Northeast Ohio Agronomic Crop Report

Most of the area has received an inch or better of rain over the last 10 days. Crops, especially soybeans are doing well. August is soybean month and it is all about rain to move this crop along. This is also the time of year that we need to turn our attention to controlling weeds on newly harvested small grain and also those forgotten prevented plant fields. These fields should not be neglected as weed pressure will increase and many of these weeds will go to seed. In an age where we are dealing with more and more weed resistance to herbicides neglecting large area of ground and not attempting some kind of control is foolish. It is either control it now or deal with a bigger problem later.

In this week’s Agronomic Tips OSU Weeds Specialist Mark Loux goes over spray programs and rates to control weeds on these areas. As Mark points out, weed control can be as simple a just mowing the fields or using a combination spray like Glyphosate with 24D to get control of problem weeds. Sometimes a combination of both is needs if the weeds get to large. The dry weather, we had early on, suppressed the weed growth on these areas. Now that we have had rain the weeds out there are doubling in size. Weeds like Foxtail and Ragweed will experience extensive growth in August and will deposit millions of seeds if left untreated. Weeds like and Canada thistle and Quack grass have already reached maturity. The only way to control them is to mow them off and let them re-grow and then hit them with an herbicide in the fall.

This is also a good time to get out and do something with those prevented planted fields. They were not planted for a reason and that reason was that they were too wet to plant. Many farmers who own or have long term control of the land are tiling these fields to improve drainage. Poor drainage is one of the major causes of low yields and tile will pay for itself. This is also a good time to soil test the open fields and to apply lime. Late summer is always the best time to apply lime because it takes at least 6 months for the product to start neutralizing the soil.
Many of you are looking to put some kind of crop on these fields this fall. If that crop is wheat, proceed with caution. 2011 should have taught us some valuable lessons about planting wheat on wet ground. Last fall was dry and a lot of ground that producers were unable to plant in the spring of 2010 was planted to wheat. The spring of 2011 was extremely wet. Many of those farmers could not put nitrogen, herbicide or fungicide on their wheat and this was reflected in their yields. There is an old adage; “if you cannot grow and harvest a crop that takes four months on a field, then how can you expect to grow a crop that takes 9 months to grow on the same field”. Good point! Wheat requires a lot of management and it should be grown on your best ground. A much better choice would be to grow a cover crop that will protect your soil and pave the way for planting a spring crop.

Here is this week’s Crop Progress Report:

Corn; May planted corn has reached the R-3 milk stage and is looking good. Early June corn is in the R-1 or Silking (pollinating) or R-2 blister stage. All of this corn should make Black Layer if the warm weather continues. We are now approaching 2000 heat units for the season.

Soybeans: Most of the June planted soybeans are at R-2 or full bloom some are now approaching R-3 or the beginning of the pod set. This is when you will find at least one 5mm pod set within the 4 upper most nodes.