Extension Update from Jenny Rees

Extension Update from Jenny Rees

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Sept. 27:  Corn Residue Field Day, Noon, near Ainsworth, RSVP 402-387-2213
Sept. 27:  Corn Residue Field Day, 5:30 p.m., Northeast Community College, RSVP 402-387-2213
Sept. 28:  Corn Residue Field Day, 1:30 p.m. USMARC near Clay Center, RSVP 402-362-5508 or jrees2@unl.edu
Sept. 28:  Corn Residue Field Day 5:30 p.m., Buffalo Co. Extension Kearney, RSVP 308-236-1235
Nov. 14:  Ag Land Lease Workshop and Flexible Cash Lease Workshop, 4-H Building, York
Dec. 1:  Solar Power in Ag Workshop, 4-H Building, York

Crop Update:  Last week’s storm resulted in some spotty hail damage in the area.  Four seeds on the ground in one square foot can equate to one bushel yield loss. 

With harvest approaching, let’s all slow down on roads and make sure in the rush of harvest to be safe…shut equipment down when plugged before getting out on it, watch for people when moving equipment, and give slow-moving equipment room when we’re on the highways and gravel roads.  Here’s wishing everyone a safe harvest!

Harvesting Soybeans at 13% Moisture:  This is never a popular topic, yet it is important to think about regardless if it’s more of an art than a science.  What difference does harvesting and selling soybeans at 8% or 9% moisture mean to your bottom line?  If you sell soybeans at 8% moisture, you’re losing about 5.43% of your yield; at 9% moisture, it’s 4.4%; at 10% moisture, 3.3%; at 11% moisture, 2.25%; and at 12% moisture, it’s 1.14% yield. For a field that’s yielding 75 bushels/acre at 13% moisture, harvesting it at 9% results in selling 3.3 fewer bushels/acre. With soybeans priced at $10/bushel, that’s a loss of $33 per acre.  Even though stems may be green and leaves may be on plants, the soybeans may be drier than you realize.  Soybeans are fully mature when 95% of the pods on the plant are at their full tan color.  So aim to harvest around 14-15% moisture and adjust combine settings throughout the day as needed.

Soil Moisture Equipment:  Reminder to remove your soil moisture monitoring equipment from your fields prior to harvest.  Watermark sensors can be removed by clamping a vice grip below the cap, twisting and pulling straight up.  There are also additional devices available for jacking them out of the ground if needed.  Soak your sensors in water to remove soil from them and dislodge any soil particles gently with your fingers instead of using brushes or anything that can harm the mesh.  Allow to dry and store them for the winter.  ET gages should have the water removed from them (including pulling out the stopper to remove the water from the cap) and store indoors for the winter.

Sampling for Soybean Cyst Nematode:  As harvest quickly approaches and has already occurred in southern portions of the State, be on the lookout for lower-yielding soybean areas of your fields.  These areas may be an indication of soybean cyst nematode (SCN), Nebraska’s top yield-reducing disease of soybean.  Sampling for SCN isn’t difficult, especially if you’re already obtaining soil samples for fertilizer recommendations.  Sample the lower yielding areas of fields after harvest taking a 0-8” soil sample.  If you were already sampling this area for a fertilizer sample, simply divide the soil sample providing a portion to the soil testing lab for nutrients and the other part of the sample into a sampling bag to test for SCN.  Soil sample bags can be obtained from your local Extension Office.  Crop consultants or farmers desiring 10 or more bags should contact the Plant and Pest Diagnostic Lab in Lincoln directly at (402) 472-2559.  Testing for SCN via these sample bags is free courtesy of the Nebraska Soybean Board and your checkoff dollars.  The only cost to you is mailing the sample into the lab (address provided on the bag).  Sampling for SCN can actually occur anytime and even when a different crop is growing, but we recommend after soybean harvest as the low-yielding areas of your fields are fresh in your mind.  Also, if you observed sudden death syndrome (SDS) in your field this past year, be sure to sample the areas where that occurred for SCN.  Often, but not always, the two diseases can be found in combination with each other, and when this occurs, they have a synergistic affect in reducing yield. 

How do you manage for SCN if lab results confirm your field is positive?  It will be important in the future to use an SCN resistant variety, to continue with crop rotation, and to not plant the same SCN resistant variety with same SCN resistance genes every time you plant soybeans in that field.  SCN is a soil-borne disease which means that anything that moves soil can move the nematode causing the disease.  It also means that once it’s present, it most likely will always be present. 

Atrazine and EPA:  Every year during pesticide training I talk about how we as an ag community can reduce the potential of atrazine movement into surface water in hopes of maintaining this important product for weed control in corn and sorghum production.  What we do as a community does matter!  Atrazine binds to soil particles making it less likely to move towards groundwater.  However, soil movement off-field can move atrazine.  Practices which help reduce atrazine escaping to surface water include: No-till farming, terraces, tile outlets with a grass buffer below around the outlet end or no-tilling around the inlet side, diversions, crop rotation, buffer strips, the use of atrazine setbacks according to label, drift management, timing of use, not applying to wet soils, not applying when heavy rains are expected and good management with irrigation water applications to decrease runoff. All of these practices can add up considerably. Atrazine products can vary on setback requirements so always read and follow the label.

The Nebraska Corn Growers Association and Nebraska Grain Sorghum Producers Association are urging farmers to submit comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), on their proposed reduction of acceptable application levels for atrazine.  Over 7000 scientific studies have proven atrazine’s safety.  A reduction in the rate of atrazine applied reduces the synergistic affect with other herbicide chemistries and can eliminate residual effects at the proposed rates.  The following is information shared by these Associations.

For more than 50 years, atrazine has been a mainstay of corn and sorghum farmers for its proven control of a broad range of weeds. If the recommendations included within the assessment stand, it would effectively render this important tool useless on farms and significantly increase farmers’ input costs.   The EPA based their ecological risk assessment for atrazine on studies their own Science Advisory Panel deemed flawed just 4 years ago. Through the use of these highly questionable studies, the EPA arrived at an aquatic level of concern for Atrazine of 3.4 parts per billion, a two-thirds reduction from the current level of 10. Scientific evidence points to a safe aquatic life level of concern at 25 parts per billion or greater. If the proposed level of concern becomes the standard, effective use of the herbicide would be unachievable.  EPA is accepting public comments on the assessment through October 4, 2016.  Farmers can take action on this issue and submit a comment to the EPA by visiting the website: FightEPA.org.