Rain, rain, go away…
This seems to be the song everyone across the Midwest is singing the last few weeks. Unfortunately, it looks like lots more is on the way this week.
We’re finished planting on our farm, but I know of lots of farmers who are still working – or trying to work – to get everything on their farms planted. There’s still a few weeks in the ideal planting window left, but only if we get a dry stretch here pretty soon.
Anyway, here’s a quick update on what’s happened on our farm over the last week.
May 22, 2020 Update:
Soybeans (30 days)
I can’t believe that it’s already been a month since these soybeans were planted. And it’s crazy to think that in another month from now, these soybeans will be much, much larger than they are today.
The soybeans have all emerged now and are working on their first set of leaves. Soybeans are trifoliates, which means that their leaves come in sets of three (after the first set during emergence).
You’ll notice in the photo below that the field is much more brown than last week. Last week’s herbicide application has worked to kill the cover crop (which we don’t want to compete with the soybeans now that it served its purpose over the winter and up until the soybeans began to emerge) and any weeds that may have been in the field.
This week, we’ll be on the lookout for any armyworms or other insects in the field. This is something we really have to keep a close eye on since the cover crop would have presented ideal conditions for the armyworms to overwinter. Too many armyworms will completely decimate these seedlings and, if it gets out of control, will require us to replant the field. We’ll be scouting (walking through the field and making observations) regularly to make sure it doesn’t get to that point.
(The purple/yellow plants in this photo are of the cover crop…or what’s left of it.)
Corn (9 days)
Update on my field! If you missed last week’s update, this is the field that I bought last year and is my first official crop. I planted this field a week ago Wednesday (May 13) and it’s mostly in plots, which allow us to experiment with a bunch of different corn hybrids to figure out how they perform in this specific field.
As you see in the above photo, there’s not much to look at here other than last year’s soybean stalks and corn stalks from two years ago. This field is no-till and there was a cover crop planted in the back third of the field (closer to the tree line that you see in the background). The corn has been planted for just over a week, but we’ve had a lot of rain and cool weather since planting. I would expect plants in this field to begin emerging over the next week, assuming we get some warmer weather and sunshine.
I’ve mentioned that we’ve had a lot of rain this week – 3-4 inches, to be exact. You can see in the photos above just how wet the soil looks, and you can even see a little bit of standing water in the low spots towards the back of the field here. You can also see where the cover crop was growing – that’s the yellowish color in the back of the field. We’re hoping to leverage cover crops in this field to help with the water issues we have – just something to slow the flow of water and maybe improve water infiltration, which will reduce the amount of soil that moves with the flowing water (which we don’t like).
Fingers crossed for warm, sunny days this week! Hopefully I’ll have something more exciting to show in the next update. 🙂