MAKE FARM SAFETY A PRIORITY THIS YEAR.

During the spring planting season, farmers often rush to get into the fields, where they work extremely long hours.


“When you spend a lot of time working, you become fatigued; when you are fatigued, you make poor decisions about your safety,” says Charles Schwab, a safety specialist with Iowa State University Extension. “If you are working long hours, you need to take breaks so you can reenergize.”


To limit injuries and to avoid risk, he suggests developing family rules appropriate to the age and stage of each family member, involving youth in farm safety projects, inspecting the farm for obvious hazards, and teaching youth proper safety skills.


Being aware of hazards and risks is very important, and stressing safety at all times can help prevent injuries and death.


“The agriculture industry is the most dangerous industry in the U.S.,” Schwab says. “Make sure you take the right steps to avoid disaster.” BY LISA PRATER.

FARMERS EDGE INTRODUCES CORN MANAGER.

Corn Manager, the latest addition to the Farmers Edge farm management platform Farm Command, equips growers with tools for tracking corn growth, planning nitrogen applications, and visualizing overall crop health and variability.

“Efficient, fast, and exceedingly easy to use, Corn Manager represents a major breakthrough for the industry as it transitions from precision agriculture to decision agriculture,” says Dr. Solomon Folle, senior cropping system modeler at Farmers Edge. “Tapping into real-time, field-centric data monitored at a finer spatial scale than ever before, this new toolset optimizes nitrogen application rates on a zone-by-zone basis. Built on a foundation of in-depth research and extensive trials, Corn Manager truly is the most comprehensive corn management system available today.”

One interface = three tools
Corn Manager includes three primary components – nitrogen, staging, and imagery.

1. Nitrogen. Although it is one of the most important nutrients for corn production, nitrogen is still the most difficult for many growers to manage. Because this input is driven by field-centric variables, the nitrogen tool incorporates weather information from on-farm weather stations and precision, zone-based soil sampling test results and includes daily plus on-demand updates.
This tool has been tested under a wide variety of management scenarios, including a multiyear study at Iowa State University.

2. Staging. Also driven by field-centric data, the staging tool monitors and forecasts crop development to identify key growth stages. Growers can then better manage the day-to-day logistical activities that determine their farms’ overall profitability, such as application timing, scouting, and equipment deployment.

3. Imagery. Aggregating remotely-sensed data from up to four different sources, the imagery tool offers high-frequency, NDVI-derived crop imagery.

This imagery enables crop health maps and field variability maps. Crop health maps provide a consistent view of the fields through time, allowing growers to track the progress of the crops. Field variability maps illustrate the major locations of variability across a field then identify subtle differences to pinpoint unique areas that may require further investigation. BY LAURIE BEDORD.

WOMEN IN AG: DID WHEAT SURVIVE THE FREEZE?

I thought because we don’t grow fruit crops on our farm, freezing temperatures that hit North Carolina a few weeks ago weren’t a concern.

I was wrong. When I wrote this post about farmers trying to save strawberries, apples, and other fruits from freezing temperatures, I didn’t realize one of our crops might also be damaged.

We grow soft red winter wheat, which is the class of wheat grown by most farmers in my state. This class has lower protein, so the grain is often used for livestock feed. When ground into flour, it is used in cookies, biscuits, crackers, pastries, and other foods. It is not used for bread.

We had a hard freeze over two days in the middle of March. In the eastern part of the state, where I live, wheat fared better than in the Piedmont (middle of the state), where some farmers lost 90% of their wheat crop.

When my husband talked about assessing our wheat to see how much damage we had, I wondered how the crop could be damaged. I knew wheat had matured early due to an unseasonably warm winter, but the grain heads hadn’t emerged from inside the stem. It turns out that while the sugars in the leaves can insulate the grain head and protect it, they are still susceptible to freeze damage. 

As wheat plants mature, they are more vulnerable to spring freeze. Our wheat is in the reproductive stage, so the plant is putting it’s energy into producing a grain head. The head, or spike, of grain was moving up the plant, but it hadn’t emerged yet. This is called the boot stage. Plants at this stage are sensitive to freezing te

temperatures over a prolonged period of time.

In the east, temperatures dropped to 24˚F. or below, but they didn’t stay that low more than two hours. Any longer and wheat could have been significantly injured. In the Piedmont, temperatures dropped to the teens.

In addition to temperature and duration, other factors that influence the amount of freeze damage on small grains (including wheat and barley) include:

Variety of wheat

Stage of plant growth

Plant moisture

Wind

Rain

Land elevation

Topography

We can’t control any of the circumstances that may damage or kill wheat. We can only asses the damage and decide what to do after the freeze. Our wheat had some damage, but we are continuing to manage it for the grain. Farmers whose fields had significant damage may choose to start managing their wheat as a cover crop, which means they won’t harvest the grain. In a year where a record wheat crop was predicted, those two nights of freezing temperatures were very costly to some North Carolina farmers. BY HEATHER BARNES.

INVESTORS AWAIT TUESDAYS USDA REPORT

Friday morning saw the release of the official estimates for Tuesday's Supply/Demand report which helped to add a little more weight to corn.

Last month saw corn carryout at 2.320 and the average analysts' average estimate for Tuesday is an increase to 2.352. It is likely that trade has priced most of this in already as they have expected this report to be slightly bearish for some time now.

Friday helped to put a solid number to that thought of a slightly bearish report.At this point, we would have to think trade is prepared for that 2.352 number meaning that Tuesday would likely have to generate a number higher than that to see a selling reaction.

Friday's weather maps had active rainfall for TX/OK/MO with lighter amounts for southern Illinois, but as we know it will mean much more what Monday's maps show.

For next week, in particular, any trading of weather maps will likely have to wait until after Tuesday's report. But corn traders will still want to watch Monday's maps closely to know what to expect for corn direction after the report.


In the short term, Tuesday's report should be the center of attention. Longer term weather maps are likely most important, especially if any threats to slow planting are seen.

Bulls

• Bulls will be looking for a wet forecast on Monday to give some support to corn after seeing Tuesday's report

• Bulls will want to see the USDA raise their ethanol usage number on Tuesday's report, ethanol has been strong enough the last couple months to expect an increase on the balance sheet

Bears

• Bears will be looking for a carryout increase of 32 million bushels as the analysts' estimate suggests
• Bears will also be looking for a clear forecast to avoid any slow planting discussion before or after Tuesday's report. BY RICH NELSON.

ENHANCING SOIL HEALTH FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

Dean Sponheim has worked diligently to enhance the quality of the soil of his Iowa farm ever since he began farming in 1979. For nearly four decades, Sponheim has implemented new and innovative in-field farming practices, many of which weren’t viewed as conservation practices initially, but rather, just a different way of farming.


“Strip-tilling is a good example of something that we experimented with not because it was a conservation practice, but rather an effective way of getting more out of soils with poor drainage,” Sponheim says. “What we’ve found is that strip-tilling increases the efficiency of nutrient uptake since fertilizer is placed right below the seed, where it’s needed for the crop to grow.”


Sponheim’s custom-strip-till business has been a longtime user of N-Serve® nitrogen stabilizer, even back in the days when many farmers were hesitant to adopt the practice.

“We had 15 more inches of rain in 2016 than we normally get in an entire year, but our yields were better than the record-setting year before,” Sponheim says. “N-Serve and timing of fertilizer applications helped control what would have likely been excessive nitrogen leaching. Nitrogen loss in the spring has a profound effect on yield and water quality. It was amazing we had such great yields despite the excessive rain events.”


In addition to implementing innovative conservation and in-field farming practices, Sponheim says N-Serve protects water quality by reducing the nitrates lost to groundwater.
“I can honestly say that I’m going to give this soil to my son in better shape than my dad gave it to me,” he says. BY DOW AGRO SCIENCES.