Four-day workweeks sure fly by! Fields are shaping up nicely and it’s become much easier to differentiate which crop is growing in what fields from the car as you drive by fields at 55 MPH – so lots of progress this week.
June 4, 2021 Update:
Soybeans (42 days)
Soybeans are steadily getting bigger and putting on more leaves. You can actually tell that there’s something growing here and it’s not just a field of a light brown (dead) cover crop anymore.
See? This is due in part to the soybeans getting bigger and also because the cereal rye stalks are beginning to break down.
Here’s a better shot of the rye. Notice how it’s not all standing upright any more? This is exactly what it’s supposed to be doing at this stage (we killed it about four weeks ago). It’s done a great job as suppressing weeds in this field – enough that we *might* be able to get away with not doing a mid-season herbicide application. More on that after we scout really, really well for weeds in the next week or two.
Here’s another close-up of the beans. I’m pointing at the cotyledon in this photo, which is starting to yellow. If you recall, these are the very first leaves the soybean grows as it emerges from the seed.
The soybeans are constantly putting out new leaves. As one trifoliate begins to unfurl, another is already emerging from the growing point.
And an overhead shot to wrap up the soybean update. See what I mean about there being a lot of cover on the ground that is helping prevent weeds from germinating?
Corn (38 days)
The corn has really taken off this week. It’s grown several inches and is really starting to green up.
For comparison, here’s the photo from last week. Different lighting (it was a rainy day when I took photos last week), but see how much the corn has grown and how much it’s changed in color? This is expected in corn – the nitrogen we sidedressed on a few weeks ago has really helped the corn grow and turn that darker green color.
The field definitely looks like corn from the road now. If you look closely, you can still see the lines from sidedressing (where nitrogen was applied into the ground).
Like soybeans, each corn plant is constantly putting out new leaves at this time of year. It will likely be several inches taller at this time next week. See the new leaf beginning to emerge from the center of the whorl?
And that’s all for this week’s update!
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