Your Agronomy Team
CropGuard Services, INC.
Update 03/03/2016
Well it's March and it is snowing in NW Indiana. Hopefully everyone has survived the winter and is preparing the 2016 planting season that is just around the corner. In preparation for the 2016 planting season, customers have been bringing their corn planter units into the Rensselaer store for a preseason tune up on the Precision Planting test stand. If you haven't had yours tested yet, and would like to get them checked over before mid-April is upon us call Lyle or Rick to schedule your appointment.
Thoughts on 2016
As everyone knows, 2016 is set up to be a difficult financial year for most in agriculture. There are a number of inputs that we can shave our cut in order to make a little room on the budget lines. We can do more no-till, cut our seeding rate back a little, cut back a little on the amount of dry fertilizer we spread this spring, but one thing we SHOULD NOT do is cut back on our herbicide programs. Almost every county in Indiana has confirmed glyphosate resistant marestail. Our NW corner of Indiana has been blessed with glyphosate resistant Palmer amaranth. Our friends to the west in Illinois have been fighting glyphosate resistant waterhemp for the last few years (by the way - we have glyphosate resistant waterhemp in Newton county too). Start clean, use a residual pre-emerge, and it would be best to use another residual with your post herbicide application. If you are relying on glyphosate to kill non-resistant weeds be sure to use AMS, do not cut rates, and spray before weeds are 6" tall.
I have received a few phone calls this winter about switching to 100% non-GMO corn this spring to cut back on seed costs. While this strategy will reduce seed input costs, you will most likely have a higher herbicide bill. Now its true that glyphosate's effectiveness is not what it was 20 years ago, but it is still a really good grass killer. So pay special attention to the grass control component of your conventional herbicide program if you have not been raising non-GMO crops since the late 90's.
Seed and fertilizer rates.....Purdue has been telling farmers they can cut back to a SEEDING rate of 29,000 seeds/ac. Now, I agree that we can cut back on our rates from where they were just 2-3 years ago but 29,000 seeds/ac is a little extreme for my taste. If you are farming sand in 30" rows without irrigation, then yes you should probably be planting 27-29,000 seeds/ac. Most of our farm land in Indiana and Illinois should still be planted at 30-34,000 seeds/ac. I see no reason to plant any thicker than 35,000 seeds/ac.
The price of nitrogen fertilizers have dropped significantly since 2015 sidedress season. Even at these lower prices the Maximum Return To N (MRTN) rates according to Iowa State's studies are still from 170-190 lbs/ac. Check it out for yourself here http://extension.agron.iastate.edu/soilfertility/nrate.aspx