|
Place your Text Ad
Here
With
a
link
to
your
website
for
$25 per
month
Lightning Lanes
Manchester's
Family
Fun
Center
Monticello 24/7
is
part
of
the
24/7 Network of Local News and Community Directory
Web Sites, published by JJC Media.
The
aim of the 24/7 Network is to provide local residents with
information about the area, prospective residents with a relocation
guide and advertisers with access to that traffic.
Posting
information
on
the
site
is
free.
E-mail
media releases,
pictures, video or information about your event or use this handy form!
For
more information about advertising on the sites click here.
|
News
Timing
is
Everything: Successful Spring Planting Will Likely Take Patience and
Planning
Posted 12 March
2010
With memories of the
last fall’s difficult harvest still all too vivid for farmers, this
winter has presented its own challenges. And now, according to an Iowa
meteorologist, a wet spring is predicted.
“Soil moisture levels are at or above field capacity. It will not take
abnormally high amounts of April precipitation to leave large portions
of the Corn Belt too wet for effective planting,” says Elwynn Taylor,
Iowa State University (ISU) ag meteorologist. “The El Niño
weather of February brought substantial moisture in a band across the
southern United States. As the weather patterns migrate north in the
spring, a wet planting season is a threat.”
One of challenges facing farmers will be compaction.
“Farmers did what they had to do to get crops out last fall, but there
will be ramifications,” says Iowa Soybean Association Director of
Production Research David Wright. “Heavy wagons, trucks, grain carts
and combines moving across wet ground all contributed to soil
compaction. There are now some things farmers need to watch for in the
2010 soybean crop.”
The heavy snow accumulation is going to cause further complications
this spring. If the water from melting snow isn’t able to percolate
down through the soil, fields will be wet, even without excessive
additional rainfall. This will put additional pressure on Iowa’s
farmers to delay spring tillage to keep from further compacting the
soil.
“Spring is not the time to alleviate compaction, but farmers will want
to avoid creating more compaction,” says Greg Brenneman, ISU Extension
ag engineering specialist . “With wetter soil, that is more of a
challenge. I would advise farmers to not try to get out in the field
very early. Doing so and working wet soil will create more compaction.”
In particular, farmers who didn’t get to do as much field work as they
would have liked last fall may feel like their window of opportunity is
short. It will be a challenge to let fields dry out.
“Soil has a natural way, through thawing and freezing, to remedy soil
compaction and improve soil structure,” says Mahdi Al-Kaisi, ISU
Extension agronomist. “Stable soil structure is like a building block
formation that is able to hold up the weight of implements running over
them, while still forming conduits for water to move through and
providing natural aeration for a root to grow. Because of the stable
and strong soil structure, untilled soil can tolerate the weight of
machinery. Tillage breaks up that soil structure, reducing the soil’s
strength to hold the weight of heavy equipment.”
While farmers think tillage will reduce soil compaction, Al-Kaisi says
it will actually only make it worse. It won’t cure the deep soil
compaction and, by disturbing the upper soil layer, will destroy soil’s
natural structure or soil aggregates and creates another layer of
compaction under heavy rain and field traffic.
“Put simply, the more wheels and machinery that move over wet soil, the
more compaction will take place,” John Holmes, ISU Extension field
agronomist, says. “Avoid making any more trips than absolutely
necessary across a field with wet soil.
“This may be a year for farmers who work their soil to try doing less
tillage than they normally would,” Holmes says. “For instance, if they
didn’t get chiseling done last fall, they may forego it this spring and
just do the secondary tillage just before planting to prepare the
seedbed. Though it might be a challenging year to try something new,
they may decide to try some no-till, especially in soybeans, where they
didn’t get fall tillage done or in fields where corn didn’t get
combined until spring.”
Holmes adds, “In parts of the state where farmers feel they must do
something, this is a year when an implement called a rotary harrow
might be useful, though in most of the state, these are not common.”
Not the same as a rotary hoe, the rotary harrow has single lines of
heavy teeth that poke holes in the ground without stirring it up and
allows water to penetrate. It can dry out the ground and yet isn’t
aggressive.
Though researchers have documented the yield benefits of early
planting, agronomists emphasize it is more important the soil is ready.
A few days can make a tremendous difference in the soil’s condition.
“Being patient will pay off,” Al-Kaisi says. “Farmers need to know
their own soil and their fields.”
Planted in wet fields, young soybean seedlings could have problems with
root development, which may, in turn lead to further problems.
“I’d encourage farmers to plant seed with excellent resistance to
diseases,” Holmes says. “Since the seed will likely be going in a cold,
damp soil, it would be a good idea to treat it with a fungicide.”
“There is no question that seed treatments can increase yield in fields
where risk of seedling diseases are high,” says ISU Plant Pathologist
X.B. Yang. “Seed treatment will not improve germination rate, but will
protect against further stand loss if fields have a history of damping
off and the spring is wet. If the planting season is going to be cool
and wet, the value of using treated seeds increases.”
“Wet, saturated soil conditions at planting can increase the risk of
damping-off caused by Pythium and Phytophthora,” says ISU Plant
Pathologist Alison Robertson. “These pathogens cause similar symptoms
on soybean seedlings, and lab tests are usually required to distinguish
which pathogen is present. Pythium prefers cooler, saturated soils and
is more of a problem in early planted beans. Phytophthora may be an
issue when the soil is warmer and saturated.”
According to Robertson, soybean varieties with resistance to
Phytophthora pathogen are available, but varieties with resistance to
Pythium are not available. “Seed treatments can reduce risk of early
season damping off from both diseases. Growers should consider a seed
treatment if particular fields have a history of damping off,”
Robertson says.
“As the season progresses, there may be further effects from the winter
that will pose problems later in the summer,” Wright says. “For
instance, we don’t yet know the impact of all the snow cover on the
overwintering of the bean leaf beetle or aphids. Soybeans planted
in compacted fields that have experienced problems with root
development may be susceptible to problems with foliar diseases like
sudden death syndrome (SDS). While SDS infection occurs shortly after
germination, symptoms may not be apparent until later in the
summer. Additionally, if the young seedling roots have difficulty
taking up enough potassium, those soybeans could be more attractive to
soybean aphids later in the summer. There may also be issues of delayed
maturity.”
Time will tell on some of those issues. For now, Holmes sums up
what farmers can do: “Be aware that compacted soil is wet soil. Try not
to make the compaction worse. Wait until the soil is drier. Plant seed
with excellent resistance to diseases. Since it will be going into
cold, damp soil, treat seed with a fungicide and avoid making any more
trips than absolutely necessary across a field with wet soil.”
|
|
The Goal
of Monticello 24/7 is to provide
the most up to date information possible!
Please let us know if anything on this site needs updating,
if your group is having an event,
or if you have a news story.
We publish a network of similar sites, The 24/7 News Network.
If your information pertains to more than one of our sites,
we'll spread the word.
e-mail Information to:
info@monti247.com
Or
Post information Using the Form Below:
|
Please Support this
Site by Clicking on Our Sponsor's Ads
|
