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Join the University of Minnesota Extension Crops team in addressing all your crop-related questions this growing season, from soil fertility, agronomics, pest management and more. We will tackle issues as they arise to help you make better crop management decisions this season.
I'm Ryan Miller, Crops Extension Educator. Earlier this morning, we recorded an episode of the Strategic Farming Field Notes program. Strategic Farming Field Notes is a weekly program addressing current crop production topics. A live webinar is hosted at 8 AM on Wednesdays throughout the cropping season. During the live webinar, participants can join in the discussion and get questions answered.
Ryan Miller:An audio recording of the live program is released following the webinar via podcast platforms. Thanks. And remember to tune in weekly for a discussion on current cropping and crop management topics.
David Nicolai:Well, good morning, and welcome to the University of Minnesota Extension's Strategic Farming Field Notes Program. I'm your host Dave Nicolai, University of Minnesota Extension Educator in Field Crops. This session is brought to you by the University of Minnesota Extension with generous support, from Minnesota families through the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council and also through the Minnesota Corn Research and Promotion Council. We're happy you had joined us today for today's corn and soybean planning progress updates. We welcome Doctor
David Nicolai:Jeff Coulter, University of Minnesota Extension Corn Specialist, along with Doctor. Seth Nave, University of Minnesota Extension, Soybean Specialist, with that and as we before we kick off just want to mention a little bit on the crop report that came out on Monday of this week, and this course tracks from the previous week so it's behind quite a bit in terms of that but as of the last Friday we were corn planted at 56 percent in the state and, that was, in terms of emergence about 14% and and corn, was only registering 26 percent as of last Friday, which was a little bit behind the, behind the average. We made a significant amount of progress since then, and in some areas in Western Minnesota probably up around that 90% corn planted by now and 70% soybean so a lot of difference been just a couple of days and over the weekend. But most importantly, the subsoil moisture was rated only at 15% short, 68% adequate, and 14% surplus. So we have been benefiting from some of those rains.
David Nicolai:So with that, I'm going to turn it over to, to Jeff here to begin with. Again, if you have any questions pop those in, the chat and we'll go from there. And Jeff, you want to give us a little bit update in terms of progress of corn planting in Minnesota, some issues and some things that people want to be doing here as that corn emerges in terms of making that first scouting pass. So, take it away.
Jeff Coulter:Thanks, Dave. Well, good morning, everyone. I just wanted to give a little update. This was kind of a little bit of an unusual year. You know?
Jeff Coulter:It's the spring started kinda early. There was good soil conditions in mid April, and good weather. And a lot of people were wondering what they should do. Should they get an early start on
Jeff Coulter:corn planting or wait? And one of the big challenges was we had about a 2 to 3 day window where the, low soil, low daily air temperatures were just below freezing. And, that was kind of, you know, help making people kind of wonder what they should do. If they should plant before that or wait until after that cold snap passed. Most fields did not get planted before then but some did.
Jeff Coulter:And on some of that early planted corn, what we're noticing is that it emerged at about the same time as the corn that was planted around April 22nd. And in addition, some of that early planted corn we're noticing that some of the emergence is a little spotty, particularly in the poorly drained parts of the fields. In addition, agronomists are who have been scouting these fields have been digging up seeds and they've noticed that the seeds on some of that early planted corn are a little mushy. The plants may be up but the seeds are still a little mushy and therefore, the plants are looking a little little pale and not quite as, vigorous as they normally would. Some people are wondering, you know, what does that mean?
Jeff Coulter:Well, the seed is important for the the plant up and through the b one stage, one leaf. After that, it's the importance of the seed starts to go away as those seminal roots or the temporary root system starts to develop. So, yeah, it's expected that plants who have their seeds are kind of, decayed a little bit aren't gonna be looking quite as healthy, but they should snap out of it as the seminal roots start to get established. Right now, with these temperatures, corn that's planted today should emerge in about 9 to 10 days. Another question that we're getting is what is the yield potential of corn that's planted at this time compared to if it was planted earlier, say around April 22nd.
Jeff Coulter:Assuming that they were planted under similar soil conditions today, if we plant, we can expect 95 to 98% of maximum yield potential compared to effect form was planted earlier under the same soil conditions. If we plant on May 20th, then we're looking at 92 to 95% of maximum yield. At this point, there's no reason to think that we need to change to earlier, corn hybrids in terms of their relative maturity. Once we get to about May 22nd then we've between May 22nd May 28 planting dates, then we want to think about maybe switching to something that's 5 to 7 relative maturity units shorter than full season for your region. So that's kind of an update, and I will turn it over to Seth.
Seth Naeve:Okay. Yeah. Good morning, everyone, and, welcome. I'm down here in Richfield.
Seth Naeve:Rich New Richland, not Richfield. New Richland, Minnesota. And you can see from my sunburn, I've been out planting a few days here. Been spending quite a bit of my time in Southern Minnesota, so I have a pretty good handle on what's going on down here. And so, you know, kind of anecdotally, it's it's difficult for us.
Seth Naeve:We see I've been seeing a lot of corn fields and a lot of variability out there. There's some corn that's been, that's actually been replanted in a couple fields. I've seen some fields that have been rotary hoe. So clearly, there's been some issues, with with corn planting. Unfortunately, I don't have anything really, you know, intelligent to offer because I don't know which which one of those times, which one of those spans that those that corn got planted.
Seth Naeve:I've been talking to quite a few farmers and agronomists down here. And in fact, Dave Farr, Corteva representative mentioned that he's had some clients that, some of the early folks got in when the conditions when soil conditions were really good and planted a lot of corn and have had pretty good luck. But then some of those that felt a little bit behind that they missed that first window then really rushed that second planting and probably planted into poor conditions because they they then felt like they were a little bit behind. And some of that corn is struggling a little bit. So I think this probably emphasizes what Jeff always talks about with corn, and I would emphasize with soybean is that, it's really the the most important piece of this is to look at at soil conditions of planting rather than, you know, calendar per se.
Seth Naeve:I think Jeff had a really good point about some of those freezing temperatures because we did have an opportunity to plant really, really early this year. That's very unusual. But aside from that, I think it was just about soil conditions this year and when we got in and when we're able to when we're able to get those those crops planted. So down here in Southern Minnesota, we're not seeing a lot of corn soybeans emerge. There's a lot of pretty big corn, so people really made a lot of hay in those early April, mid April dates on planting corn.
Seth Naeve:And and the corn looks really quite good, besides a few of those fields that have struggled. But again, no soybeans, but soybeans have been going in. We've been seeing some out here, and I've also been seeing quite a bit of of starter fertilizer on the roads. So there must still be a few corn fields going in, that I'm seeing. So what about I guess the question really is about, planting dates and soybeans, and Jeff mentioned the response in corn.
Seth Naeve:I've been working with, Anibal Ceruto in my lab as well as, Bruce Potter to reanalyze some of his, planting date studies from from, Lamberton Station. And it's very, very interesting. Bruce had 25 years of, soybean planting date at at was at the Lamberton Station. And, we were really excited to look at this big dataset in comprehensively, and it's amazing that that data basically replicated, almost perfectly, some of the better historical planting date studies that we have for soybean. And it shows that almost all the way through May, we have almost a flat planting date response, to soybean.
Seth Naeve:We, on average, it's 0.1 to 0.2 bushels per acre per day per I'm sorry. 0.1 to 0.2% per day over this period, which is a drop. But that means it takes 10 days to get, you know, 1 percentage, drop in yield, 1 to 2%. So that's very, very little, over this whole time frame. And then right at the beginning of June, then we see this big dramatic.
Seth Naeve:We get slammed by about a point to a point and a quarter, per day, off of off of the yield. So we're getting close to that point where things are gonna start to move quick. I mean, we know that this isn't just a perfect shelf where everything drops off immediately though. Biologically and environmentally. There's probably a little bit of a curve to that.
Seth Naeve:So, I think we're at that inflection point where yields are gonna start to go down here, with with later plantings at the end of end of May. But still, we're nowhere near any kind of a disaster. So, I don't wanna dwell on this too long, but I just wanted to hit on this idea that it may seem a little contradictory. We've got a lot of soybean agronomists and a lot of professional guys that are out pushing for very, very early planting. And there really is not a lot of evidence that early planting really gives us a really great yield in soybean.
Seth Naeve:I think in order to get those yield increases, we need really long, longer than normal maturity soybeans coupled with really good conditions late in the year. So I think that's the only way that we're really gonna see those benefits. On the other hand, that it I think the bigger question about planting soybeans and corn and timing is just about working days and risk response to these things. I think there's an opportunity to plant soybeans on some days that we may not wanna plant corn, from a risk management standpoint, and I think that's probably okay. But I think we could probably get out of this mindset about yield enhancement from early planting in soybean.
Seth Naeve:I think we should really focus on on how to manage a farm and how to best manage risk, and working days through the spring and how to best use every day that we can to get as much of that crop planted as we can.
David Nicolai:So, Seth, there was one question that came in already, and that is I think you might have mentioned something about rotary hoeing, but, the listener wanted to know whether or not you've observed any crusting and situation with that. And then now I'll throw in a little segue here is what what should people be doing right now in terms of going out there and assessing whether or not they have crusting and think about, you know, how soybeans emerge, the hypocotyl arch, what are some things to think about before you go out and do that. So you wanna it's kind of a 2 part question there. Number 1 is what have you seen for observations? Do we have crusting right now?
David Nicolai:And then how do you scout for it and plan for it?
Seth Naeve:You know, I have have not walked enough fields to really be able to, talk again in any real intelligent way about what I'm seeing out there. Although, I have seen some fields that have been rotary hoe. So as reluctant as farmers are to rotary hoe these days, I think that's a pretty telling simp pretty telling signal that there's some issues out there if there are some fields that have been, hold. I guess I'll speak broadly for Jeff, and then he can climb in here in a minute. But I think the most important thing that we need to do in corn and soybeans is scout and get out across fields and get out into fields.
Seth Naeve:There's gonna be some variation in these fields. And then the next thing is that we need to really think critically about, how we how we maintain those fields. I think there's there's been, you know, there's, the natural instinct among farmers is to think about ripping stuff up and replanting because we've got a window when we can still plant. And so farmers have to think really, really critically before they destroy anything, certainly, and then walking that back and thinking about other other methodologies. And so if farmers still have rotary hose around and there is crusting, there's a real opportunity to break things up and get out there and and and help that crop along.
Seth Naeve:Soybean, of course, you have to be a little bit careful as it's as as it's popping through. So there is some risk there, but there's also there's also some risk of leaving those, plants struggling. For the most part, I don't think we have that type of crusting that we know that we get after some really heavy pounding rains. I think we had we had a series of of rains over a longer period of time. I don't think most places had that that super serious kinda really heavy deep crusting, but, I'm sure there is, instances of that for sure.
David Nicolai:Certainly good point to get out there and take a screwdriver knife and and look at that soil texture and see what kind of a crust. Your soil type may make a big difference here. We're talking about rain Wednesday evening here, in in terms of that over overnight. Maybe not a lot, but in some places it could be. Jeff, you wanna come in in here and and talk about anything on terms of corn?
David Nicolai:It has a little bit better opportunity to emerge through some of these more difficult conditions, but, you know, nonetheless, you know, I think it's important to go out there, and you you might have to do some things and on the other hand, you might not have to, but, you have to give it some time I think.
Jeff Coulter:Yeah. I think Seth covered it pretty good. You know, corn can emerge through, you know, soil that's got a pretty good crust on it, maybe better so than soybeans. But you know if we got some rain in the forecast too that's gonna help soften things up and maybe reduce the need for that. So I think a key is to you know on some of that corn that was planted really early or maybe under not ideal soil conditions, it's important to get out there and scout early to, you know, be able to try to make decisions.
Jeff Coulter:If we need to replant, then, you know, the sooner we can get that done, the better. But for corn, surprisingly, we can have, plant populations into the low twenties, like 22,000, and we can still have a very respectable yield. And, you know, until we're lower than that, in most cases, it doesn't really justify planting.
David Nicolai:You know, that brings up a good point about plant population, Jeff. You know, there's opportunity with today's planners to be very even in terms of that, but when you're out there scouting, any concerns about having what I used to call doubles or uneven population in in situation with that? Is that still a little bit early or should you take note of that type of thing when you're scouting?
Jeff Coulter:Well, yeah. So ideally we would have perfect picket fence spacing on the, within row spacing on the on the seeds, but that really doesn't matter that much. And most of the fact most of the planners now have taken care of that and that's really not much of an issue. So I wouldn't be too concerned about that. And even if there is uneven within row row spacing, it doesn't have much effect on yield.
David Nicolai:Seth, what about on the soybean side in terms of taking that early population count in terms of the in terms of that tend to come up, pretty even. Are you are you happy at a certain population and and no don't get too concerned?
Seth Naeve:Well, we have a lot of room in soybeans. I mean, although farmers are have been more conservative on seeding rates than they have in the past, there's still plenty of seeds out there, and and this is most farmers build this into the cake. Right? So they're planting more than a 125. You know, we only really need a 100,000 out there to maximize yields or less.
Seth Naeve:So there's there's already a lot of room. And so, I mean, that's that's an ax, you know, to actually maximize our population or yields, we only need about a 100,000. So there's, again, there's a lot of room, but if farmers are getting down a little bit low on population, it's it's perfectly acceptable to go spike in around those stands with soybeans, especially when things are a little streaky or you've got some ponding areas or, you know, patches and fields. Typically, we don't have whole fields that are, really thin. And so that really allows farmers to go in there and and kind of spike around with those.
Seth Naeve:They can either go beside the row, between the rows, or they can they can cross depending on how their planter is set up and supplement that stand to get that thing back to, you know, a 150,000 or something. So if they're if they've got a 50 or 75,000 plants out there, they could put another 75,000 in, in and and and and boost their populations a little bit. So it's a good time if we've got a little window here, but I think for the most part, I think we're at a really good time to catch a quarter inch of a rain quarter inch rain right now. There's a lot of farmers have been moving, and a lot of corn and soybeans have gone into some wet areas in the last couple days. And so if those those fields are a little bit tough, I think having a little bit of rain here is gonna cover up quite a bit of our our sins over the past couple days.
David Nicolai:Yeah. Do you have any either of you have any recommendation if we do get some rain here and get rain on the weekend? You know, they'll look at the calendar, but you want good seed bed conditions even if even if we are here in the middle of May. What are some things you need to do to avoid so that you end up with a good seed bed situation, a good soil to seed contact? I don't know both of you might have any any comments as we go forward here in terms of the calendar.
Seth Naeve:Well, I'd I'll I'll jump in real quick. Because I I guess don't let the perfect be the enemy of the the good. Look at that weather forecast and see what we've got. And if there is a real disturbance, you know, if the weather patterns are gonna change next week and we're gonna be back in this kinda naggy rainy series of days. From a soybean perspective, I think that, again, I think that if we're definitely gonna get rain, that we can we can we can plant soybeans into some kind of poor conditions, not, non ideal conditions if it is going to rain.
Seth Naeve:We have to get the soybeans covered up. But, you know, given the choice of being out a week or 10 days or 2 weeks, you know, those are those are tough decisions that farmers are gonna have to make. But I would probably push through some of those acres, if we're guaranteed things are gonna really rain. Now the the problem is is if we if we mud stuff in and it doesn't rain, then we're in big, big trouble. So, there's there's some there's some dice rolling that's gonna have to happen, and and farmers are gonna have to look at those weather forecasts pretty carefully.
David Nicolai:Jeff, any other comments or agreement with Seth there?
Jeff Coulter:No. Nothing else to add.
David Nicolai:Okay. There in in in terms of that. Well, there's always the opportunity to have to deal with some past things that might have happened in terms of compaction, you know, in earlier earlier in in the month of month of April and and so forth. But again, I don't know if you've seen much evidence of that in in terms of concerns in the, in the emergence of some of these fields. Some of them obviously are are having to have yet to come in dealing with that.
David Nicolai:So I I think it's probably, a little bit less in terms of in terms of some of those other things. What about going on here from the rest of the month? Jeff, any other things to be looking for or scouting as this corn continues to come up here? Yeah, with that, when do those first set of roots come out here in in in terms of that? Give us a little maybe growth and development talk here as well.
David Nicolai:Yeah.
Jeff Coulter:So, you know, as that corn emerges, you know, the seminal roots, the temporary roots that grow off of the seed, those are gonna continue develop to develop and those should be fully developed at around the b2 stage. 2 leaf collars. At about that same time, we're going to have those knowable roots starting to develop and those develop at 3 quarters of an inch below the soil surface. And by the V3 stage, those nodal roots are going to be the primary root system on the plant. So, you know, in terms of corn, I think, you know scouting fields and you know checking the population and stuff, and if it looks like we're gonna need to replant, getting that done sooner rather than later, And just being aware that current seed choices should be good through and up until we get to about May 22nd, and then between May 22nd 28th and looking at hybrids that are 5 to 7 relative maturity units shorter than full season.
Jeff Coulter:We talked a little bit about planting conditions. You might want to kind of just keep an eye on what the soil structure is. You know some corn that was planted under poor conditions, there might have been a little bit of compaction just below the zone of tillage. And what we've seen in the past is, you know, the corn will look good, you dig down when you're scouting and you notice that there's a compacted zone, you know at about 4 inches, 5 inches and if we get moisture, the roots can, you know, definitely penetrate through that and it's not an issue. But if it gets dry, that could, that hard pan can be restricting roots and their ability to take up water and nutrients and that could lead to some challenges, during the early vegetative stages.
Jeff Coulter:So, thinking about that, you know, and any sidewalk compaction that may have occurred if there was planting under wet conditions, you know, those things can kind of, you know, slow the crop down a little bit, but it should be able to grow through it if we get have have soil that's moist.
David Nicolai:You know, every year, Jeff, there's some stories sometimes come a lot of Iowa and so forth about corn that's planted too shallow, you know, and then there might be a tendency to say, okay, well, we're late here. I got a plant it shallow. Have it come up quick. Is there a danger though? I mean, to some extent, floppy corn of of getting really too shallow in in terms of depth here if you're gonna plant corn yet?
Jeff Coulter:Yeah. For corn, it's best to stick with 2 inches under almost all conditions unless it's very dry, when you need to plant a little deeper. If the corn is planted a little shallower, you know, we practically it really doesn't matter. You know the the nodal roots establish at about 3 quarters of an inch below the soil surface no matter what. The risk though with the shallow planting is that not all of the seeds are going to be planted at the depth that you set it to.
Jeff Coulter:So if you got it set for 1 and a half inches, there are going to be some seeds that are planted at 1 and a quarter or maybe even less. And that can be a challenge, for multiple reasons. You know by planting at 2 inches we got more consistent moisture, we got more consistent temperature, and we got a greater likelihood of all the seeds emerging at the same time. If we plant shallower, we run the risk of, if there's hot dry conditions, that that topsoil drying out and then some of the seeds may experience drier conditions and not emerge as timely as the rest of the seeds. So, you know, we run a little at some risks of uneven emergence.
Jeff Coulter:Until the seed is actually placed like an inch deep, then or maybe an inch and a quarter, then we start to run some risks of the nodal roots establishing slightly shallower than normal. And that can be a problem because they only establish at 3 quarters of an inch below the soil surface under normal conditions. But, you know, practically speaking, the planting depth really doesn't have, you know, a huge impact. You know, once once the crop is up, and assuming that we've got uniform emergence, then it it should be good to go. You know, the risks of the shallower planting are kind of the uneven emergence, and I I think that's kind of the big one.
David Nicolai:Yep. There's a little bit of shallowing in there. In in terms of that, you know, I know Bruce just threw in a crow there, dry weather and root development, what if we go the other way on corn and soybeans and we churn dry in in in terms of any observations with that in terms of root development, how that might impact?
Jeff Coulter:Yeah. Well, the nodal roots to establish at about 3 quarters of initial bowl of soil surface regardless of the planting depth. You know, if the sieve is placed a little shallower, you know, that may affect the seminal root development, which are the temporary roots. We like to see the 2 inch planting depth just for more consistent moisture and temperature, and the moisture doesn't dry out as quickly there.
David Nicolai:And then development. Seth, any comments? Last comments here about planting if yet to occur, things that you could do to avoid problems down the road, stay the course so to speak, on that depth etcetera?
Seth Naeve:Well, Dave, you wanted me to touch the 3rd rail here and talk about Oh, yeah. Go ahead. Rolling. Rolling. Yeah.
Seth Naeve:There you can go.
Jeff Coulter:You can go.
Seth Naeve:You know, and I and I told you that, I wasn't gonna stand between any farmers and their rollers. It's not it's not in my best interest. I don't think, I can get anybody to give these things up. But I do think that it's worth thinking carefully about what kind of weather we do have coming up, and there is definitely, an opportunity to seal the surface, with rolling and and then heavy rains that come after that. And I there's but I think farmers have to be really considerate of the type of planter they're using and where they're rolling where that rolls over the road or where it rolls over the row, excuse me, and how that roller performs out there.
Seth Naeve:Because sometimes we move a little bit of, residue off the sides and we plant down in a little bit of a ditch. Those rollers don't touch anything around that that individual row, and I feel a little bit more comfortable on that when the swipe when the rollers are rolling onto a lot of residue. But when we've got really clean tilled situations after after chisel plowing and very few corn stalks out there and a lot of early early season, tillage. Boy, the rollers can really, really make, set us up for a real problem, for soybean emergence later. So I know that farmers love to combine fields that have been rolled and really in a lot of cases, just say they are not gonna they're not gonna harvest anything that hasn't been rolled, but they have to think really carefully about the potential downsides of these things.
Seth Naeve:Because there is there is an opportunity to do significant harm relative to the, the, the the benefit of of harvest.
David Nicolai:So what you're really saying is is make the judgment on a field by field situation as opposed to a farm by farm?
Seth Naeve:Yeah. And think carefully about it. I think Jody DeJong Hughes had a really nice summary of of her research, and I the best way to summarize that work and her her statements around it is that my fee and my feelings integrated into this is that rollers do the best when we have lots of corn residue, and they give us the most benefit. And we have the most opportunity to give us harm when we have little residue, and so we have a real opportunity for some some negative impacts with with low residue. So I would stay out of drown out areas and stay out of those areas that don't have a lot of, corn residue fields that have been, tilled a lot, we're not gonna get much benefit, and there's a lot of downside risk.
Seth Naeve:So I think that's the that's probably the best summary of the roller thing that I can I can give in a in this, time period?
David Nicolai:Okay. Well, thank you very much, Seth and Jeff for, spending some time with us this morning on, this edition of strategic farming field notes. We appreciate taking your time out of your busy days. With that, we'd like to also thank again the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council along with the Minnesota Corn Research and Promotion Council.