Here we sit on the first few days of December, about a week after Thanksgiving, and we have often been able to do outdoors work in long sleeve shirts with a late Indian summer. Now in a time when we often get bombarded with wild predictions about global warming with those predictions from groups trying to sound official we instead are looking at three storms moving in from the Pacific ready to deliver snow to our region and it is not winter yet. Will we have to endure another year without a spring?
In the hopes of delaying winter, the local university hosted a football contest this past Saturday. It was raining, it was snowing, and there was a strong cold wind coming out of the Northwest. While we normally think of football players as being big and tough, they are human and had to feel the cold. If they have to play in those conditions, shouldn’t the athletic officials and refs also have to give up wearing jackets and rain gear? I was outside much of the day and it was not great weather wise. I was telling my wife that when we were kids in grade school up in N Iowa we played tackle tag at recess in the spring and fall for two straight years, not caring if it was raining, snowing, or the ground was frozen. I had to explain to her what tackle tag was. The nuns finally made us quit after a few too many broken bones, sprained wrists and concussions among our classmates.
The hot news on the twitter network Saturday evening was the sit-down dinner between U.S. and Chinese trade officials attending the G20 summit in Argentina. We have waited with baited breath to hear that progress is being made in de-escalating the trade war and accompanying tariffs on U.S. bean exports to China. Any event or action that shuts down the grain trade of one of our larger crops to the regular destination affecting farmer profitability is an important topic. It was announced the dinner meeting took place and they had some good discussions on several topics including ramping down the announced January 1st imposition of increased rates of those penalties. A lot of things will be discussed during the next few weeks and we hope gets the U.S. raised soy crop moving in the direction of China. Let’s hope that continued progress is made.
Weather and Global Warming
I don’t doubt that the CO2 level in the atmosphere is increasing each year. A number of wise crops people admit to that fact but differ on what they fell the cause of that rise is. They believe the main source of this rise is likely the loss in carbon based organic matter from the fields. Two decades ago it was very common to see soil test results include OM levels in the high 4s or low 5s. Now most are showing OM levels about in the high 2s to mid-3s. There are several thoughts on what has caused the decline. Tilling the soil exposes more of the soil profile to oxygen and different microbes consume the carbon as a food source. A large cause would have to be the steady high rate of N being applied. The normal amounts applied to reach desirable yield goals of the 2018 era narrow the C:N ratio and the microbes utilize the increasing rates of N to further degrade the organic matter carbon. I asked a soil scientist from the western Cornbelt who started one of the largest soil testing labs what his opinion was as to the effect of a certain form of N on the microbial communities in the soil. He said he conducted a trial where the weighed the microbes in a sample of soil before and after an application of this fertilizer and he measured a 48% decrease by weight of microbes. Another factor involves a number of pesticides that contain minerals or compounds deleterious to microbial life. This can be a contentious topic, especially if one or more of those companies selling one of those compounds happen to be helping sponsor the event. That is usually when the speakers tend to lose their spines.
We had our annual fall Crop Consulting meeting last week to hear about and get educated on different company’s newer insecticide and fungicides. The question I should have asked but didn’t think of at the time to ask the presenters which of their new products are not based on Halide chemistry, which is a hot and reactive group that includes chloride and fluoride. When I asked the biochemist from MIT about the effects of chloride or fluoride on plants, humans and soil microbes she said it would eventually kill them when the concentration or dose got high enough. In one case one company had a product that became a very popular herbicide. They applied for a label to also sell it as a medicine. In that application they listed all the species that it killed. Included in that list were most of the beneficial microbes that helped for healthy soil and made up much of the human micro-biome.
Booking Seed
At customer and end of season customer appreciation meetings agronomists and company reps are often trying to see what was learned from this past season that can be applied to future years. Two of those most mentioned were that early planting continues to be important to both corn and bean yields. The maturity of the corn or bean variety seems to be secondary. Usually we feel the big advantage to this is on corn is the plants’ ability to capture more early heat and take advantage of the longer days that occur in early June. I think in time people will start to think more about when the disease pressure becomes so great from lack of proper nutrition and heavy inoculum pressure as the season progresses.
With soybeans the early planting seems to lead to having more podded nodes. We see more plants with 19 to 21and up to 24 nodes with late April and early June planting. Now the way to compensate for later planting seems to manipulate plant architecture via application of cytokine hormones or switching the physiology to grow more side branches. Late season application of mineral mixes like NutraBoost containing the three minerals most needed for late season complement the additional pods or nodes by providing the late season nutrition to fill the pods.
GreenSnap Damage in Corn
Most people became aware of the big green snap event that hit much of western IA as they either heard about it or saw the damaged fields when they drove past on I-80. That event as well as several others also moved thru during the time period about two weeks before tassel. There were fields that had spots in them that had only one or two plants standing in areas that were over 100 ft long and 12 rows wide. The spottiness of the damage makes perfect estimates of plant loss tough. This fall some of those fields made under 30 Bu? In the past there was nothing that could be use to prevent such damage. Now, based on what we speculated on and proved to be true was that the application of a silica or silicon product like Mainstay Si reduced the greensnap in fields by over 90%. It is a surprise to many people, but once they learn that farmers in rice, wheat and sugar cane production have been using the product for year to strengthen stalks and boost late season standability for years it become easier to accept.
In addition, lots of article from the same researchers and growers tell how they also see both physical and physiological benefits that lessen plant diseases. Look at are our website shortly to see these articles.
Genetics and Seed Budgets
Is everybody building a bare bones budget for 2019 or will the tariff negotiations add more margin dollars that can be used to try a few new things that could raise yields and reduce cost per produced bushels. A discussion there would lead to a grower wondering if they need all the current traits or if management, better understanding of plant nutrition, insect activity, and disease biology could be used along with less traited or conventional varieties. Lots of good growers have been producing very goodyields with lower traited or conventional hybrids while also seeing better late season plant health. Plus there will be more premiums coming from a number of processing and food companies. But remember that added management may be needed. Traits were meant for a reason and often substituted for devoting time to scouring and perhaps spraying.
There is still a lot of sorting out in the seed industry now, both with corporate structure and then finding out who your dealer and company reps are. The only advice is to see who best serves you at the local level, product performance and how price friendly the company is. As far as bigger is better, that does not seem to be the case in this industry. It is often the smaller companies that are more innovative and customer oriented.
This past week there was a food conference scheduled where they will be meeting with their beta testers to share their information on this new open platform food scanner that is handheld, uses X-Ray scanning for detection, and will measure mineral levels in food. It should be available to the food purchasing public for the coming season and an affordable price. I have mine spoken for already. It will allow for true transparency in the food industry, what a novel idea.
Bob Streit is an independent crop consultant and columnist for Farm News. He can be reached at (515) 709-0143 or www.CentralIowaAg.com.