Rock and Roll Agronomy

10 Tips for the 2007 Growing Season

by Jason Hanson, Certified Crop Advisor
jlhanson@agriliance.com

1 Pay attention to planting details. Watch your speed of planting as well as depth control. Don’t try to outsmart Mother Nature and adjust too far from the suggested depths. Make sure you are ready to have everything operating correctly to avoid issues such as hairpinning, incorrect seed drop, and fertilizer placement. 

2 Maintain yield protection if planting early or into high residue environments. Use best practices like row cleaners for row crops, high quality seed for small grains, use of starter when applicable to ensure early start, seed treatment for seedling protection and plant based on soil temps, not the calendar.

3 Use seed treatment for insurance. Fungus doesn’t really care if your seed is bin run or $200 a bag. In this year of high costs, high prices and high expectations, don’t leave the seed to fight by itself to give you a good stand. An even emerging crop is so much better to look at than a pythium-infested, root rot plagued, weak germinating one.

4 Don’t skimp on your fertilizer program. Fertilizer prices are high, but backing off rates and hoping for the same yield doesn’t happen too often. Use that starter and keep the rate where you need to. Add that micronutrient if your soil test calls for it. Maintain N, P, K and S levels for top economic yield. There is no other input that returns the highest return than fertilizer.

5 Have a weed management plan in place. If you are putting in row crops, start with a good pre-plant or pre-emerge program. Early weed control is so critical for all our crops. Don’t get lulled into the Roundup Ready world of ease and forget about when weeds do their damage. Get on troublesome weeds quickly, and use/mix rates of crop protection products that will do the job right.

6 Use fungicides when the environment, the variety, the disease and crop condition warrants an economic return. Even last year, the economics were there for use in a number of crops.

7 Pay attention to crop stage not only for weed control but for management decisions. Weather can dictate crop growth and knowing when N demand for corn or yield potential is starting to get set may mean doing things to either enhance or prevent a reduction in yields.

8 Spend time in your fields to see how varieties perform under certain weather conditions and field situations. Watch for weed escapes, insect or disease outbreaks and how your management practices and treatments are doing. It’s the best office in the world.

9 Stay current, treat timely.  Stay on top of pest trends in your area and manage accordingly.  There’s a wealth of web sites listed throughout this issue of Prairie Grains – bookmark them on your PC, then toss this issue into your pickup for reference.

10 Keep things in perspective and pay attention to safety.  It’s when we get tired, rushed and stressed out that we tend to get sloppy and take risks. No crop is worth more than your health or the life of others.

Hanson is a certified crop advisor, and rocks and rolls near Devils Lake, N.D. as regional agronomist with Agriliance/Croplan Genetics.