What a difference last week made in the planting progress here in Central Illinois and across many areas of the corn belt. Much of the corn in my area has been planted with a slug of beans being put in the ground much of last week through this week. Unfortunately,...
Crop Management
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Nutrapathic™ Soil Restore and Nutrapathic™ Liquid Bacteria Concentrate
May 6, 2019
Nutrapathic™ Soil Restore and Nutrapathic™ Liquid Bacteria Concentrate There are more and more companies in the agriculture field, not to mention the horticulture and organic fields, who are developing and marketing biological products to help build soil health,...
Delayed Planting- Should You Switch to an Earlier Maturing Corn Hybrid?
May 1, 2019
The beginning of May finds most of the Midwest lagging behind in corn planting as wet weather continues to inundate much of the area. Even though planting is behind our normal progress, it’s important not to panic and make drastic decisions based on emotion. One of...
Update – MO Plot
Apr 30, 2019
Here we are no tilling, into a killed cover crop, a CROP CHOICE fertilizer plot on April 25. Notice the dark clouds to the west? We did have a shower and had to quit for the day right after we got done with the plot. We finished the field the next day. This is going...
Attributes of Applying Fungicide – John Viertel
Aug 15, 2018
To say that it has been dry in my state, is an understatement! Today we are getting a bit of rain, and more is in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow. It is going to take 8 to 10 inches to get us back to normal and “bust” this year’s drought. Hope that it doesn’t...
Aerway Info – John Viertel
Jul 31, 2018
These pictures were taken a few years ago, when we were having a dry spell in central Missouri. Not as dry as it has been this summer, but still dry. There is a lot of pasture in Missouri that is going to have some type of forage planted into it for fall and...
Assessing Your Nitrogen Management – Derek Porter
Jul 25, 2018
The corn crop in central Illinois is well past pollination with kernel fill now taking place. I love the period from tassel time to grain fill because the corn crop is telling us quite a bit about how well our fertility program is working, particularly as it pertains...
Clean Liberty Link Soybean Field – John Viertel
Jul 18, 2018
In an earlier posting, I showed a sprayer applying Liberty Herbicide to this field, using Soil Service, Inc. products with the Liberty Herbicide. The pictures showed the coverage on the beans and on the weeds. Well, I got time to finally get back to that field, and as...
IL Corn Plot Update – Derek Porter
Jun 1, 2018
As we turn the calendar to June, some of the differences in our starter fertilizer plots are becoming evident. As most who use starter fertilizer can attest too, the plants with starter fertilizer tend to show more growth early on compared to where no starter has been...
Missouri Plot – John Viertel
Mar 26, 2018
Since 2012, we have been working on a thirty-acre field in central Missouri that we have designated as the Soil Health Study. This field was taken out of grass pasture for a soybean, corn, and wheat rotation. The only tillage used has been with the Aerway/Salford...
Post Emerge Program Success
Jul 28, 2017
It’s almost the end of July, and as I have been traveling around the state, I have seen a lot of soybean fields. Some (Image 1 shown below) have weeds that have come through the herbicide program and do not even show signs of being sprayed. Others (Image 2 -treated...
Now Is The Time For Foliar Feeding
Jul 6, 2017
I returned to John Hansman’s last week to deliver some more Foliar Opp for soybeans. The field below had Foliar Opp applied prior (at about the V-4 stage). Looking back at a previous blog, this was a field where there was concern over the population, after all the...
Valmar Seeder & AerWay Cover Crop Follow Up
Jun 26, 2017
SOIL SERVICE, INC is a Valmar Dealer, and if you have an interest in seeding your covercrop this way, let us know and we will be glad to answer any questions you may have. Last fall we incorporated our cereal rye covercrop with the Aerway/Remlinger Harrow...
Evaluating Stands in Bean Fields After Rain
Jun 5, 2017
I have been getting out in the field with my hula hoop this week checking the stands in some soybean fields where there is a lot of cover crop residue. Because of all the recent rains and the residue, there seems to be some real variation in the populations,...
Hansman No-Till Soybean Field
May 18, 2017
Crop Choice Starter Program on Soybeans The pictures with this blog were taken May 16, 2017. I stopped by John Hansman’s no till soybean field, just north of Columbia, Mo, on Tuesday morning to see how his soybeans were doing after all the rain we had earlier this...
Recommendations for Applying Nitrogen
May 2, 2017
After a pretty decent April, we go into May wet! We had six (6) inches and more here in Central Missouri. There is flooding going on after the rain that we got Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and today, with more on the way Wednesday. Most of us have been through this kind...
Zinc Deficiency Cause and Effect
Feb 6, 2017
Last spring there was a lot of corn that had some nutrient deficiencies, mainly sulfur. However, some of the tissue tests which I had run came back deficient in Zinc. After doing some research on this matter, I found that 30-50% of soil samples in Missouri report a...
Start Thinking About Your Planter Setup Today
Jan 5, 2017
Kinze Planter setup last spring to apply Crop Choice starter fertilizer. Happy New Year! As it is snowing here this morning, I thought I’d put together some pictures of a planter that is ready to go to the field to plant corn. As you can see, we have installed...
2017 Fertilizer Incentives
Oct 7, 2016
It’s hard to believe that it is already October. Harvest is in full swing; good yields being reported from everywhere. Watch for our yield reports coming later. Starter fertilizer prices have softened from last year, and I want you to be aware of the fantastic...
5000 Stalk Devastator from Yetter
Aug 24, 2016
If you missed the SOIL SERVICE, INC field days last week, you really missed out on a lot of great information. Of course the corn and beans looked awesome in the plots, and there will be lots of data to go through after harvest this fall. However, the information...
Fallow Corn Syndrome: Causes and Prevention
Jun 29, 2016
There has been a lot of talk and several articles over the last few weeks concerning the uneven corn, especially in the areas where crops were not planted last year. What gets me is after talking to an independent agronomist yesterday, no one really seems to know what the cause is. Here are a few of the ideas going around:
(1) Some think it was because the soil mycorrhiza didn’t have the proper host last summer due to bare ground. (Even where there were a lot of weeds that were allowed to grow.)
(2) Some think it was because we had such a mild winter—that the freezing and thawing did not get rid of some shallow compaction.
(3) Others think it was because some growers cut fertility programs to save on costs this spring.
(4) Still others think it was just a function of the cooler, wetter spell after such good planting conditions and early corn planting.
Corn Crop 2016: Advice from John Viertel
May 1, 2016
WOW! In all my years of traveling the state of Missouri during the month of April, I don’t think that I have ever seen the corn crop go in the ground faster or under more ideal conditions than it did this year! After scouting some fields on April 28, the newly emerged plants look excellent. One field was almost in the V-2 stage, and there are probably some fields in Missouri that are further along than that. Emergence and population were virtually perfect. Weed control – excellent!
Wheat Management – Fall Tips
Aug 1, 2014
Question: What should your goal(s) be when planning for the best possible outcome of the wheat crop that you are going to plant this fall?
If you answered 100 bushel per acre yield, then here are some ideas that can help reach that goal.
1. Plant timely and do a good job! Use high quality seed wheat and choose a good variety. If planning on using bin run seed, it should be germ tested, cleaned, and if possible, a good seed treatment applied. Seeding rates varies depending on the seed quality, soil moisture, planting date, and if treated seed is being used. We are using 120 pounds per acre in 8 inch drill rows everywhere we no-till after soybeans on our farm.
2. Maximize number of tillers! You want to have a minimum of 70 tillers per square foot going into the spring green-up. This starts in the fall by doing a good job of drilling the wheat and having the proper fertility in the field.
3. Manage nutrients efficiently! Wheat doesn’t need a lot of nutrients in the fall. However, to maximize yield potential, it does need phosphorus to build its root system and begin to tiller in the fall. Cooler soil temperature in the fall as the wheat plant is getting started, makes it difficult for the wheat roots to take up enough phosphorus from the soil.