past. Part of this is due to improved corn genetics through hybridization, which is essentially crossing two parent plants to create progeny with the best genetics. Corn in our area is typically something like 8 feet tall on the 4th of July – so knee-high if you’re standing at the top of a ladder, like my sister and I did a few years ago. Corn is behind schedule as far as averages go, but there’s still plenty of time on the calendar for it to mature and produce a crop.
As soon as fields dry out from the last few rounds of rain, we’ll begin sidedressing. Sidedressing is a term we use for in-season nitrogen application, where we drive a tractor in the field (tires between rows) to apply liquid nitrogen in the ground right next to the row within reach of the growing corn’s root systems. This has to be done before the corn gets too tall to get the tractor in the field – we don’t want to risk snapping stalks by driving over them. Our farm usually applies nitrogen twice during the season – strip-tilled once in the early spring before corn is planted, then we plant the corn in that furrow, then we sidedress a few weeks after planting so that the corn has enough nitrogen to get through the season. This year, we didn’t have the chance to strip-till any nitrogen in for the first application, so it was applied at the same time as the burndown herbicide, or the herbicide used to kill any weeds or remaining cover crop (we had an oat cover crop in a few fields) before planting. We don’t apply the season’s nitrogen all at once so we don’t risk losing it before the corn has a chance to use it.
No-Till Soybeans (20 days)
This field of soybeans is much smaller than the other field of soybeans featured in this series. This was the last field planted this year, but so far so good! These beans are about 3-4 inches tall at this point. We’ll keep an eye out for any weeds that come up in the no-till section of the field, where the ground isn’t covered by a layer of straw from the cereal rye. Weed control at this point is very important as they will compete against the soybeans for nutrients and sunlight. Once the beans get tall enough to create a leaf canopy between rows, we won’t be as concerned about weeds since the soybeans will shade the bare ground and discourage weed germination since sunlight doesn’t penetrate the canopy very well.
That’s all I’ve got for this week! Check back next Friday for the latest #FollowTheField update from Central Illinois.