My Crop Report

Yesterday the phone rang all day.  People wanted to know what I've seen around here.  Here is a summary of my crop report.

Corn has looked fantastic.  Lots of fields have that full, level pollen top across the field.  The only problem is in the drowned out spots and that varies greatly from county to county and region to region. Some counties will be up to near record high yields or may set new ones, but will have to factor in the drowned out areas. It’s just a great-looking crop.

Although there is some leaf disease, because of the commodity price, people aren’t spraying fungicides or adding much cost to their crop like they normally would consider doing. Insects haven’t been bad. We had some earworms in the sweet corn, which is an indicator that we will see them in the field corn.

 

“Soybeans are all over the board. Planting date was critical. If you planted in April, you’ve got pretty good beans. If you planted in May, you’ve got average beans. Most of the beans in southern Ohio were planted in June or July and they will be below average. Anything planted after June 4 is short, water-damaged, and lagging behind.

“Resistant weeds are a real problem in the soybeans, whether it’s Roundup Ready or non-GMO. Liberty Link is the only thing that seems to be controlling the weeds. The acres I have been into or scouted completely look fairly clean but there are resistant weeds in every one of them. I can’t say that there’s a 100% clean field anywhere. Common and giant ragweed have been difficult to control. Lambsquarters have been an issue in a few fields. Anyone who didn’t have a marestail program is going to pay the price. These weeds are showing resistance to 2 or 3 modes of action. We have a lot of acres of beans, but they just aren’t good beans overall.”

How do things look in your neck of the woods?

Ed