November is here and the green of summer is mostly gone as the fields turn to different shades of brown and the last of the leaves fall off the trees. Reports of snow to the north will become more common later in the month and we can say goodbye to another growing season. It will be tough to summarize the season in that terrible droughts and heat waves are supposed to be represented in poor yields, yet for a few reasons the bushels produced have been surprising good, as we feared the opposite in the middle of the summer. Thus, the financial ramifications of the 2021 season are good to very good. The expectations for the 2022 season are cloudy at best due to the tumultuous disarray and unknowns within the fertilizer and input supply businesses that growers depend on. It has been a few years since the availability and expected prices of many products remain in question as every producer begins to line up inputs for 2022. Many astute operators recognized this early and acted as the realization and immediacy of those challenges sunk in.
Harvest progress this season began early and was sped up by the fact that much of the corn turned brown earlier than normal and typically before the black layer formed. The blast furnace of late August saw to that, combined with the lack of soil moisture reserves. The yellowing of the bean fields began about ten days early than normal and early yield reports told of better than expected results. Green stems and the presence of still green waterhemp plants in fields forced many growers to move their combines into their earlier corn hybrids. Bean harvest was mostly completed by the second week of October. By the 25th the corn crop had to be >80% harvested and in the bins or bags.
High yields and implementing steps and practices for achieving them remain as goals for each producer. Sorting thru all the magazines, promotional literature and product info to locate viable products over the next few months of meetings, conferences and readings is what each person has to do. Keep a calendar where you can list each event circling the ones you deem important. My list includes a large soil health conference at Riverside Iowa on Dec 6th and 7th . It is being organized by Mitchell Hora and is called The Big Soil Health Event. There is a long list of ten speakers and is targeting farmers, rural land owners and industry reps. 500 people are expected to attend. The Iowa State Extension service has their large Integrated Pest Management Conference scheduled for Dec 1 and 2. Both events have registration and agenda posted on the web.
Looking Towards the 2022 Season
After seeing extremely wet conditions in both 2018 and 2019, then turning the page and seeing extremely dry seasons in 2020 and 2021, guessing what is in store for us in 2022 is a crapshoot. Seeing two large counterclockwise systems mover over us in the last three weeks dropping 4 to 5+ inches of rain should build up deep moisture reserves a bit and a is lot more than we received last fall. Having such extremes in climate challenges our ability to plant, make in-season applications and harvest crops. They also influence how or when fertilizers can be applied and how available that fertilizer will be to the crops. Temp and moisture amounts also directly affect microbial activity which then affects nutrient release.
Where this fits now is that stalk quality in many fields to our east was poor with lots of lodging. Tissue test analysis also told of very low K levels thru the season, even if soil test levels were adequate. Different experts from Illinois, Michigan and other states are trying to explain the cause and the potential for remediating the problem in future seasons. College soil classes teach that clays are made up of layers of silica and oxygen in either 1:1 or 2:1 ratios. The atoms of K are attached within those layers. As the soils dry the sheets collapse trapping the K so tight that the roots can’t extract the K from within the layers.
This suggests that in years where the soil is very dry the K may need to be applied either via Y- drops or foliar. More of the foliars are now available and have become more affordable. In fact in a number of crops applying the P later can be beneficial in that Ca uptake early over P uptake can lead to stronger stalks as that mineral is important to stronger and more intact cell walls.
The Purdue Plant Path staff wrote a good illustrated article on stalk rot and stalk quality. Two to three decades ago stalk rot was thought of as an attack by a single, or two or three organisms. Then Dr. Jim Dodd of Cargill Seeds advanced the theory that poor stalk quality was the result of low sugar production by the plants at one or multiple points during the season. Low nutrient availability, too little or too much water, low O2 levels, insect attack, or too cloudy were all listed as causes. In most cases low mineral levels that go undetected and untreated can be rightfully blamed. Genetic families can sometimes be poor at uptake of these minerals.
Green Fields
This fall many of the fields turned green again two weeks after harvest, either with volunteer soybean or corn plants. I stopped at some of them and made stand counts to get an idea of how many bushels of grain missed getting into the grain tanks. Among the soybean stands I was able to see up to 40 small plants/ft. At a count of 2,800 seeds per lb. of beans, 8 to 10 Bu/A of soy grain went to waste. A lot of it was evenly spread suggesting it was pod shatter resulting from pods that opened early or when contacted by the cutter bar. In that case the Crary Air systems could have helped move the seeds into the cross auger. What have you seen? With corn there were also problems, either with the head impacts or not giving the shelling and sieves time to do their work.
Severely lodged circles of CRW affected corn plants showed up as concentrated areas of volunteer corn. In those cases the grain was so dry that ear shatter was extreme.
Fertilizer Costs and Allocations
Fertilizer costs jumped substantially over the past few months as supplies have been curtailed, transportation costs increased, and natural gas prices skyrocketed. The U.S. imports much of its P from sources in Russia, Morocco, and three other places. K comes primarily from Canada. The demand has increased big time in Brazil and Pakistan. For 2022 the issue besides price may be if any supplies are available. Many growers will be asking if their fields need an application of the N, P, K, S, Bo and other minerals or if they can skip a year while only applying Nitrogen. That depends of where their levels are at and what is the biological level in their fields. Also, are they cash renting with the agreement to at least replace the amounts removed by the marketed grain?
Several very knowledgeable mineral people expect that the amounts applied this spring will be reduced in poundage. If grain prices remain strong and the crops are off to a good start, they will apply fertilizers using the Y-Drop systems or via foliar. They will recognize a hungry crop needs to be fed and that foliar feeding can work if the rules on timing, form, water quality, pHs and availability are observed.
Disease Management Programs
The observant plant disease managers realize that we are going down the same path as we did with weed management in that continual usage of pesticides from just a few families did a great job of selecting for resistant weeds. With the cost and time constraints of researching new families and products it’s time to develops integrated systems where the available and still effective products might be paired with minerals that could lengthen residual times and boost effectiveness. In the case of Tar Spot if the greatest program was going to cost $58 per acre using two applications, would you jump at the chance to use it or search the alternatives or if one application might be improved to be as effective. If that sounds high priced and crazy recognize that bean growers in N. Minnesota often spent $126/A for controlling Cercospora in their sugar beets in 2021. Remember that good disease management for second year corn often starts with an application of residue digesting microbes.
Insect Expectations for 2022
Based on the observation that corn borer cycles run on five year intervals dictated by the population of insect eating fungi (Beauveria bassiana), the 2022 season may be a peak year where egg laying and stalk tunneling could be severe. If you plant conventional hybrids, be observant of black light trap catches as to when and how numerous the female moths are. Know where the thresholds and what products would be effective against them. The use of Argosy as an anti-wash-off agent lengthens the residual period of any insecticide.
Bob Streit is an independent crop consultant and columnist for Farm News. He can be reached at (515) 709-0143 or www.CentralIowaAg.com.