Corn and Soybean Planting Periods: The flowers/trees have been beautiful in the midst of a cool, dry, windy spring. I’ve been thinking about planting windows a lot. Appreciate all who have communicated thoughts on planting. From these conversations, I feel there’s been a shift in thinking, at least for this part of the state, with more paying attention to cold snap windows. Also been a shift to planting soybeans earlier or at the same time as corn. But to show whether that’s true or not, can you please help me with a quick one question visual survey on planting: https://app.sli.do/event/eV5gr4ioSZiSQKabEwRheB? It’s not letting me embed it, so you’ll have to click the link.

From what I’m hearing, planting progress ranges. Some are completely done, some are done with one crop or the other; many will finish this week. Others (mostly non-irrigated) are just starting this week. Some are concerned about May planting and yield loss. The rest of this info. mostly pertains to corn with encouragement that data has shown corn yields not to drop off till after mid-May planting dates. The article links provide the hard data.

Dr. Jim Specht, Professor Emeritus of UNL Agronomy and Horticulture, put together an article we will hopefully release in CropWatch this week. He was using NASS Nebraska Corn and Soybean 50% planting progress in comparison with NASS reported yields. Two key findings based on 43 years of data are:

• Delays in the Nebraska corn 50% progress date that occur within the May 2 – 12 planting period do not have an appreciable impact on resultant corn yield.
• The Nebraska soybean 50% progress date has advanced by eight days from a 43-year mean of May 22 to an expected May 14 date for the 2023 season.

Dr. Roger Elmore, also an Emeritus Professor of UNL Agronomy and Horticulture, had shared a similar sentiment in a 2019 CropWatch article where he shared about planting windows for corn using UNL research and NASS data. He shared, “A planting window exists within which (corn) yields do not vary tremendously. That window starts to close after mid-May. Many factors in addition to planting date influence final yields. There is always a chance that late-planted corn may out-yield early-planted corn.” Dr. Bob Nielsen, Emeritus professor at Purdue University shares similar key points for corn in an article, “Early planting favors higher yields, but does not guarantee higher (corn) yields. Statewide averages for planting progress and yield are not strongly related. Planting date is but one of many yield influencing factors.”

Alfalfa Weevils: I haven’t checked alfalfa fields yet, but had been watching comments down in Kansas. Alfalfa weevil larvae had hatched in southern Nebraska and also at the research station near Mead. In spite of planting, be sure to monitor alfalfa fields.

Dr. Bob Wright, Extension entomologist, and colleagues share the following in a recent CropWatch article. “The larvae of alfalfa weevils feed on first cutting alfalfa as larvae, and adults (and sometimes larvae) feed on the regrowth after the first cutting. In the Panhandle and in the northern tier of counties, there may be two flushes of weevil larvae this spring, leading to regrowth damage after the first cutting. Observations indicate the cause may be due to significant survival of both adult and larval weevils.”

It basically takes 1-2 alfalfa weevil larvae per stem to reach the economic threshold with today’s alfalfa prices. Take 10 stems from an area of the field, cut at ground level and hit them on the inside of a bucket. Count the number of weevil larvae present (also make sure to unfurl the bud leaves as some stay trapped in there). Depending on how close you are to harvest, one can choose to not treat and just harvest the alfalfa field while watching the green up for potential need to treat then, or treat prior to taking first cutting if harvest is still a ways off and economic thresholds are met. Insecticides for alfalfa weevil control include those that are pyrethroids (active ingredient ends in “thrin”) and products containing indoxacarb (e.g., Steward).

Happy Spring! Special thank you to all who helped make the Seward County Ag Banquet so successful! It’s a very special night celebrating agriculture, the farm family, farm business, and scholarship award winners! For this week’s column, I’ll share on a number of different resources.

Preliminary farm real estate numbers were released last week at: https://cap.unl.edu/realestate. All Center for Ag Profitability webinars can be found at:  https://cap.unl.edu/webinars. Last week’s Virtual Landlord/Tenant Cash Rent workshop for Eastern and Western NE should be posted soon on that site.

Soil Temperatures can be found at:  https://cropwatch.unl.edu/soiltemperature. This is helpful for knowing when to plant vegetables, when to plant crops, and what the soil temp is when applying fertilizer to fields. It’s also helpful for homeowners to wait to apply crabgrass preventer for lawns until soil temps are at least 50-55F for 5-7 days straight.

CropWatch at cropwatch.unl.edu is still our one-stop shop for all crop-related information from Nebraska Extension. In case you missed it, this week’s edition covered a number of nutrient-management related topics including a comparison showing the importance of residual soil nitrogen and the dollar savings for this year’s crop and calculating the value of nutrients in manure for crop fields.

On-Farm Research Results Book: PDF version can be viewed at: https://on-farm-research.unl.edu/results-pdfs/2022research-results.pdf. Different protocols can be viewed at: https://on-farm-research.unl.edu/protocols. You can also contact your local Extension educator directly to develop protocols that fit your needs.  

Vegetable Planting Guide for the area can be found at: https://go.unl.edu/pgwk.

Gardening Workshop: Sarah Browning, Extension Educator, did a fabulous job at the Project Grow gardening workshop several weeks ago. Whether you were able to attend or not, the full slide presentation is posted at: https://www.upperbigblue.org/sites/default/files/images/Events/veg-gardening-handout.pdf. If you’re interested in gardening but don’t have room at your home, there is a community garden with Project Grow; please contact the UBBNRD if you’re interested in learning more.

Lawn Calendars:

• Kentucky Bluegrass Lawn Calendar: https://go.unl.edu/r7ay
• Tall Fescue Lawn Calendar: https://go.unl.edu/frkp
• Buffalograss Lawn Calendar: https://go.unl.edu/6xgu

Lawn Care: Kelly Feehan shares, “Lawn care that can be done in March or early April, once conditions allow, is removal of debris that collected over winter, raking leaves that were not removed last fall, and mowing. However, wait to mow until after turfgrass has started to grow. Some people mow dormant turf very low in hopes of stimulating growth. It is best to allow turfgrass to come out of dormancy on its own. If new growth has not started, there is no need to mow. Low mowing is usually not good for lawns. Ideally, leave turfgrass the same height all season. For Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue, this is about three to three and a half inches. If you wish to mow low in spring, do not mow any lower than 2.5 inches. With some snow cover this year, vole damage may be seen. This damage appears as two-inch wide tracks in lawns where grass has been chewed close to the ground. These areas fill in once new growth begins and are not a concern.” Overseeding of thin turf areas can also be done now.

(Jenny’s Note: I haven’t personally seen this off-coloration on Enlist E3 soybean seed, but felt it was important for growers to be aware of, so am sharing this blog post from the University of Wisconsin).

By: Seth Naeve and Shawn Conley Fall is time where farmers literally reap the production of their year’s efforts, but fall can be a crazy and chaotic time as well.  Each year offers new challenges, and this one will be no different. Farmers in the Midwest should be aware of an issue in the production […]

Source: (SBOC)…..One MORE thing to think about this fall?