By Bob Streit
Columist, Farm News
The days are becoming noticeably shorter and the crops are advancing in what has become a topsy turvy growing season. Everything seemed out-of-whack from the end of winter and the start of the planting season, to what we have in the field now. This was following the...
What a summer and what a growing season. Does anyone know what to expect next? Actually, keen observers recognize that up until now it has been mostly a cookie cutter repeat of the last three seasons. Unseasonable warm in early to mid-April, then it dropped into the...
We are in the last full week on July. Now through mid-August is typically the hottest and driest part of the summer. It is also the time when most of the sweet corn comes into full production and we get our fill of this tasty crop along with watermelons which are...
The summer and season is continuing at a very rapid pace. In most cases the corn crop in most places reached knee high or taller by July 3rd. In fact, there were tassels poking up in a number of commercial fields with silks soon to emerge. In my gardens the mid-April...
Don’t look now but we are approaching the longest day of the, June 21st. This is when soybean plants are normally triggered to start flowering if they have reached the V5 growth stage. At this point a sizeable percentage of the bean plants are behind that schedule due...
We are now getting into the important main part of the growing season. Most of the corn crop in in the V2 to V4 growth stage. The largest corn I have been in so far was actually near Fremont, NE at late V5. So far outguessing the weather has been near impossible....
What are they and why are they here? How do they function on or with plants? Are they a silver bullet or another tool that can help produce higher SB yields? Back in the early 2000s a number of us agronomists and farmers were following the corn and soybean high...
Every year is different as to the planting season, moisture amounts and how normal, cooler than or warmer than normal the environmental conditions are. The 2023 planting is now officially lasting longer than the average season, and due to the extended cool temps and...
I am writing this on Sunday May 7th, so things that may be apparent later in the week remain an unknown by Sunday morning. Here goes: In Television Land over the last fifty years, we have seen many game shows where participants are asked to use their instinct or luck...
Here is wishing everyone a happy last half of April greeting. At this time much of the Midwest recently was blessed with several unseasonably warm days or a week with temps in the upper 70s and even low to mid 80s causing a rapid snow melt and soil warm up. And now a...