By Darren Hefty

You’ve heard before that every year is different on the farm, but EVERY YEAR REALLY IS DIFFERENT!  With that in mind, here are a few things we noticed this year that will play into successful crop plans for 2017.

  1. Precision Ag 
    • Grid soil sampling and variable rate fertilizer application are proving to reduce wasted fertility costs in the field, especially when you can do them yourself.  The other thing we’re seeing is better yields across the farm when you apply the right fertility mix for each area.  To achieve this, you need to make accurate maps for application.
    • The usage of apps like the free Ag PhD Soil Test app has been increasing rapidly because they make soil sampling and interpretation simple.  You can also make your application maps quickly and easily for free.
  2. Disease Tolerance in Soybeans
    • I’ll talk about late season things here because they are top of mind.  Phytophthora root rot is hitting many fields in the Upper Midwest.  Take a look at your fields to find problem areas.  Obviously the drainage needs to be improved in many of them, but you may need to plant more tolerant varieties.  The Rps 3A gene as well as the stacked gene products are standing out this year.
    • If phytophthora isn’t your problem, maybe brown stem rot or sudden death syndrome is?  These two look alike on the surface, but by slicing open the stem you can see the difference.  A brown pith often indicates BSR, while a white one makes SDS the lead suspect.  White mold is showing up even in this warm summer, as well.  As you pick soybean varieties for next year, varietal tolerance is key for SDS, BSR, and phytophthora.  Field management strategies may be more important for white mold.
  3. Insects in Corn
    • The European corn borer has hit some areas hard this year.  If you’re going away from above ground traits, you will have to be extremely timely with your scouting and treatment options to do a good job controlling them.  Since you may not have done this for 20 years, it may be a good idea to keep the above ground traits.
    • Insecticides, at best, give you 80% to 95% rootworm control.  If you’re not using rootworm traits, we suggest Aztec, Force, or Capture LFR, because even though they’re not perfect, they often add many bushels to your yield.  Your best defense against rootworm is a stacked rootworm gene product like SmartStax.  Even with a trait, we often see the addition of an inexpensive Capture LFR paying a good ROI.
  4. Iron Deficiency Chlorosis
    • With the funky weather we’ve had, there were a lot of yellow spots in soybean fields due to iron deficiency chlorosis (IDC).  Where farmers used 3 pounds of SoyGreen in-furrow, it looked better and there are more pods on the plants as we get close to harvest.
    • Foliar treatments of chelated iron improved the appearance where used.  In the past we haven’t seen big yield improvements in those areas, but that can vary.  The other thing that we’ve noticed is that those areas that yellowed get ready for harvest much later, but when a foliar iron treatment has been used to green them up it does help shorten the maturity delay gap.
  5. Drainage
    • Finally, I get to the #1 observation of the season. There are so many fields that either need tile spacing moved much closer or need the first stitch of tile put in the ground.  Areas that drowned out in fields became even more noticeable when the high ground burned up in the summer heat in areas like Southeast South Dakota.  Use this opportunity to invest in the long-term success of your farm and get tile installed.