Coming Events
- Sept. 5, 2013 – York County Corn Grower Plot Tour, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. located west of York on Highway 34 – ¾ miles north of Hwy 34 and Road I intersection (Same location as last year)
Cropping Update
We had a great turnout for the Soybean Management Field Day last Wednesday at the Jerry Stahr farm. We had over 155 producers and crop consultants attend along all the staff that made presentations and assisted with the event at four locations across the state. Thanks Jerry for allowing us to conduct the various research studies and demonstrations. We’ll continue to work on these plots and collect data which will be share at winter meetings and Crop Production Clinics. I believe that in all the years we’ve conducted the Soybean Management Field Days this was the first in which we had cool (cold) and cloudy conditions at all four of them.
It’s been another week of cooler temperatures and higher humidity, the ETgages I monitor dropped only .75†for the week. The early planted corn near these ETgages is in the beginning dent stage. The crop coefficient for this stage is 1.10, so to estimate the crop water use for we multiply .75 x 1.10 so our crop water use was only .83†or .12â€/day for the week. It’s been three weeks now that we’ve had much lower than expected crop water use, but I’m sure it will go up some this coming week with temperatures in the high 80’s and low 90’s expected. Soybean water use would be similar.
It was not long ago that we we’re just finishing up planting and now it’s time to be thinking about that last irrigation of the season. Our goal is to have the soil moisture levels near 50% depleted that day we reach black layer for corn or R7 for soybeans. We all know what black layer is, but do you know what R7 is? It’s when you see one brown pod on each of your soybean plants and the membrane does not stay attached to the seed when you pull the pod apart.
Corn at the beginning dent needs 5.0 inches of water to reach maturity. Soybeans are in the R5 to R6 stage.  The ones at Jerry’s are at R5.5 so they also need about 5.0 inches of water to reach R7. The amount you’ll need to apply from this stage on will depend greatly upon your current soil moisture level. If you have a full profile on a silt loam soil, you have about 3.30†of available soil to deplete it to 50%, so between rain and irrigation you’ll only need 1.70†of additional rain or irrigation.
During the heart of the irrigation season, we recommend depleting the available soil water level only to the 50% level. As we near the end of the season, we can push the threshold to 60% depletion. Research has shown that the available water in the top 4 feet can be lowered to 40% at maturity without reducing grain yields, so if you want to deplete the soil to 60%, you’d only need about an inch more or rain or irrigation to finish the crop.
The key question is knowing your current soil water situation. If you are using a soil probe and the hand feel method, check out the NRCS publication here.
If you have Watermark sensors, you can use the SoyWater or the Crop Water App to determine how much useable water is left in the top three feet of soil. The App can be found at: http://water.unl.edu/nawmn.
Finally, check out our NebGuide “Predicting the Last Irrigation of the Season†(NebGuide G1781):
http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1871/build/g1871.pdf
As we shared at the Soybean Management Field Days, an acre inch is 27,154 gallons of water  that does not need to be pumped along with the energy savings. If you multiply that by several pivots, it can really added up! Don’t hestitate to contact me or check out our irrigation resources at http://water.unl.edu and CropWatch: http://cropwatch.unl.edu
Just a reminder so that you can get it on your calendar, the York County Corn Grower Plot Tour is planned for next Thursday, September 5 , 2013, from 5:30–7:30 p.m. The plot is located ¾ miles north of Hwy 34 on Road I!
Those attending will be able to check out the various corn varieties and visit with the seed company representatives. Following the tour, we’ll have pork sandwich lunch with all the trimmings. We’ll then have a report on 2013 practices, products used as well as an irrigation update. We also plan to have an updated on potential water regulations from the Upper Big Blue NRD as well as an update on potential On-Farm Research studies that producers could conduct in cooperation with the University of Nebraska.
Door prizes will also be given away, so mark September 5Â on your calendar and plan to attend!
Lawn and Gardens
How are things going in your lawn and garden? The cool temperatures have been nice. We’re now in about the perfect time if you want to seed or over seed your turf. Key’s include proper site preparation and seed selection. Zach Reicher, Turf Specialist, has shared some great tips for success. It’s posted on the turf webpages at: http://turf.unl.edu. Check out the latest  Turf iNfo or this publication:
http://turf.unl.edu/pdfcaextpub/LawnImprovementPrograms2010A.pdf.
