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Risk and reward of early planting

Farmers might be considering the risk and reward of early planting.

Jeff Moon with Corteva Agriscience says fieldwork could start early given mild winter conditions across most of the Midwest.

“As we don’t see much snow out there. But anytime we can get something in the ground a little bit earlier we tend to have a longer growing season (and) we can see some chances for some increased yield there, and I think there’s plenty of data out there that would show that.”

But he tells Brownfield planting early can be risky.

“We don’t know quite when we’re out of the wintertime season (and) certainly have to pay attention to those freeze and frost dates depending upon where you’re living. We also have to think about planting into some colder soils and maybe what we need to do to protect the seed to get that off to a good start.”

Moon says weed control is another consideration.

“The longer the (growing) season is, the longer we’ve got a time for those weeds to grow as well. If the soybeans are going to grow, the weeds are going to grow.”

He says that could result in additional herbicide applications.