|
July 11, 2018 Learn to diagnose field problems when they happen. Any agronomist would tell a farmer to scout each field multiple times a year. That is the only way you can identify a problem and its cause. Waiting till harvest is too late. Crop consultants and farmers work together to determine field issues and often face difficult steps trying to understand what happened and when it happened. It is easier to diagnose any field problem... |
|
July 10, 2018 Originally published in the Illinois Field & Bean magazine Innovation is changing the face of modern farming. In fact, ag technologies are accelerating at a mind-boggling pace, as a new generation of smart farming, sensors, big data, robotics and machine learning is on the horizon and poised to revamp the entire food chain. While much of this transformative technology comes from established ag players,... |
|
July 10, 2018 As with corn plants, soybean plants have very defined reproductive stages. These stages are determined based off the size and development of the seed pod at one of the uppermost 4 nodes. It’s important to understand these stages to better understand how certain stresses are impacting yields and knowing when to make proactive and reactive application (fungicides, nitrogen, herbicides). Ultimately, it’s all about selecting strong genetic... |
|
July 09, 2018 The research and debate on applying supplemental nitrogen (N) on soybeans continues. The ILSoyAdvisor has posted its share of articles on the topic and I have written my portion to answer that question. There is no clear answer and just applying nitrogen can be costly with an added risk of adding more nitrogen to the groundwater—two negatives. After studying the topic for five years and listening to many viewpoints it is hard for me... |
|
July 05, 2018 Applying fertilizer is the conventional practice in production agriculture. Growers are using combinations of natural nutrient cycling (soil biology, microbial interactions) and synthetic/chemical fertilizers to feed their crops. The question is, does synthetic/chemical fertility work with natural nutrient cycling? These two approaches are not generally complementary and should be prioritized for the greatest benefit on yield, soil... |
|
July 03, 2018 If you took Kelly Robertson’s advice from last month’s blog, you’re on your way to a successful double-crop season. The main drawback is having to deal with Mother Nature. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve had excessive rainfall in many areas which slowed wheat harvest and planting of double-crops. Then the heat rolled in, knocking the test weight out of the wheat and producing a bunch of small grains that passed right through the combine... |