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Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds
#FromtheField – Week of June 5, 2023
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Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds
#FromtheField – Week of May 29, 2023
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Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds
#FromtheField – Week of May 22
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Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds
Staging and Application: Make the Right Decisions
Planting across Latham Country has been progressing at a rapid pace and it will not be long before post-emergence spraying will begin. When to spray, what to spray, should I spray . . . these are some of the questions growers need to consider before heading to the field. I believe “when to spray” is one of the most critical decisions a grower will make. Damaging or injuring a young plant can have lasting affects that may not be visible to the naked eye. Understanding growth stages and relating this to the labeled requirements is a key to successful growing season. Let’s take a look at corn first.
Labels typically refer to growth stages for application timing and the chart below is a good reference.
Image: University of Illinois VE Stage – Corn emergence occurs when the coleoptiles reach and break through the soil surface. Normally, corn requires approximately 100-200 GDUs to emerge, which can be four to five days after planting. At this stage, growth is also taking place below the ground as the nodal root system begins to grow.
Emergence may occur as rapidly as four or five days after planting in warm moist soil, or may take three weeks or more in cool soils. A new leaf will appear about every three days during early growth, while later leaves developing during warmer conditions may appear in one to two days. Full season hybrids in the central Corn Belt typically can produce 21 to 22 leaves. Earlier maturing hybrids will produce fewer leaves.
Keep these numbers in mind as you plan out your season and prepare to spray your fields. Within a month after planting, a corn plant can go from the bag to V5-V7 if conditions are favorable.
Soybeans in a given field will not be in the same stage at the same time. When staging a field of soybeans, each V or R stage is defined when 50% or more of the plants in the field are in or beyond that stage. This makes it important to understand staging and development since not every plant in the field will be at the same stage when determining application timing. The chart below is a good reference for staging.
The general rule of thumb is to figure five days between growth stages in soybeans. The most important growth stage is R1 which is classified as one flower open at any node on the main stem. Soybean flowers are very sensitive and herbicide application should be avoided at this stage. R1 can begin before canopy closure and the temptation is there to make that final application before canopy closure. A good pre-plant program can help avoid the need for late season spraying and a few late escapes is not worth the consequences from spraying post-flower.
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Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds
#FromtheField – Week of May 1, 2023
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Latham Hi‑Tech Seed’s Corn Plot going in Northern Iowa!
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Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds
Tips for Assessing Winterkill in Alfalfa
When soils thaw in early spring, we can see how our alfalfa crop fared. You can get a pretty good indication of your alfalfa crop’s health from the road. If your field is still brown and the neighbor’s field is green, check for injury or death.
The best way to diagnose winter injury is by digging four to six inches deep and then examining the plants’ roots. Healthy roots should be firm and white in color with little evidence of root rot. Winter-killed roots will have a gray, water-soaked appearance early.
If your alfalfa stand has suffered winter injury, assess the field’s yield potential by determining the number of stems per square foot:
Yield (tons/acre) = (Stems/ft2 x 0.1) + 0.38
This calculation should only be used as a guideline as many factors determine yield. Factors that influence winter injury and yield in alfalfa stands include:
- Stand age. Older stands are more likely to winterkill than younger ones.
- Variety. Varieties with superior winter-hardiness ratings and a high disease resistance index are less likely to experience winter injury.
- Soil pH. Stands growing on soil with a pH about 6.6 are less likely to experience winter injury.
- Soil Fertility. Stands with high fertility, particularly potassium, are less likely to experience winter injury than those with low fertility.
- Soil moisture. Alfalfa grown on well-drained soils is less prone to winter injury.
- Fall soil moisture status. As dehydration is the primary means of tolerating freezing temperatures, stands that go into winter with low soil moisture are better able to lose moisture and are less likely to winterkill.
- Cutting management. Both harvest frequency and timing of fall cutting affect alfalfa winter hardiness. The shorter the interval between cuttings, the greater the risk of winter injury. Stands where the last cutting was taken between Sept. 1 and Oct. 15 are at greater risk, as plants are unable to replenish root carbohydrate reserves before winter.
- Snow cover. Snow is an excellent insulator. Four inches of snow can result in a 10°F difference in soil temperatures. Stands that were not cut after Sept. 1 or that have at least six inches of stubble retain more snow cover and are less susceptible to winter injury.
While we cannot control what Mother Nature delivers during the winter months, we can take steps to control or reduce alfalfa winter injury. Contact your local Latham® dealer or call our office at 877-GO-LATHAM (877-465-2842); we’d love to assist you with any questions you may have.
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Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds
Drive Yield with Soil Health and Customized Plant Nutrition
It’s no secret that optimal yields result from a combination of many factors: environment, plant nutrition and nutrients to name a few.
Plant nutrition is key to maximizing the yield potential of today’s plant genetics. To meet the intensive nutritional demands of these plants, there must be a higher fidelity to soil condition and nutrition. Removing nutrients removes nutrition from the soil reserves.There is a no “one-size-fits-all” nutrition program, and there are many variations of soils and environments. So customizing nutrition programs by field can help optimize yield. Today’s technology allows us to do just that!
Many years ago, we heard about a farmer who found a unique combination of cover crops that worked well for his soils and climate. He tracked everything precisely and found that soil organic matter (OM) increases by 0.1% each year. This may not seem like much, but the impacts are exponential. In 10 years, you gain 1% more OM. For every 1% OM, the soil can hold 1 acre inch of rain. That’s 27,000 gallons of water.
This farmer is improving water and nutrient-holding capacity of the soil in the root zone. During drought years, his farm’s yield was only down 10 bushels while the average yield decrease was 60 bushels. Plus, his farm produced the same yields using less nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) because leaching is reduced.
Why not experiment on your own farm? Start small and see how you can capture more yield on the same acre. Here are a couple resources to help you get started:
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Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds
Mitigate Weather Risks with Best Management Practices
Weather concerns are top of mind as farmers across Latham Country look ahead to spring 2023 planting. Customers frequently ask us how to mitigate risk from the 2022 wet planting season.While we want to maximize the yield potential of early planting, 2022 data shows us that delayed planting can result in very good yields — and better yields than planting when conditions are unfit.
Consider these factors to successfully mitigate potential risks of delayed planting:
- Minimize compaction during field preparation.
- A uniform seed bed creates the best opportunity to plant your crop with precision.
- Minimize passes in the spring while creating a uniform seed bed.
- Be careful not to cause sidewall compaction of seed trench at planting.
- Plant your corn crop with precision. We want all plants to emerge within 72 hours. This creates the best root system to maximize water use through the entire growing season.
- Plant a consistent seed depth.
- Check for consistent seed spacing.
- Ensure great seed-to-soil contact.
- Delay planting if cold temps or cold rain is forecasted within 72 hours after planting.
- Promote a healthy root system with fertility. Good fertility programs maintain a healthy, strong root system to effectively use available water.
- Starter fertilizer gets corn plants off to the best start possible.
- Side-dress Nitrogen in a timely manner to nurse optimum plant health.
- Maintain a good fertility balance, using soil testing as a guide.
We suggest staying with a hybrid selection plan that does not vary significantly from previous years. A couple management changes at planting time to get your crop off to a great start will result in more success than totally changing your hybrid selection.
Remember, most corn yield is created in July and August. Get your plants off to the best start, so they can take advantage of that part of the growing season. Don’t get discouraged if you encounter a bit of a delay. Stick to the hybrids in your original plan through the end of May.
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- Minimize compaction during field preparation.
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Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds
Success with Biologicals Starts with Optimizing Your Soil Fertility
Precision Agronomy Advisor, Phil Long One reason Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds opened its Premier Agronomy Center on the Latham family’s Iowa Century farm was to collect data using real-world practices and to research solutions for real-world problems. More farmers are interested in biologicals to reduce fertilizer and other input costs and/or to build soil health.
A biological product, or biofertilizer, contains living microorganisms that promote fertilizer efficiency or plant growth. Most of these products are naturally occurring in the environment but likely do not occur in high amounts in your field.
At Latham’s Premier Agronomy Center in 2022, we used Pivot Bio PROVEN® and Azotic Envita® on corn. Both nitrogen-producing bacteria products were trialed on a large scale and applied in-furrow with LH 5245 VT2 PRO RIB. PROVEN yielded 213.1 bushels per acre (bu/A), and Envita yielded 208.1 bu/A while the untreated LH 5245 yielded 206.2 bu/A. (Also please note that I applied about 40 lbs per acre less nitrogen on all the biological products, so I saved about $20 to $30 per acre when accounting for the product cost.) We have seen similar past results with PROVEN on our farm despite the dry conditions we have had. Envita also may be sprayed over the crop in-season — a process that our team will try in 2023.
Another biological/foliar product that I’ve used on my own farm for soybeans is BW Advance from BW Fusion. This product has foliar nutrients plus biologicals. When applied around soybean reproduction time, it can help reduce flower and pod abortion plus reduce moisture loss during drought stress. It takes about a 1.5 bu/A yield increase to pay for the product at current soybean prices. In 2022, I saw an average of 2.3 bu/A advantage. Keep in mind, 2022 was very dry and this particular field has some underlying fertility issues.
If you are going to try biologicals, you must take care of pH and other soil fertility deficiencies. The microbes in your soil, especially bacteria and fungi, thrive based on proper pH and physical soil environment. For example, if you have a pH of 5.0 or heavily compacted soils, you’re not going to see a boost in soil life until you correct those issues.
This year I used two foliar/soil-applied products, Midwest Bio-Tech’s Chandler Soil and TerraMax’s Ag Soft. The goal of these products is for compaction alleviation and residue management. I’m using these products on our cover crop and no-till plots. During the next few years, I will share results and show any soil structure changes. We also use seed-applied products, including Talc U.S.A.’s Microsurge inoculant and Encompass, as well as TerraMax’s Vertex and Micro MX.
How will we know which products may benefit our farm the most? Our plan is to try them! I will share soil health tests and how they can aid us in continuing to decipher the complex world of biologicals.
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Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds
Match Hybrids to Your Management Style
Precision Agronomy Advisor, Phil Long Agronomists often tout the merits of selecting hybrids to fit your soil types, but it’s also important to select hybrids that match your management style.
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds’ Premier Agronomy Center provides opportunities for us to learn and share how Latham® products interact with the environment and perform under different management styles. In 2022, we adapted our stress wheel study to show how different Latham brand hybrids react to population differences. We planted 20 different Latham hybrids at both 24,000 and 36,000 plants per acre (ppa) to track how each hybrid adjusts its ear flex – or yield – to high- and low-competition environments.
Overall corn yield comes from three areas: (1) plants per acre; (2) ears per plant; and (3) weight per ear. If we look specifically at an individual corn plant, yield comes from these three areas: girth in the early season, length in mid-season and kernel depth in late season. The hybrid stress test helps us better understand how your favorite Latham hybrids adjust their yield in high- or low-stress environments, which in turn helps you better understand when to reduce stress for these hybrids.
For example, if a hybrid gets most of its yield from flex in girth, you should reduce early-season stress. Plant these hybrids in warm soils; provide fertility at the planter, and make sure nitrogen is in an available form early in the season. All hybrids determine girth based on how healthy or stressed the plants are from emergence to V7, so anything you can do to help them at that stage retains more yield.
The critical time for hybrids that flex in length is from V8 to R2. Making sure these hybrids are healthy in early summer is more important. Side-dress applications are beneficial to these hybrids.
The last group is those that flex in kernel depth, which occurs from R3 to R6 when the corn is filling its kernels, so nutrients move from leaves to the ear. These hybrids can benefit greatly from fungicide because it gives them extra time in the grain fill stage to add weight to the ear.
Although we always talk about hybrids flexing up for bigger yields, a corn plant thinks of it differently. It starts with very high expectations and then flexes down in each direction based on the stress it encounters during the season. Each hybrid’s genetics can vary by how much emphasis it puts on these three areas of yield.
We were intrigued by what we learned from our stress test in 2022 and look forward to learning more in 2023 about how our hybrids adjust their yield. Talk with your local Latham® rep to help you match our hybrids to your management style. Each local salesperson is supported by a team of seed specialists located across our six-state territory.
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