Yield Winners, Fertilizer Facts and Cattle Rumors

Dec 11, 2023

Here are the Top 5 things the DTN Newsroom is tracking for the week of Dec. 10. Watch for coverage of these and other topics through the week on our subscription platforms as well as on www.DTNPF.com.

All times listed below are in Central Standard Time (CST) unless otherwise mentioned.

1. Yield winners announced: Both the National Corn Growers Association and the National Sorghum Producers are expected to announce their annual yield contest winners. Will we see familiar names, or will some new contestants pop in with top yields?

2. Global Fertilizer Outlook: DTN Staff Reporter Russ Quinn continues our deep dive into global fertilizer conditions on the supply and demand side along with what possible wild cards could affect price. His latest piece, on the phosphorus outlook, is here: https://www.dtnpf.com/….

3. Cattle market rumors: Late in the past week, rumors flew about reasons for the drop in cattle futures prices while herd size remains historically small. At this writing it appears to be the "X" (formerly known as Twitter) factor -- that is, a remark thrown out into social media that then fed on itself. Ah, social media, we get what we pay for. DTN editors and analysts will look under whatever rocks turn up at the bottom of that stream.

4. Weather cools down: The weekend band of snow near the U.S.-Canada border pushed a cold front south through the Plains and east through the Upper Midwest. Temperatures have dropped some 20 degrees Fahrenheit from the previous week, but still remain mild by December standards through this week, well-above normal across northern zones.

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Video: LALEXPERT: Sclerotinia cycle and prophylactic methods

White rot, also known as sclerotinia, is a common agricultural fungal disease caused by various virulent species of Sclerotinia. It initially affects the root system (mycelium) before spreading to the aerial parts through the dissemination of spores.

Sclerotinia is undoubtedly a disease of major economic importance, and very damaging in the event of a heavy attack.

All these attacks come from the primary inoculum stored in the soil: sclerotia. These forms of resistance can survive in the soil for over 10 years, maintaining constant contamination of susceptible host crops, causing symptoms on the crop and replenishing the soil inoculum with new sclerotia.