Memorial Day: All the flags in cemeteries are extra striking this time of year. Thank you to all who take the time to put them up and take them down for the Memorial Day weekend! This weekend can provide a number of emotions and memories of people gone before us and is a special time to remember family members and friends. Many in the military community know of someone who didn’t come back home to their spouses/parents/kids left behind. Sometimes it’s hard to respond when people say, “Happy Memorial Day”. I was reading a post on Twitter from a military member. It shared what he’s doing by saying something to the effect of, “It’s a good day to remember (insert a person’s name and share about their service to keep their memory alive)”. I liked that idea. May we never forget those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our Country and for their families left behind!

Storms: Last Tuesday was one of the craziest days for an Extension program that I can remember. We were dealing with the flooding closing roads around the Eastern NE Research and Education Center near Mead in addition to three tornado warnings and a fire alarm. The attendees at the crop scouting clinic were great as were all my colleagues at adapting and we were all grateful to get out of there before the last road out closed too.

I’m grateful that we haven’t had the massive flooding of fields like what has occurred there. The winds have created damage to pivots, buildings, and bins. They’ve also created some damage to crops, and I’m getting more calls about that. I’ve seen where tornadoes will literally suck plants out of the ground leaving small holes in rows. Straight-line winds are shearing plants off at ground level or a little above, particularly in fields with bare soil.

For corn, the growing point is still below ground till V5-6, so we will need to watch for any new recovery from the whorls. Sometimes corn that gets silted in when cut off doesn’t recover well if bacterial diseases set in, so watch for recovery. For soybeans, plants cut off below the cotyledons won’t survive. If the beans are just sticks with no leaves, there are two growing points at the cotyledons, 2 at the unifoliates, and a number in the buds once the beans hit the first trifoliate. Individual plants vary a lot, but we will need to watch recovery of these plants and then take stand counts to determine any need to replant or patch in areas of fields.

Stands and Replant Decisions: The chart in this article (https://go.unl.edu/doi2) shows the considerations between stands and yield losses. Note that the yield reductions listed in this table may be greater than what actually occurs in 2024. I’d love to see updated research as we know planting windows have changed with corn through the years and we saw how well late June replanted corn yielded in 2022.

For soybeans, I realize people struggle with low populations, and I get it from the weed control aspect. We ultimately recommend to aim for a final plant stand of 100,000 plants/acre. After disaster events, I’ve often recommended leaving stands at 50,000 plants/acre. Based on research and observations of soybeans compensating for reduced stands due to increased branching, we recommend leaving an early planted soybean stand of at least 50,000 plants per acre that has fairly uniform spacing throughout the field. We realize that can be hard! University of Wisconsin found only a 2 bu/ac yield increase when replanting early soybeans between 50,000 and their optimum stand of 100,000-135,000 plants/acre. For stands less than 50,000 plants per acre, plant a similar maturity into the existing stand; don’t tear out or kill an existing stand as early planted soybeans have a higher yield potential. If you’d like to test this for yourself, consider an on-farm research study! Simply leave a planter pass of your existing stand, plant into your existing stand for a planter pass, and alternate this across your field. Please see this protocol for more information.

Memorial Day Prayer: This was shared by my church this weekend. May we never forget the sacrifice of those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom and their families left behind.