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Agronomist calls 2024 growing season very unique

An agronomist suggests the 2024 growing season has been quite unique. 

Tony Lenz covers Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota for Stine Seed and says he’s expecting a wide range of corn and soybean yields this fall.

“We’ve got some areas that have drought, but then we have some areas that got hit hard with moisture this spring and had late planting. So we’re probably talking about one of the widest planting date swings, and when you do that it really messes with maturity, it messes with pollination dates.”

Speaking to Brownfield at the Farm Progress Show near Boone, Iowa Wednesday, he said farmers also encountered insects they probably haven’t seen in a while.

“In my northern (territory) we saw soybean aphids again, that actually were in large numbers. Western bean cutworm, some ear-feeding insects.”