Wheat Pete’s Word, May 5: N in the corn row, double crop beans, and wrangling rye

April didn’t bring showers to Western Canada, and it didn’t bring heat to Ontario either. But the growing season in Ontario is still about 10 days ahead of average and that has some farmers well ahead of the norm for planted acres.

This week on Wheat Pete’s Word, host Peter “Wheat Pete” Johnson covers a wide-row question on soybeans, if nitrogen (N) on 6-leaf corn is early enough for early N, and what to do about rye in need of some N just ahead of harvest. Plus, high prices and an early start to planting has farmers eyeing up double crop beans. Can it be done?

Have a question you’d like Johnson to address or some yield results to send in? Disagree with something he’s said? Leave him a message at 1-888-746-3311, send him a tweet (@wheatpete), or email him at [email protected].

SUMMARY

  • RealAg around the world! A grower in Germany wants to do a corn emergence flag test
  • Popsicle sticks work just as well as flags, plus you can write on them
  • It’s a Goldilocks story — too wet, too dry, and just right in some areas for planting and seeding
  • Crop progress in Ontario is speeding along
  • Wheat is 10 days ahead of schedule
  • Some growers are DONE corn and soybeans, but some haven’t started, of course
  • Need some heat for those clays
  • Cool temps means less evaporation, so heavy clays just don’t dry out well even without rain
  • A drought in April is what Ontario likes to see (but only April, please)
  • Waterloo County soil conditions are near ideal, silt loam, so lovely
  • Corn into wheat ground (with sorghum after) and into alfalfa ground — the difference in how the soil works up is pretty neat
  • Alfalfa crowns might trip you up a little in the work up, and tap roots
  • We’re about 100 GDD days ahead of average in Ontario (10 days ish)
  • March was the real kicker, April was cool
  • Farmers are already talking double crop soybeans
  • Downside to warm conditions? Black cutworm moths in the traps already
  • Watch corn fields for damage
  • Listen to June 15th Word re: double crop soybean
  • Narrow rows, high seeding rates, get that crop up and out and canopied
  • 30″ row beans in high white mould areas? 2×2 band with starter N — build a bigger plant faster (for canopy not about yield)
  • N in the corn row for massive yield…how do we get there? Idea: 6-leaf corn and y-drop in N, maybe with S. Nope too, late. Has to be there for 4-leaf stage
  • Need about 50 lb/ac in the seed row
  • Leaf architecture for yield benefit?
  • Do the trial! And don’t forget the fungicide (and have to have the same tassel timing, hmmm)
  • Going to cut rye for forage, but wondering about N. 100 lb N but at least 90
  • Probably need more N, but drop the S, and three weeks might not be long enough to get the benefit

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