2019 has been a challenging growing season.We have, in most areas had an ideal harvest season with regards to field conditions.There is lots of tillage being done, something many could not accomplish last fall.In some cases, we are still dealing with last year’s less than ideal harvest conditions. As harvest wraps up and seed orders are placed this fall you will be making plans for next year and will no doubt have many ideas and strategies to consider.
Planting delays forced many producers to either switch corn hybrids to earlier maturities or switch from corn to soybeans all together.Some of the outcomes they are experiencing this fall are not what they had imagined, after planting up to a month later than usual. Some of the corn has dried down to what would be considered normal harvest moisture's following some ideal sunny windy days in October and the yields have surprising.
Leaf diseases such as Northern corn leaf blight and rust showed up in August and fields protected with a fungicide were able to take advantage of the warm sunny days in September. With better plant health there was more leaf surface to more effectively aid in sugar production and support grain fill. Some corn will be left standing in the field longer this year with hopes of further natural drying, so stalk integrity and stand ability will become a factor for harvest. In some cases, fungicides were not applied as the yield potential of the crop was in question, but in my opinion, this was a good move to protect the investment in the crop.Producers that used fungicide to maximize yield are happy with their decision.
Soybean yields in some of the trading area have been very surprising and have exceeded most expectations after a cool, wet start to the growing season.In many cases planting took place later than preferred, but the rains came at the right time to produce a good crop.Later planting lowered yield expectations somewhat and some plans for crop protection and foliar fertilizer applications were abandoned.Any reduced stress on the crop seems to be beneficial yet again, and yields were maximized by increased management and care.This may not be the case for all of the trading area, but most soybeans were planted in reasonable time in Chatham Kent and backing off of plant health protection was not always the right move.
Crop planning remains a key and fundamental exercise for proactively optimizing returns and offers peace of mind that all outcomes have been considered. Regardless of planting delays planning for contingencies is a good risk management thing to do.
Although changes to initial cropping intentions and field plans had to be made in the spring, in my opinion it was a year to carefully assess each field situation.We can plan your 2020 crop by the farm, field, crop and inputs and discuss then in detail. If changes need to be made then they are made from a carefully laid out plan. A lesson from 2019 would also be to have a plan B, or C for when things don’t work out as you wish.Now is the time to decide what your goals are for next year and how you plan to get there.
Spend time with your AGRIS or Wanstead Farmers Co-operative crop sales specialist to get plans in place that will simplify your spring, from seed to crop protection, fertility and be prepared with alternate plans to deal with the unexpected.
Source : Agris