Winter 2009-2010

Northcentral

This fall, many farmers observed corn stalks that were soft or broke easily. There are many possible causes, with diseases, insects, and K malnutrition as primary candidates. Stalk breakage and lodging at or near corn harvest are not solely diagnostic of a K deficiency, but are consistent with it. Farmers and advisers may want to watch soil test levels and crop development next season. Delays in leaf emergence, silking, and tasseling have all been shown to be caused by K deficiency. Such delays can result in higher grain moisture at harvest. Because subtle changes in crop development are hard to detect, putting out a strip in the field where K has been applied in a sufficient quantity can serve as a needed reference against which comparisons can be made. Farmers and advisers are encouraged to examine nutrient budgets for the last few seasons to see if nutrient withdrawals from crop harvest have exceeded K applications. If so, plans should be made to ensure soil fertility and nutrient applications do not become limiting.

Estimates of Crop Nutrient Removal by Corn and Soybean Crops

The link below provides a table with the yields, acreages, and amounts of N, P, and K removed by corn and soybeans in 2009 from several key states and provinces of the Northeast region.

Across most of the Northeast region, corn and soybean yields in 2009 were generally high in the USA, moderate in Ontario and lower than average in Quebec. Quality of corn was a major concern in Canada, with late harvest, high grain moisture, and low test weight.

Sound management of nutrients replaces the amounts removed by crops, in order to maintain soil fertility at an optimum level. When soils are low in P and K, rates applied may need to exceed removal. When they are higher than necessary, rates applied may be less than removal.

We may be experiencing “Global Warming”, but with the year 2009 having been cooler than normal in the Northern Great Plains, what will we have for weather in 2010?

The cropping year of 2009 in the Northern Great Plains (NGP) is one that will be remembered for having a cold spring, a cool summer, a warm September, and in many areas a delayed and wet harvest. Precipitation was variable from one area to another with early drought in some areas, excellent rain in others, and excess precipitation, especially at harvest, in yet others. It is useful to look at the weather summaries from different areas and see how the cropping year of 2009 compared to averages over the past few decades. This will be done by choosing a few sites from within the NGP and reviewing what weather conditions were like in 2009, and how this compares to long-term averages.

The Great Falls area of north central Montana experienced the 22nd coolest year, and slightly below average precipitation comparing over 100 years of records. The Spring was especially cool with the last frost occurring on June 8th compared to the average date of May 13th. This delayed development of crops in the early Spring and a cooler than normal summer was fortunately followed by a very warm and dry September that helped ripen crops and facilitate harvest of winter wheat and spring cereal crops.

The Fargo area of south eastern North Dakota experienced a slightly cooler than normal year, although precipitation was 17% above normal values. The fall of 2009 was one of the warmest on record that helped crops, especially corn, ripen. However, rainfall was 2.7 in. above normal much coming in the late fall and did not facilitate timely harvesting.

The Olds area of south central Alberta experienced cooler than normal April and early May temperatures and the growing season had lower than normal growing degree days until the warmer than average September temperatures resulted in accumulated growing degree days to equal and then exceed 30-year averages by the middle of September (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Accumulated Growing Degree Days (5 oC base), Olds, Alberta, 30-April through to 30-September, 2009. (Source: Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development).

The Brandon area of south west Manitoba experienced only slightly less than normal precipitation – 331 mm compared to 353 mm (13 in. compared to 14 in.), but the growing degree days (5 oC) were 6% less than an average year during the growing season.

When considering the whole NGP region – consisting of the states of Montana and North Dakota, and the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba – the cropping year 2009 was especially cool in the spring and had below average summer temperatures. If there had not been warmer than normal temperatures in September and October, many of the region’s crops would not have reached maturity. Some areas, especially in the west from north-central Montana up into Alberta and the west-central part of Saskatchewan, experienced very low spring precipitation (bordering on severe drought) that resulted in poor germination and emergence of crops, especially the small-seeded oilseed crops including canola, mustard, and flax. When rains came in late June, a problem of delayed germination and emergence happened in many of these fields that caused uneven ripening of crops in the fall and delayed harvest operations. Much of the drought-affected areas received below average total growing season precipitation. It was observed, however, that final crop yields were amazingly good even though below average. These reasonable yields were possible because of the lower moisture stress due to the cooler summer temperatures. Had the normal hot summer temperatures commonly experienced happened, many of the crops would have failed due to moisture stress. Some sugar beet fields in the region were not harvested because of delayed operations due to warmer than normal September and early October temperatures, followed by enough precipitation to hamper harvesting and then crops being frozen in the field. A similar situation happened for corn fields and the delayed harvest along with moist conditions resulted in rotting of grain in the ears. Many of these sugar beet and corn fields will be tilled under during spring field operations. Adjustments will be needed for subsequent crops on these fields as the nutrients usually removed in the harvested parts of the crops remained in the field and will become available as the crop residues decompose. Even though some areas had lower than average yields, much of the NGP region had average to above average crop yields and if it was an area that didn’t received untimely rain at harvest the grain quality harvested was good to excellent.

Now the big question is what will the cropping season of 2010 be like? Hopefully a more normal and warmer spring season. Seasonal predictions for the NGP are that the temperatures will be a bit warmer than normal and this will be a nice change from the spring of 2009. Precipitation looks to be close to normal amounts. Summer temperatures are expected to be higher than average on the west side of the region, accompanied by average precipitation. In most areas, residual N, P, and K in soils seems to be lower than normal, and fertilizer rates will need to be somewhat greater than normal to meet optimal crop yield targets. Some spring soil sampling and testing is advised on fields to help fine tune nutrient rates, especially for N.

The moisture conditions across the region have changed considerably since the last update was prepared. Then (toward the end of the summer) the central part of Texas was in serious drought, while other areas in the region were faring better. However, as of this writing (January), all of the six-state region has adequate moisture due to a relatively wet fall and substantial winter snowfall in some areas. So far the wheat crop is mostly in the fair to good category, with high hopes for good yields in most areas. There has been some freeze damage in some areas, but it is very limited. So, there is good potential for reasonable wheat yields this year.

In light of the previous comments, one thing growers need to do is make sure that adequate N is available to the wheat crop as it goes into the spring. In general, w heat takes up about 2.0 to 2.5 lb of N per bushel produced, or if grazed, about one lb for each 3 lb of stocker gain. Adequate N must be available to the wheat plant at all phases of development. Shortages may ultimately result in reduced tillering, reduction in head size, poor grain fill, reduced yields, and low protein content. Splitting N applications has the potential to improve use efficiency, minimize risk to investment, and safeguard the environment. It is critical that topdress applications be made early, prior to jointing, to maximize production efficiency. “Topdress by jointing” is the standard recommendation, but it is probably more accurate to say that N should be available for uptake (i.e., moved into the root zone) by jointing. Source should be managed according to equipment, availability, price, and other practical factors. Gaseous loss of N from urea-containing fertilizer is not of great concern in wheat topdressing since temperatures are usually below the threshold of concern (50 to 55 oF).

Chloride is another nutrient that can be of benefit in wheat topdress applications in some conditions. Many resources and guidelines are available on chloride, including an article in the most recent issue of Better Crops with Plant Food (link here). Without going into detail, chloride may be beneficial for wheat where soil test levels are less than 45 lb/A (24 in soil sample), or where foliar fungal disease pressure is unusually high. For more on chloride, see the article cited above, and other resources at the IPNI website.

Extreme cold weather throughout the South has affected the fruit, vegetable, and citrus industries. Some vegetable crops in Florida were reported as a total loss. Harvest in mid-January was at a standstill with damage to ripening fruit and plants setting blooms expected to continue impacting harvest over the next few weeks. The full extent of losses are not known at the time of this update. Other states in the region have been less affected by the cold and actually look forward to hopefully fewer pest problems this spring. However, a cold winter does not guarantee a pest-free spring. Dr. Ernie Flint, Area Agronomist, Mississippi State University, explains it like this: “We ‘should’ see reductions in the levels of some of our most troublesome pests like plant bugs, stink bugs, aphids, and worm species that overwinter in the soil. If you try to research this in the literature, you will find studies that hint at this or that level of reduction; but it’s not that simple. It gets very complicated, including many other factors such as soil texture, rainfall levels during the period, tillage system, weather immediately prior to the freezing period, and of course the length of the freezing period, as well as the frequency of freezing and thawing.”

Over the past couple of growing seasons, several growers in the region have reduced or eliminated some fertilizer applications (particularly P and K) due to high input costs. The word in the region this year is that fertilizer usage should be back to normal; however, it is important to be aware that some damage may have already been done. Growers that elected to eliminate fertilizer inputs and didn’t see a drop off in yield need to pay attention to potential nutrient mining that may have taken place. Also, growers that reduced inputs below recommended rates should be aware that the soil fertility build-up program that their lab prescribes has been affected. The IPNI publication Consequences of Cutting back on Potassiumaddresses these and other issues for southern cropping systems.

Finally, the 10th International Conference on Precision Agriculture (ICPA) will be held at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center in Denver, Colorado, USA from July 18th to July 21st, 2010. Precision agriculture is growing and so is the precision agricultural community across the world. The 10th ICPAis expected to be the largest ever, with more than 500 attendees from all over the U.S and over 40 countries (see program details, coming soon on www.icpaonline.org). Keeping with the tradition of the ICPA conferences, there will be a dedicated session called “A to Z Track” which is meant especially for crop consultants, advisers, agronomists, producers, extension agents, and other practitioners. The A to Z track will have talks from experts and specialists in their respective disciplines. These specialists will present talks that will be applied in nature with relevant “take home messages” for practitioners and others. More information on registration and detailed program information for the A to Z sessions will follow in future updates.

We need take time to pause and reflect on the past year and to make plans for the coming season. Farming has never been an easy profession, and it is a challenge every year to keep improving operations to remain profitable. Looking ahead, there is a mixture of good and bad news – with opportunities for making changes and improvements.

The demand for high-quality agricultural products continues to increase; consumption of fruits, vegetables, and nuts increases each year. As the international economy stabilizes, exports of valuable agricultural products have also picked up again. After a bleak year with low milk prices, there is hope for a more profitable year for the dairies, leading to a brighter outlook for hay growers.

Keep an eye on new government regulations, such as air pollution fees, additional irrigation discharge rules, and new restrictions on crop health chemicals that can make it difficult to remain profitable. Rising prices can take a toll on profitability as the costs of some essential inputs increase. Since farmers do not have much influence over crop prices, the only option is to improve efficiency and get more value out of every dollar of input.

Good business practices suggest that we continually reexamine the value of every input and then eliminate whatever is not essential. Some growers look at fertilizer as one of the inputs that might be reduced when financial conditions are tight. However, crop nutrients must be in adequate supply in order to achieve healthy plant growth and top yields. Nutrient-deficient crops cannot make good use of soil water and they are more susceptible to pest damage. A loss of yield and quality is a very real possibility when nutrients are in short supply. Any changes in a fertilizer program should be thoughtfully made on a field-by-field basis, using results from soil testing as a guide.

The outlook looks bright for a successful 2010. Take time to examine what can be done to make this year even better than last year.