Field Updates - UNL CropWatch, May 18, 2012

Field Updates - UNL CropWatch, May 18, 2012

May 18, 2012

 Post-flood cattails in a crop field

Cattails are particularly troublesome in this Missouri River bottom soybean field. 

Jenny Rees, extension educator in Clay County:  Corn ranges from 1-4 leaves. Wheat is filling. Our major concern right now is crusting in soybeans. (See this week's story and photos.) We had a strong storm in eastern Clay County May 2 with hail and rain, over 4 in ches of rain in parts and less than 0.5 inch in other area. Surprisingly damage wasn't too extreme -- some flooded areas of fields, washing, and a few pivots overturned. Some replanting has occurred since then. Soybeans planted two to three days prior to the storm have emerged and have decent stands. Soybeans planted the day before or day of the storm are experiencing major crusting issues now and just seem to be running out of steam.

I'm seeing many soybean plants with cotyledons being pushed down in an effort to push the stem up, snapping off the cotyledons. It's surprising how many of these stems emerged with plumules visible. I feel quite a bit of replanting is occurring that may not be necessary. On-farm research in this area has shown that farmers can leave a stand of 90K with only 1 bu/ac yield loss. One cooperator last year planted 65K with less than 2 bu/ac yield loss compared to 120K. Given our dry conditions and point in the season, I've been recommending leaving dryland stands of 60K and irrigated stands of 90K. It's taken two rounds of 0.5" to get beans through the crust in irrigated fields at this point.


Aaron Nygren, extension educator in Colfax County: Planting is quickly finishing up, with most producers having finished planting beans this week. Most corn is up and looks good, with excellent planting conditions leading to very uniform stands. Producers are starting to sidedress some of the very first planted corn fields. A few pivots were running at the beginning of the week to break the crust on some of the later planted corn, while considerably more have been running the last several days to break crust and water up soybeans. Some producers are concerned about soybeans that have sprouted and are now laying in rapidly drying dirt, especially with the hot dry winds we had this week. First planted fields of soybeans are up and stands look pretty good.

Greg Kruger, extension crops specialist at the West Central REC at North Platte:
The dry weather and wide planting window have been good for planting our research plots, but we could use a good shower to aid emergence.  Wheat in this area also could use some good moisture as we didn't start with a "full tank" in our soil moisture profile, and haven't gotten much help since then.  Most irrigated corn around here is planted, and progress is well underway in dryland fields.  A few of our corn fields are at V2-V4, but most is just spiking, if it's up.  Growers are irrigating corn to aid germination.

 

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A field of corn.