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The Cropwalker - Volume 4 Issue 40

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Crop Conditions

Weather WET. A bit of dry weather and then a lot of wet. Some areas received 4-6”. Not much field activity last week. Just waiting for fields to dry. Winter wheat generally very little planted last week. Probably sitting now at around 700,000 acres which is less than last year. And some of these acres not looking really good. There will be a push to get more acres in if the soil is fit. South of Highway 8 Crop Insurance planting deadline is November 7. Soybean harvest continues very slowly. Beans are standing well but ground conditions not very conducive to harvesting. Starting to see some ugly beans at the elevator. The picture below is suspected to be Phomopsis. Corn harvest continues very slowly. More indications that DON levels in corn are increasing. Stalk quality continues as a concern. Nothing you can do now except wait for drier soil conditions.

Picture 1 - Possible phomopsis in soybeans.

Articles

Winter wheat planting dates

No panic yet if you are south of highway 8. The attached map shows areas and dates where you can insure your wheat. There are different cut off dates for areas east of Belleville.

Figure 1 - Agricorp - Winter Crop Planting Deadlines
Figure 2 - Agricorp - Planting Date Map

Broadcasting wheat

The right time to broadcast wheat is before soybean leaf drop. Seeding then provides leaf cover to help with germination. Seeding that early also allows roots to get established well enough to prevent heaving. Broadcasting now might allow wheat to germinate but you will not get enough root growth to anchor the plants. Not worth doing. Wait and hopefully we get some better weather.

Not enough wheat planted to cover your contract

Not much you can do. Currently wheat price for harvest 2022 is $8.50/bu. If you contracted for less than that you have to talk to the folks where you booked your wheat. Could try and get wheat from someone who has not booked it but hard to convince someone to let you fill your $7.00 contract when they could get $8.50 But you could ask for future considerations.

Fall Fleabane Control

If you had fleabane in soybeans this year, consider controlling them this fall. If the field is destined for soybeans next year, you must control them now. Tillage will control the small rosettes, but not the large ones. Tillage will just move them around. One strategy is to spray with Eragon plus Merge and Roundup plus 2,4-D or dicamba (if they are big) and then plant fall rye to help smother the ones that germinate later. If you do not plant fall rye, then at least spray fleabane off. The key is to never allow fleabane get to a point it is too difficult to control.

I used the 60 mL/ac rate of Eragon LQ this fall. Will I have to spray my wheat next spring?

It depends. The 60 mL/ac rate does provide some residual control of winter annuals, which would mean you can delay your spring herbicide application. You may still have to do a delayed spring herbicide application if a) you have a high pressure of annual weeds, and a thin canopy b) you have perennial weeds (which might be better off with a pre-harvest), and/or c) you have a spring/late fall population of Canada fleabane.

How to measure kernel weight

It’s actually pretty easy. I had purchased a postage size scale to carry with me to do projects like this (yes, nerd alert). Strip all the kernels off the cob, count them, weight them. If you wanted a rough number, you could just count the rows around and length, then weight the kernels.

The hard part is adjusted kernel weight to a “dry” weight, or leave them in the house or shop to air dry for a bit.

In this case, I had counted 28 cobs with 16 around by 30 rows. So that area of the field should run about 204 bushels/acre if it only takes 65,733 kernels to make a bushel.

Figure 3 - Math to figure out Kernels per Bushel
Figure 4 - Kernel Weight in Grams to Kernels per Bushel

Trading carbon credits

Not going to write anything about them. Once some criteria have been established, we can give you ideas on how to plan on how to earn credits. Currently every proposal has a counter proposal as to why there is no carbon credit. Even planting trees has not been accepted.”

Forages benefit to soils. Here are some thoughts from Canadian Forage Grassland Association. A three-year perennial forage crop has been shown to return more than twice the soil organic carbon as an annual crop such as cereals or pulse crops (Manitoba Department of Agriculture, 2008). Growing well adapted, highly productive species and cultivars increases the amount of soil carbon sequestered under perennial forage production (Abdalla et al., 2018). “

The extensive rooting system of a productive perennial forage stand can store up to 2.7 times more carbon than annual crops and sequester it deeper in the ground for a longer term (Manitoba Agriculture, 2008). Without the tillage needed in annual crops, less soil organic matter is broken down, releasing less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Sulfur (S) and forages

As I read the research there are some different opinions based on THEIR research. But some things are agreed upon

1.     Forages need about twice as much S per acre as corn

2.    Lighter soils tend to supply less S to crops

3.    Soil OM adds about 2.5 Lb. S per 1 % OM

4.    Rain adds 3-10lbs S per acre. Much less than 15 years ago.

5.    Manure adds about 1 lb. plant available S per 1,000 gallons or 1-ton dry manure

6.    You should apply 25-50 lbs S per acre at seeding

7.     You should apply 15-25 lbs/ac S each year to established stands

8.    S should be applied in the spring since cold soils will not release S from the OM.

Delaro Complete is Now Registered (information from Leanne Freitag Bayer Crop Science)

NEW

Delaro® Complete fungicide adds a third mode of action to the proven formula of Stratego® PRO fungicide. The three modes of action provide enhanced disease control in corn and soybeans under various environmental conditions and work together to combat the toughest diseases.

In corn, it provides excellent preventive defenses against yield-robbing diseases such as common rust, eye spot, Northern corn leaf blight and tar spot.

In soybeans, Delaro Complete protects against all major soybean diseases as well as providing suppression of white mould.

Soybean Stem Diseases

While doing pre-harvest inspections I came across soybean plants covered in black spots. This grower had white mould challenges the year before, but was able to rule that out, so what was the issue? After speaking with Albert Tenuta, OMAFRA Field Crop Pathologist we settled on one the species of the Diaporte complex (Pod and stem blight) being the issue.

If your scouting fields for ground conditions because your unable to harvest, check to see if you have any stem issues, they may provide some clues on how to up your management for next year.

Picture 2 - Stem blight on soybeans

Corn Ear Rots

Continue to see corn ear rots as I am out checking fields.

If you have a white star-burst between the kernels, it’s fusarium

If you have pink to reddish mould (sometimes white) from the tip of the ear, it’s Gibberella

If you have white mould from the base of the ear, it’s Diplodia

If it’s green, you have aspergillus

If it’s turning black at the tip, you have saprophytic fungi feeding on dead plant tissue.

N Kleczewski on Twitter: "Black combines? Saprophytic fungi from all this wet weather. They feed off of dead tissue- just like when it is residue on the soil. Typically an indicator that the crop needs to come out ASAP but not a yield issue. @ilcorn @ISU_IPM @IL_CCA @IowaCCA… https://t.co/kRhmK5079t"

N Kleczewski on Twitter: "Black combines? Saprophytic fungi from all this wet weather. They feed off of dead tissue- just like when it is residue on the soil. Typically an indicator that the crop needs to come out ASAP but not a yield issue. @ilcorn @ISU_IPM @IL_CCA @IowaCCA… https://t.co/kRhmK5079t"

“Black combines?  Saprophytic fungi from all this wet weather.  They feed off of dead tissue- just like when it is residue on the soil.  Typically an indicator that the crop needs to come out ASAP but not a yield issue. @ilcorn @ISU_IPM @IL_CCA @IowaCCA https://t.co/Ps6z7pPoPH”

Crop Protection Network

Crop Protection Network

Should I build my soil Manganese (Mn) levels?

I usually get this question at least once a year. It takes considerable amounts of actual Manganese to raise levels 1 ppm. And even if you did raise your Mn levels, it doesn’t mean that you won’t have Mn deficiency. In some soils it is related to temporal (weather) conditions affecting availability more than it being at low levels in the soil. And in high organic matter soils (muck/peat), the ability of the soil to tie it up is so large, you should just plan on addressing it with both a broadcast/planter application and foliar in-crop.

Understanding mobile nutrients in the soil vs mobile nutrients in the plant

This is understanding crop nutrition and plant diagnostics 101. Just because you have a nutrient mobile in the soil, does not mean that it is mobile within the plant. This means thinking about how the nutrient is used within the plant.

Let’s take nitrogen for example, it is both mobile in the soil and in the plant. This means that you will see deficiencies on older leaves because it is mobile in the plant. But then Sulphur is mobile in the soil, but not so much in the plant.

Another example is Magnesium. It is not mobile with in the soil but is mobile in the plant. Then there is calcium, it is not mobile with in the soil or the plant (part of the reason bloom end rot is related to calcium supply!).

Study it and understand this chart. It will significantly help with crop diagnosis in the field. Understand what the nutrient does in the plant, once you do, you will immediately know why it’s having an impact. i.e. magnesium is core to chlorophyll production in leaves.

Figure 5 - Mobility of Nutrients in Soil and Plants

Phosphorus Variability in Soil

The picture below is a good example of why I am a big fan of keeping dry starter fertilizer on the corn planter. It takes out some of variability in soil phosphorus availability.

I picked up some new land, got any good ways to show what the cropping history was?

Yes! Agriculture and Agrifood Canada has the solution. Click on the map in the perspective field, and bam! You have a 10-year cropping history. And it uses radar instead of NDVI, so no cloud cover effects.

Annual Crop Inventory

Annual Crop Inventory - English description

Picture 3- Random field between Petrolia and Sarnia on Annual Crop Inventory site

Tarspot in Corn - Fungicide Response

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