While we were hoping for rain every week during the entire growing season, the wish right now is for mostly sunny and dry weather so the crops can be harvested before the stalks collapse or before the unexpected early snowstorm buries the bean plants under a thick blanket of wet snow. Those are rare but such storms are currently predicted for early this week for Montana and Wyoming where 4” to 22” may fall at higher altitudes. We may feel the impact of those same fronts as temps 10 to 15 degrees cooler may move into the Midwest. After the crops are harvested it and any desired tillage has been completed it would be nice to get 6 to 8” of rain to continue filling the deep moisture profile.
National Events
The predicted problems with production and delays with industrial goods, machined goods, intermediate compounds, and repair parts or modules is hitting home now across many industries. It was known that there was an availability problem with computer chips for tractors, vehicles, smart machinery and navigational equipment, and we knew that merchants were doing their best to track when those items were supposed to be delivered. With harvest here and repair parts being needed, not being able to obtain parts to get a combine up and running becomes frustrating and costly. Winter will get here and there are lots of acres of valuable crops in the field. No one can afford a long delay now. We may see where in neighborhoods neighbors may have to help finish harvest for guys who were left stranded without a running machine.
The blame needs to be placed both on politicians and company people who chased cheap labor, permitting our steel and industrial machining business to be shipped overseas. Food production and harvesting, transportation of goods, heavy manufacturing and the production of computer chips need to be declared national security items that are based within the U.S. and not in distant countries where they are not secure.
Harvest News
In central Iowa harvest progress has been moving steadily along and the rated progress is a week to ten days ahead of normal. As of late Sept northern IA growers were concentrating on bean harvest with corn being too wet in most areas. In central IA green stems and wet beans forced operators who had waiting for the corn to drop more in moisture to continue on corn. Reports tell of moisture levels for corn in the lower teens, which seems very dry for this date. But if the corn died a month earlier than normal, having those levels makes sense.
Nothing about this year has been normal though. Never before since weather records were kept did we have a rainless April. In early and mid May planters shut down for about ten days due to intense cold. Then in late May the SW furnaces fired up and we had a few late May days in the mid 90s. Then about 80% of the areas of the state and their growers went two months with no general rains, with only a limited number of small bands of rain producing measureable rains. By July 5 th much of the central Iowa corn crops appeared to be dying from the heat and drought, and fat lady was getting ready to sing. That changed a bit in August when 2 to 4” of rain fell, just when the corn’s grain fill was occurring. How it filled as much as it did was surprising to everyone. Very few corn farmers were bragging about record high corn yields, but most across the entire state are acknowledging much higher corn yields than they ever expected.
How close is the USDA to be accurate with their latest predictions for either corn or beans? To crop producers the reports are not close to being accurate. They only serve to put a damper on grain prices. In which other businesses can inventories be changed by shifting around production or usage numbers from two years ago? No one on the demand side believed those artificial figures. In years when we have record corn crops nearly every major producing state has near perfect weather, there are few to none high spots or low lost spots, and no state had large areas that went unplanted. We saw by early to mid summer every large gain pile that existed last spring was cleaned up. Compounding the lack of corn grain was the lack of corn production in Brazil due to six nights of freezing weather. They needed their own corn to meet feeding needs for poultry in western Parana and livestock in other states.
Soybean Harvest
It has always been known that soybeans tolerate dry conditions better than corn. Most were expecting a bean crops that was 80 to 85% of normal. Now that fields have been harvested many growers are seeing the best yields ever. The podded node counts are slightly above normal, due to their early planting. Branch number was up slightly but not high in every field. We have to do more weighing to see is bean size is larger than normal. Adding to bean size is the quickest and easiest way to boost yields. The way to accomplish this is to make foliar applications of multi-mineral mixes that boost bean size.
When the bean planting season was approaching growers were asking for advice on what they could do to increase yields with the least efforts and expense. Devotees of Ray Rawson, Kip Cullers and now Jimmy Fredricks’ who followed their paths and fertility protocols understood the process of ramping up the late season application of minerals using the methods proven to get them into the still green plants. These minerals can serve dual roles in that they are utilized season long to both boost plant nutritional status and increasing immune system function. I have clients who were quizzing why their plants were staying green while neighboring fields had dropped all their leaves. They couldn’t harvest as early but the days of extra pod fill contributed 15 to 20 Bu/A of beans worth $12/Bu.
What this year’s bean yields will do is clue growers into what their soils are actually capable of producing in a normal to dry year. They will sharpen their understanding of plant physiology, bean plant hormonal activity, and the role of each mineral and microbe that affect their plants. After a producer achieves 70, 80, 100, or 110 Bu/a they won’t be going back, as they realize they can achieve those yields and the financial benefits from them. Coupled to this success is the continued need to gain success in controlling water hemp from a new product standpoint or changed management tactics.
The Disease Situation
Within Iowa most of the season was too dry to foster major problems with leaf diseases until the wetter weather and heavy dews arrived around August 10 th . Then the Southern Rust and Tar Spot blew in or developed. There were also fields where Eye Spot and GLS grew in both incidence and severity. In comparison many Illinois and western Indiana growers were salivating at the prospect of harvesting and selling their expected 230 to 270 Bu/A crop predicted during in the ProFarmer Tour. In many cases the old axiom of ‘counting their chickens before they hatched’ came true as a series of 5 or 6 corn diseases capitalized on the most conditions of mid to late August, causing their green plants to turn brown faster in September faster than they had seen before. Goss’s Wilt was also a problem diagnosed by an expert who traveled thru Missouri and Illinois on his way to Purdue. Those excess bushels disappeared as the fungal and bacterial diseases killed the plants’ ability to form more sugars.
The lessons to be learned here will be valuable in the future. Simply relying on an early application of a fungicide to solve all of the disease problems simply isn’t going to cut it anymore. A few facts point out the shortfalls. Both strobes and triazoles have little to no systemic or curative activity. Projects performed by Glen Hartman and Monte Miles in Paraguay confirmed this. The SDHIs do offer those two abilities, but no one has been able to provide info on how far or rapidly they act or move. The length of residual activity is vitally important. The earlier you apply a product, the earlier it wears out. All of the current products need to be applied preemptively before any diseases invade or appear. With Asian Rust in Brazil once you see the disease on a plant, the field is a goner. With Brazil’s climate and high rainfall amounts their low OMs and CEEC soils can’t hold onto the minerals important to their immune response. The Midwest’s heavier, prairie derived soils retain higher minerals levels creating healthier plants.
It appears that successful disease management in future seasons will rely on different tactics being implemented. Making multiple applications may be doable, but would get expensive. What else can help? First would be to reduce the amount of inoculum by applying a biological mix to turn the fresh residue into degraded residue. Be sure to choose corn varieties with genetic resistance. Help your crop out by tissue testing and help the plants maintain a strong immune response by supplying the Mn, Cu, Bo, Zn and Fe when tissue tests indicate those levels are low. Be aware that the newer amino acid or phosphite chelated amino acid are much more available within the plant than EDTA ones are. Be aware that certain plant defense compounds such as phytoalexins (PAs) phenolics and antioxidants are important within the plants’ immune systems. The PAs are composed of Zn and copper, so adequate supplies are important.
Good references to read on this topic would be: #1 Mineral Nutrition and Plant Disease by Huber and Datnoff; #2: an article on the role of all minerals by renowned agronomist Graeme Sait. We will post the Sait article on our site as well as the new chapter being added to the Huber and Datnoff text.
Formulating 2022 Plans
As mentioned above, getting the degradation process started in fields with low Haney scores can be sped up with the application of biological mixes of cellulose degrading microbes. Having a chopping head helps start the process by exposing more of the residue surface area to the microbes and to oxygen. This same product serves the dual role of cycling the minerals contained in the 2021 residue available to the plants of the 2022 crop. Allowing or having enough warm days for the microbes to do their job before the air and soil temps cool down is important. Getting the products applied to the already harvested fields will help the process, so act now. There is now another new mixture on the market where a top PhD scientist applied mathematical algorithms to his breakdown product. This person won the Nobel Prize for inventors from the prestigious International Trade Council a year ago so applied some of the same concepts here.
An Insect Threat
Although prophylactic applications of insecticides can be tough to recommend it may be justified for next year’s corn plans. In bean fields where heavy populations of large sized waterhemp escapes grew there is a high likelihood that the female CRW beetles which fed on the pollen from those plants laid their eggs in those fields. This may be the cause of the spotty root lodging seen in this year’s corn fields. You may want to consider this if it fits any of your 2021 fields.
Bob Streit is an independent crop consultant and columnist for Farm News. He can be reached at (515) 709-0143 or www.CentralIowaAg.com.