Follow the Field Update #9

Happy Friday! It’s almost the weekend, which means I’m bringing you another #FollowtheField update from Central Illinois!

This sure has been a weird growing season this year. First, way too much rain. Then it was too dry. Then it got hot and dry. Then we got some rain and some folks were hit with strong winds and hail. Now it’s cool, but the rains have back to almost been perfect around us. (Highs in the 70s in August aren’t great for growing corn).

8/23/19 Update:

Cover Crop Soybeans (98 Days)

These are our earliest-planted soybeans, which are doing pretty well despite being planted a month after we would’ve liked to have them done. They’re pretty focused on pod fill right now, so developing the 3-4 soybeans per pod on the plant, which we’ll harvest when harvest season comes this year (October?).

See how the pods go right on up to the top of the plant? That’s a great sign! Now we just need the soybeans inside the pods to grow and mature before the first frost so that we can harvest them.

 

Corn (80 Days)

The corn is growing pretty well, too, despite being a month or so behind in maturity. In order to be able to harvest, the corn (kernels on the ear) has to mature before the first frost. We know this corn is mature pretty much when it gets the little dent at the top of the kernel. We’re confident that the corn will mature before the first frost, otherwise we wouldn’t have planted it or would have switched to an earlier maturing variety for this season after the delay in planting this spring.

One thing working against us right now is the cooler temperatures. Remember when I talked about Growing Degree Days (GDDs)? We want corn to be maximizing the heat and sunshine to its fullest potential, which it isn’t doing unless the temperature is 86 degrees Fahrenheit. So when it’s in the mid- to upper 70s, we’re losing around 10 GDDs per day. This corn will need about 2600 GDDs to reach maturity, so one or two cool days isn’t a big deal, but a week or more of cool temperatures won’t do us any good – especially when we’re already behind with a late spring.

See the kernels growing? We’re starting to evaluate our fields to predict yield. We do this by counting the number of kernels in one row and counting the number of rows on the ear. More kernels per ear means greater yield potential. Remember when I mentioned that each silk pollinates one kernel on the ear? Another fun fact for you – all ears of corn will have an even number of rows! Usually something like 14, 16, or 18 rows per ear, depending on the genetics of the selected corn hybrid.

Notice all of the greenish specks on the two photos above? Those are corn leaf aphids. This field happens to have a lot of them in the area I visit to take my weekly photos for you all. These aphids are really only a threat to the corn when it hasn’t pollinated. They can also sometimes cause problems when it’s really dry by sucking a lot of sap from the corn plant and hurting it that way. But since it’s rained recently and since the corn is past pollination, the decision was made to not apply an insecticide to take care of the aphids. Instead, we’ll closely monitor this field and watch how the aphids might be harming the corn. If we had decided to treat for the aphids, we would’ve had costs for both the insecticide and the aerial application (yellow airplane/crop duster). We don’t want to incur those costs if the aphids aren’t doing anything to affect yield (or our revenue) in this field.

 

No-Till Soybeans (76 Days)

This was our latest planted field. Given they were planted much later than we would have liked, these soybeans are doing great!

Lots of pods developing on this plant!

And I’ll just wrap up this week’s update with a few beauty shots of this lovely soybean field (of which I am now, officially, the proud owner!!!). 🙂