FARM BUSINESS- WHAT I'M SEEING AND TOLD

3/4 of an inch of rain last night, so not much to get done around here today.
couple of things.  Some of the fellows have been going nuts with planting corn around here.  Been having some cool wx and
talk of snow this weekend.....first, some of the corn is turning orange.  I have to admit, can't remember what "trace" mineral
that it could be lacking.  a lot of talk......some saying it's dying
oh, the snow storm........we have headed wheat......not good to have snow on headed wheat, no matter what you say.

I looked at the wx maps for sunday morning temps.....its showing 27 for the panhandle of tx and okla.  according to handbook,

critical temp for wheat heading (I would suspect it was heading by now) is 30 degrees.........
I know the wheat isn't much good down there to start with, but this might be the final blow.....but the question is, will it have
an impact to prices......chances are NO.

interesting story coming out about how china they are not happy with our soybeans, due to GMO........maybe something to consider..

first, the buyer is always right........second, maybe we could go to "conventional" beans, use pre herbicides and maybe get this
resistance problem somewhat under control.

but the soybean assn and FB will get on their band wagon saying how wrong it is not to eat gmo, it's safe, etc...........

remember....the buyer is always right.....NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

CROP TALK- ARMY WORMS

This spring continues to shape up as a year with heavy armyworm pressure. With relatively little corn planted so far this isn’t time to panic – but we typically don’t see levels this high at this time of year, so if you have never scouted for armyworms before, this would be a good year to start! You’ll probably find some.  

The northeastern part of the state, where we happen to also grow wheat (armyworms love wheat) in some areas, is particularly thick with migrant moths. The female moths that arrive will be loaded with eggs and looking for suitable hosts to lay them on – many plants will do the job, with grasses strongly preferred. If you have wheat acreage, or your soon-to-be-corn acres have a grass cover crop, particularly cereal rye, those fields will be an armyworm magnet. Depending on when that cover crop is killed and corn is planted, the crop could be at risk.

The level of risk depends on two main factors: 1) the level of armyworm pressure in the area (see Table below - this will be high in much of the state this year), and 2) the degree of overlap between the grass host and emerging corn. That might also be high this year. As stated last week, a period without green, growing material will readily starve most armyworms. When that’s not possible, it’s time to reach for the insecticides to hit the larvae before they can feed on emerging corn. There are many insecticide options Corn Insect Control Recommendations - E-219, but all will work best when larvae are small (less than 1¼”in length).

Scouting fields beginning late next week is advised… before then, the larvae will be too small to see easily. By early May, larvae should be quite conspicuous and scouting will be relatively easy. A sweep net can be used, or even just visually inspecting plants for damage and/or feeding larvae will work. Disturbing and poking through the top layer of soil will reveal the larvae during sunny days, when they often rest here. Although there is not a threshold for armyworm in cover crops, 4 larvae/sq. ft is the guideline in wheat. Remember, Bt corn and seed treatments won’t save you from this one. So venture out late next week and check those high-risk fields. BY CHRISTIAN KRUKPE.

WOMEN IN AG: WHY ARE SWEET POTATO BEDS UNDER WATER?

Mother Nature dropped up to 10 inches of rain over parts of our state within a 36-hour period this week, causing creeks and rivers to overflow their banks. Many houses and fields along those waterways are now under water.

Sweet potatoes have been bedded in the field since the end of March. Every year, farmers bed “seed” sweet potatoes in the field. The seed potatoes will sprout, and those sprouts, or slips, will be cut and transplanted to the field in May and June. The sweet potatoes grown from those slips are harvested in the fall.

The beds are often cut twice. One acre of beds will produce enough sprouts to plant approximately 40 acres of harvestable sweet potatoes.

These photos tell part of the story. The two red circles highlight irrigation reels in the field that, along with the sweet potato beds, have been under water since Monday.
What can farmers in this situation do?

1. Rebed.

If the weather forecast for the next week holds and we don’t get any more rain, farmers could possibly get in the field to rebed the land next week. One challenge is there aren’t any seed potatoes left, so farmers will need to bed number ones. These are larger potatoes that are usually sold fresh (what you buy at the grocery store).  A number one won’t produce as many sprouts, and you can only cut that bed once. Instead of getting 40 acres of plants, they only average 15 acres.

       2.  Buy slips from other farmers.

Not only will the farmer incur the loss of investment in their own beds, they will have the expense of buying slips someone else has grown.

Speaking of investment loss, it’s important to realize most insurance policies do not cover bedded sweet potatoes.

It’s too soon to know the impact these rains will have on this year’s crop. The damage doesn’t seem to be widespread, but for those farmers impacted, it’s another challenge Mother Nature has dealt them early in the growing season. BY HEAHER BARNES.

GRAINS-U.S CORN, SOYABEANS EASE AS FARMERS EYE PLANTING WINDOW.

CHICAGO, April 28 (Reuters) - U.S. corn and soybean futures
fell on Friday on the prospect of dry weather for key Midwest
production areas in early May which would give farmers access to
fields during a crucial planting window, traders said.

Wheat futures were hovering closed to unchanged, with some
end-of-week profit-taking pulling prices from their highest in
more than a week despite concerns about a cold snap in the U.S.
Plains threatening to damage maturing crops.

Corn futures notched the biggest declines, sagging 1.6
percent as the weather view, if realized, would allow farmers to
seed most of their corn crop before mid-May. Farmers that seed
corn after that point risk a reduction in yield.

But heavy rains were expected this weekend.

"Nearly week of drying ahead then allows recovery in most of
Midwest, limits risk for standing water in corn/wheat,"
Commodity Weather Group said in a note to clients.

At 10:35 a.m. CDT (1535 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade July
corn futures were down 5-3/4 cents at $3.63-1/2 a bushel.
Corn futures were down 0.1 percent for the week.

Heavy deliveries against the CBOT May corn contract
indicating an abundance of supplies, added pressure to corn
futures.

CBOT July soybean futures were 3-3/4 cents lower at
$9.53-1/2 a bushel and on track for a weekly loss of 0.8
percent.

CBOT July wheat futures were 1-1/2 cents lower at
$4.29-3/4 a bushel. Prices topped out at $4.34-1/2, their
highest since April 20. The contract has risen 2.2 percent so
far this week, which would be the biggest weekly rally for wheat
in 11 weeks.

"There is adverse cold weather for the U.S. winter wheat
crop reflected in the price action today," said Kaname Gokon
from Tokyo brokerage Okato Shoji.

Low temperatures in north-central Kansas are expected to be
in the mid to upper 20s (Fahrenheit), according to the Commodity
Weather Group, potentially damaging for hard red winter wheat in
the biggest producing state.

The chilly weather in the U.S. Plains has added resonance to
spring weather concerns in western Europe, where crops have
faced frost in the past week on top of dry conditions, notably
in France.BY MARK WEINRAUB.

IMBIBITIONAL CHILLING CONCERN THROUGHOUT MIDWEST.

Corn planting is under way throughout much of the Midwest. The weekly USDA Weekly Crop Progress Report showed the 2017 corn planting pace behind average at 17%.
The pace may fall further behind average with the forecast calling for above-normal rainfall and below-normal temperatures over the next 10 days or so (through the first week of May), says Emerson Nafziger, University of Illinois Extension agronomist.

ILLINOIS CORN PLANTING PACE PULLS U.S. CLOSE TO AVERAGE

“Above-normal growing degree day (GDD) accumulations have meant fast emergence for corn,” says Nafziger. “In central and southern Illinois, corn planted by April 19 accumulated, by April 25 or 26, the 115 or so GDD required to emerge. With lower temperatures expected over the next 10 days, corn planted on April 25 or 26 may take almost twice as many days to emerge as corn planted in mid-April.”

The forecast is similar for much of the rest of the Midwest. “There is a big rain event predicted for parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and southern Illinois,” says Al Kluis, Kluis Commodities. “Some predictions call for up to 10 inches of rain.”

In Iowa, much of the state soil temperatures have reached 50°F., but soil temperatures could drop with the cold weather, says Mark Licht, Iowa State Extension cropping systems specialist.

“This is of concern because the impact from imbibitional chilling could have a big impact on corn yield potential,” says Licht. “Imbibition is the process by which seeds absorb water to initiate germination. The critical time period is 24 to 36 hours after planting.”

Imbibitional chilling injury can happen when the water available to the corn seed has a temperature in the lower 40s or less, says Nafziger. “Uptake of cold water damages membranes, and this in turn may cause abnormal seedling development and failure to emerge.”

Is your corn at risk?

“If the corn seed can take up some warmer water before soil (and water) temperatures drop, we often see less injury or none at all,” says Nafziger.

Corn planted early this week should be out of danger. “Corn planted on April 25 or 26 may be at risk, but rain that fell on April 26 (in Illinois) was not very cold, and with air temperatures expected to rebound into the 70s the last two days of April, along with the (warmer) rain that’s predicted, we hope not to see much of this problem from this round of weather,” explains Nafziger.
Saturated soils will be another concern for many the next few days.

“Seeds that are starting to germinate need oxygen, and will usually not survive the low oxygen levels in saturated soils for more than a couple of days,” says Nafziger. “They will survive longer if soil temperatures are cool, both because that slows growth and lowers oxygen demand, and also because cool water carries more oxygen into the soil. If soils start to dry off early next week, survival will be a concern mostly where water stands.”

Young seedlings have the advantage of having roots that might find pockets with more oxygen, but they still depend on seed reserves to grow, especially if it’s cool and cloudy, and before leaves have much green area, says Nafziger. “These reserves are mostly used up by the time the plant has two leaves, and diseases can invade the endosperm, especially in cool, wet soils.”

Seedlings can be expected to live for three to four days if they are submerged, and a few days longer than that if only the roots are in saturated soil. If plants remain alive, chances for seedlings to revive and thrive increase considerably once oxygen gets to the roots again.

“If the weather remains cool, emergence and growth will be quite slow even if it does eventually dry up enough to resume planting,” says Nafziger. “So warmer temperatures will help both to dry things out and to get the planted crop growing.” BY KACEY BIRCHMIER.