Coming Events
- June 23, 2014 – York Extension Board Exec. Meeting, 8:00 p.m., York Extension Office
- June 26, 2014 – Weed Science Tour, 8:30 a.m., SCAL, Clay Center
Cropping Update
Crops are continuing to make progress recovering from the severe storms we had this season. The storm Monday morning surprised me. Hopefully we’re done with storms for the season, but only time will tell!
This past week, Roger Elmore, Cropping Systems Specialist, and I went out and evaluated a couple of corn fields to see how they are recovering. The first field had about a 50% stand lost, while the one at Bradshaw that was the host site for our informational meeting June 9 had a stand loss of lost about only 6-10%.
At each location we marked 100 plants and documented the stage of growth (or dead). We’ll plan to go out and track the plant near tassel time and finally evaluate the yield of each plant. This information can then be used to make recommendations in future years. It will be interesting to see how these fields eventually yield.
One More On-Farm Research Opportunity
I’ve received questions from producers about whether in-season foliar micronutrient applications can increase yield or increase grain content under high yielding conditions. One of our fertility specialists a graduate student is also interested in that question, so we are looking for cooperators who want to test a foliar fertilizer on corn at growth stages between V10 and V18 on corn. The protocol would be simple, with and without in replicated strips. Many producers are getting foliar/plant samples taken and sometimes they come back low in one or more micronutrients. We are interested if putting on foliar micros (Boron, Manganese, iron, Zn). They do have a grant that could help support this, soil/plant samples and the micronutrients.
Generally, Nebraska soils are well supplied with micronutrients, but in-season plant sampling may indicate low values for Boron, Manganese, Iron, or Zinc at some point in the season. In addition, much of the micronutrient foliar research in Nebraska was conducted when excellent corn yields were in the 150 bu/ac range, now many are planning for near 300 bu/ac yields. In order to address both these concerns, replicated strip trials would help answer whether micronutrient foliar application will affect yield and grain quality.
Optimum plant nutrition depends on having no limiting individual essential elements, without over application, or spending too much money. Current thinking is that without evidence of a micronutrient deficiency, the macronutrients (N, P,K, S) all have to be well supplied before micronutrients will be limiting. Under some conditions it is suggested that the rate of soil supply may be too slow during peak growth. Therefore, adding nutrients mid-season would be a potential way of supplying short term low availability.
Leaves are not the primary route that nutrients get into the corn plant, so large amounts of nutrients are not going to get into the plant, but since micronutrients, as the name means, are not needed in large quantities, so a small amount might have a large impact. In addition, in areas of the world that rely on grain for most of their calorie intake, increasing the micronutrient content of Zn or Fe might have tremendous positive health impacts.
If you are interested in conducting one of these studies, give me a call at 402-362-5508 or email me at gary.zoubek@unl.edu.
Weed Science Field Day
Just a reminder of the Weed Management Field Day planned for Friday June 27Â at the South Central Ag Lab (SCAL) near Clay Center. SCAL is 7.5 miles west of the intersection of Hwy 14 and Hwy 6 or 13 miles east of Hastings on Hwy 6.
The Weed Science Field Day will be from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and will include two tours, each with six stops. Tour 1 from 9:00 a.m.-10:15 a.m. will showcase weed control projects in soybean: Comparison of Herbicide Programs for Weed Control in Soybean, Herbicide Program in Dicamba plus Glyphosate-Resistant Soybean, Weed Control in Isoxaflutole-Resistant Soybean (Balance GT), Trivence Applied Pre-emergence in Soybean, Control of Common Waterhemp with Soil Residual Herbicides Applied POST in Soybean, and Control of Glyphosate-Resistant Volunteer Corn in Liberty Link Soybean.
Tour 2 from 10:30 a.m.-Noon will be showcase weed control projects in corn:Â Weed Control in Popcorn with Herbicide Tank Mixtures, Control of Volunteer Glyphosate-Resistant Soybean in Corn, Comparison of Herbicide Programs for Weed Control in Corn, Evaluate Weed Control and Crop Response of Instigate, Anthem/ Anthem ATZ applied Pre-Plant, PRE or POST and in a Sequential Application in Corn, Efficacy of Acuron applied PRE for Weed control in Corn (herbicide with four active ingredients).
No charge to attend, but please do RSVP for meal and material count to Dr. Amit Jhala, UNL Extension Weed Scientist, amit.jhala@unl.edu or call 402-472-1534.
ETgage Update
The ETgages I read each Monday morning dropped an average of 1.9 inches this past week. The water use for your field will vary depending upon it stage of growth. To calculate it for some of our earliest planted corn we would use the crop coefficient of .69. So, .69 times 1.90 would equal a crop water use of 1.31 inches for the week or .19 inches per day for our past week.
The soybean fields I’m monitoring is just beginning to flower, so the coefficient is .90 for them, so we’d multiply .9 times the ETgage change for the week. Typically for soybeans our suggestions are not to irrigate soybeans until they’re in the R3 stage, which will be in a few weeks.
The next few weeks I’ll continue to post our weekly ETgage readings as well as our current stages of growth.
We’ve been lucky moisture wise the profiles in the fields I’m monitoring are all reading near field capacity, but will change as the crop continues to grow.
