News

Working around the weather

Now that the majority of the corn and soybean crop has been planted across the country, farmers are turning their focus to helping the crop grow.  Farmers taking part in Get Growing, Brownfield’s spring series of Cab Conversations talk about what they’re seeing in the fields.

Central Nebraska farmer Zach Hunnicutt says they are just a little behind normal.  “We got all of our pre-emerge and post-emerge spraying done,” he says.  “So we’re in pretty good shape on that front.  Now we’re just trying to get out there and get fertilizing done.”

Eastern South Dakota’s Keith Alverson says the crop wasn’t the only thing to take off with warmer temperatures and adequate moisture.  “After it started raining the weeds took off – as quickly or more quickly than the crops,” he says.  “WE’re trying to decide when to start spraying our post-emerge and trying to keep things fought back in the fence-lines.”

Adam Casner farms in western Missouri.  He said they’ve walked a lot of corn recently and aren’t seeing too many problems.  “We’ve been looking awfully hard to find some corn borer eggs under the leaves,” he says.  “We could never find any.”

East Central Indiana’s Dave Lowe is still trying to finish planting his crops – for the first time.  But, he says, he’s also scouting what’s already in the ground.  “Burndown has held really well on the beans,” he says.  “We haven’t noticed any insect problems.  We had a report to keep an eye out for armyworm – but haven’t seen a problem at this point.”

Because of the challenges the weather has presented for central Ohio farmer Allen Ett, he says they have to address fields individually.  “You plant for two or three days and you’re out for a week and you plant for a few days and you’re out again,” he says.  “So our spraying and side-dressing are going in the same spurts.”

You can catch our latest episode of Get Growing HERE.