WHEAT, CORN FUTURES CLOSE HIGHER ON INCLEMENT U.S WEATHER.

Wheat futures closed higher on Friday amid concerns about the health of the hard-red winter wheat crop.

As much as 2 feet of snow fell in parts of Kansas last weekend, burying fields and causing lodging or frost damage in many western counties. The Kansas Wheat Tour, which recently wrapped, pegged yields at about 46 bushels an acre, but participants said they expect the final count will be closer to 40 bushels an acre due to the adverse weather.

The snow was extremely wet and heavy, which may have caused plant stems to bend or snap, said Dave Green, the executive vice president of the Wheat Quality Council, the organization that hosted the event.

Corn futures finished higher as a wide swath of land stretching from Oklahoma to Ohio is under flood and flash-flood watches or warnings, and more rain is expected in some parts of Indiana on Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

"The weather continues to be a concern for the trade especially with a weekend coming up," said Tomm Pfitzenmaier, the president of Summit Commodity Brokerage in Des Moines. "The fear is that if there is any change in the forecast it won’t take much rain to chase farmers right back out of the fields. With the risk of summer weather still being an unknown, it seems unlikely that the trade will want to press the short side too hard for a while."

Wheat futures for July delivery rose 5 cents to $4.42 3/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. Kansas City wheat added 5 3/4 cents to $4.50 1/4 a bushel.
Corn futures gained a nickel to $3.71 1/2 a bushel in Chicago.

Soybean futures for July delivery finished down 1/2 cent to $9.73 3/4 a bushel. Soymeal lost $1.50 to $317.10 a short ton, and soy oil added 0.47 cent to 32.97 cents a pound. BY SUCCESSFUL FARMING STAFF.

''WE'RE NOT MESSING WITH THE RFS''USDA PERDUE TELLS IOWA FARMERS.

NEVADA, Iowa — Iowa farmers got their chance to hear first-hand from USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue about his intent to preserve the U.S. ethanol industry and promote trade.
In an appearance at a cattle farm today in Iowa, Secretary Perdue told a crowd of farmers, lawmakers, and members of the agricultural industry, that the Trump Administration will not mess with the Renewable Fuels Administration.

Aside from visiting the state to hunt and take part in the outdoors, the Georgia-native made his first visit to Iowa, following an order from his new boss.

“President Trump wanted me out here to let you all know that he understands American agriculture and that it is vital to the U.S. economy. And he understands that Iowa is vital to U.S. agriculture,” Perdue says.

Perdue adds, “As farmers, we need to be better communicators, but farmers are definitely part of our national security.”

The new USDA leader stressed that no longer can farmers just be good producers; they have to tell the nation that the food is safe and their animals are treated well.
“We’re going to make sound science, fact-based, data-driven decisions. Because that is what works in agriculture,” says Perdue. "At the same time, we should be unapologetic in agriculture.”

Ethanol

Iowa farmers were waiting to hear what the Trump Administration is going to do with the ethanol industry and the renewable fuels standard. Secretary Perdue wasted no time putting the farmers' minds at ease.

“I work for a guy named Donald J. Trump. Did you hear what he said during the (Presidential) campaign. He said that renewable energy and ethanol is here to stay. And we’re going to look for more technology to make it more efficiently. Many people think there is still a subsidy involved today. This is a mature industry and continues to grow and thrive. I look forward to giving the President new ideas from the renewable fuel standards and other things that can help the industry do better,” Perdue says.

Trade

When addressing the topic of trade, Perdue reminded Iowa farmers that the state’s efforts to reach out to China in 1984 are still paying off in 2017.
“Hosting China’s delegation back then made a great impression on the now leader of the second largest economy in the world. It’s relationship building like this that makes it easier for us to go tell people around the world about U.S. products.”
The Chinese want Iowa beef and the U.S. is going to sell it to them, Secretary Perdue pledged.
"He (President Trump) instructed me to send him a letter about getting beef into China and Japan. He will put a personal note on these letters and get them to the leaders of those countries. He has my back,” Perdue says.
“We have built trust and we’re going to convince people around the world about the quality of our beef. So, you grow it (beef) and we’ll sell it,” Perdue adds.

Conservation Red Tape

Iowa farmers also asked Secretary Perdue if he plans to make it easier for farmers to participate in conservation programs.
“I’m on it,” Perdue says. "When you go in to meet with the Farm Service Agency office, NRCS office, crop insurance folks, we shouldn’t put you under an interrogation at every point. It ought to be a stop-shop so you can go home and put that seed in the ground."

Solving NAFTA

When asked how long it will take to settle the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) disputes with Mexico and Canada, Secretary Perdue reiterated that President Trump has a plan and that he’s working it.
“Like President Trump said last week, we are going to give these countries involved in NAFTA time to figure out a way to make this trade agreement more fair and balanced for all countries involved,” says Perdue.

Perdue’s Priorities

Between NAFTA, expected USDA budget cuts, the construction of a new farm bill, and naming new subcabinet members, Secretary Perdue told reporters that he is focused on the building blocks of a better USDA.
“We want facts-based, data-driven, customer-focused, ethics, transparency, and integrity in this agency. I’m focused on making the USDA the best managed and most effective agency for the American taxpayer in all of the United States government,” Perdue says. BY MIKE MCGINNIS.

SYMBIOTIC BACTERIA: FROM HITCHHIKER TO BEETLE BODYGUARD.

An international team of researchers have discovered a remarkable microbe with a Jekyll and Hyde character. The bacterium Burkholderia gladioli lives in specific organs of a plant-feeding beetle and defends the insect's eggs from detrimental fungi by producing antibiotics. However, when transferred to a plant, the bacterium can spread throughout the tissues and negatively affect the plant.

Microbes are not always hostile players when interacting with animals and plants, they can also be powerful allies. In fact, transitions between antagonistic and cooperative lifestyles in microbes are likely not an exception, although such shifts have rarely been observed directly. In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology -- Hans Knöll Institute (HKI) -- in Jena, and the Universidad Estadual Paulista in Rio Claro, Brazil, gathered evidence for such a transition.

Beetles outsource offspring protection to a bacterium
Like many other insects, a group of herbivorous beetles, the Lagriinae, is in great need of an efficient defense. They lay their eggs on humid soil under leaf litter, where encounters with mold fungi are guaranteed. Researchers lead by Professor Martin Kaltenpoth from Mainz University have now discovered that the presence of a special bacterium, Burkholderia gladioli, on the eggs of the beetle Lagria villosa strongly reduces the risk of fungal infection and helps them survive. "Even when we applied mold fungi to the beetle's eggs, those with their symbiotic microbe present remained clean, whereas those without were often overgrown by a lawn of fungi," said first author Dr. Laura Flórez, who performed the experiments for her PhD project at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, describing one of the key findings. Although some other insects also rely on microbes for protection against natural enemies, a microbial defense of the vulnerable egg stage was unknown.

Newly discovered antibiotic agent resembles a plant defense compound
How is the protection of the nutrient-rich beetle eggs achieved? Chemical analyses revealed four different antibiotics produced by the beetle's microbial bodyguards. While two of these were already known, the other two molecules had not been described before. "We were particularly surprised to find a new chemical that looks much more like a plant defense compound than a bacterial antibiotic," said Professor Christian Hertweck from the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, who guided the chemical analyses. All four compounds inhibited the growth of other microbes; some were active against fungi, others against bacteria. This chemical armory likely shields the beetle's eggs from a broad spectrum of detrimental microbes.

The insect's friend, the plant's foe
Surprisingly, the beetle's allies are very closely related to plant pathogens. And indeed, when the scientists applied the bacteria to soybean plants, a common food source of L. villosa beetles in nature, the microbes spread throughout the plants. There they had a negative impact as the infection resulted in the production of fewer beans as compared to control plants. But do the bacteria actually have a chance to leave the beetle and infect the plant in nature? An additional experiment demonstrated that they do. After beetles were confined to soybean leaves for three days, the bacteria genetic material could be detected in the leaves. That this is likely relevant in nature is shown by an analysis of five related beetle species: all contained Burkholderia gladioli strains, but these were more closely related to other environmental or plant-associated Burkholderia gladioli strains than to each other. Thus, the bacteria likely hitch a ride on the beetles to jump from plant to plant.

Insect symbiosis as a treasure trove of antibiotics
There are many described cases of insects that carry microorganisms between plants. "What is interesting in the Lagria beetles is that their bacterial hitchhikers have turned into chemically-armed bodyguards," explained Professor Martin Kaltenpoth. In addition, the ability of this bacterium to produce previously unknown bioactive compounds highlights partnerships between insects and microbes as promising sources of novel antibiotics that may help to fight increasingly resistant human pathogens. SOURCE: UNIVERSITY OF MAINZ.

WEATHER EXTREMES AND TRADE POLICIES WERE MAIN DRIVERS OF WHEAT PRICE PEAKS.

Price peaks of wheat on the world market are mainly caused by production shocks such as induced for example by droughts, researchers found. These shocks get exacerbated by low storage levels as well as protective trade policies, the analysis of global data deriving from the US Department of Agriculture shows. In contrast to widespread assumptions, neither speculation across stock or commodity markets nor land-use for biofuel production were decisive for annual wheat price changes in the past four decades. This finding allows for better risk assessment. Soaring global crop prices in some years can contribute to local food crises, and climate change from burning fossil fuels and emitting greenhouse gases is increasing weather variability.

"Food security to a large extent is a matter of prices, hence our interest in understanding what drives variations from one year to another," says lead-author Jacob Schewe from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

When global wheat prices, along with those of other staple crops, skyrocketed in 2007/08 and again in 2010/11, poor people in many developing countries suffered from that -- these temporary price rises have even been linked to food riots in several countries. "These recent peaks, as others, have been preceded by severe droughts that reduced crop production. Now we can show that such weather-induced shocks have the potential to induce strong price increases," says Schewe "Moreover, they can trigger protective trade policy responses, including hoarding or export bans, which further exacerbate the global effects of production shortfalls even though they may seem rational from a country's point of view. This happened during the recent price peaks."

Commodity speculation turns out to be just a minor factor for annual prices
"While cross-market speculation might further exacerbate the problem on monthly or shorter time-scales, the data indicate that in the end it was a minor factor for annual prices," adds co-author Christian Otto. This is despite the fact that the sudden price increase in 2007/08 coincides with speculation by index funds driven out of the collapsing US housing and stock markets.

The researchers developed and applied a rather simple computer simulation of wheat markets. By comparing the results to observation data from past years, the scientists checked that the computer simulations fit reality. Importantly, the factor of supply and demand from storage -- also based on existing data from markets -- is integrated in these calculations. The simulation model could be applied for assessments of future wheat price fluctuations under climate and land use changes.

"This informs us what can be done to limit food price peaks in the future"
"The good news: Our study helps to understand what can be done if we want to limit food price peaks in the future," says Katja Frieler, co-author of the study and vice-chair of PIK's research domain Climate Impacts and Vulnerabilities. "First, besides improving productivity experts can seek to carefully adjust trade policies as well as storage capacities. Second, stabilizing the climate by reducing greenhouse gas emissions is key if we want to limit the risks of weather extremes across the globe."BY POTSDAM INSTITUTE FOR CLIMATE IMPACT RESEARCH.

FRUIT MAY HAVE BENEFITS FOR DIABETES.

A large study has found that eating fresh fruit may reduce the risk for developing diabetes, and the risk for its complications.

Fresh fruit has well-known health benefits. But some experts, and some people with diabetes, question whether its high sugar content could pose risks.

The study, in PLoS Medicine, tracked diet and health in 512,891 Chinese men and women ages 30 to 79 for an average of seven years, controlling for smoking, alcohol intake, blood pressure and other factors.

Among those without diabetes at the start, eating fresh fruit daily was associated with a 12 percent lower risk of developing the disease compared with those who ate none. The more frequently they ate fruit, the lower their risk.

In people who were already diabetic, those who ate fruit three times a week had a 17 percent lower risk of all-cause mortality, and a lower risk for diabetic complications like heart and kidney disease, than those who didn’t eat fruit.

The study was observational and the reason for the effect remains unclear. But the lead author, Dr. Huaidong Du, a research fellow at the University of Oxford, said “the sugar in fruit is not the same as the sugar in manufactured foods and may be metabolized differently. And there are other nutrients in fruit that may benefit in other ways.” BY NICHOLAS BAKALA.

LOVINGLY TENDING THE LIVESTOCK IN BOONE.

Anyone used to the convenience of city living should feel a tad guilty expressing impatience with “Boone,” a loving portrait of a goat dairy farm in Jacksonville, Ore., from the photojournalist Christopher LaMarca. If you buy milk of any kind, it’s only fair to see what happens before it reaches the store.

Over 75 minutes, Mr. LaMarca’s documentary watches three farmers toil over feeding, milking, bottling, chopping wood, picking vegetables and tending to goats giving birth. Some of the most humane scenes show the farmers simply going about their lives, caring for a dying dog or dancing while cooking.

Even so, “Boone” is slightly monotonous, and familiarity may be one cause. Quite a few strong documentaries have already explored the decline of American rural traditions, including “Sweetgrass,” a near-abstract immersion in the sights and sounds of a Montana sheep drive, and “Peter and the Farm,” a harrowing character study.

There are also drawbacks to Mr. LaMarca’s noninterventionist approach. Although we hear a snippet of a news report and a brief discussion of how the enterprise can’t support both its needs and the farmers’, the film provides scant context for Boone Farm’s financial distress. When an end title card attributes the farm’s closing to “regulations preventing the sale of raw milk and cheese,” the film points an accusatory finger having never made a case.

Unmediated footage can be edited polemically, as in Frederick Wiseman’s films, but “Boone” seems resigned to sidelong glances, confident that merely observing farm life, including some spunky animals, is enough. BY BEN KENIGSBERG.

A CHICKEN THAT GROWS SLOW ER AND TASTES BETTER.

SALISBURY, Md. — The chickens in one pen were, for the most part, doing what they usually do toward the end of their lives on a factory farm: resting on the floor, attacking the feeding pan, getting big fast.

But in the next pen over, smaller, leaner birds of the same age ran around, raising a ruckus as they climbed on haystacks, perched on roosts and gave themselves dirt baths.

“We’re going to have to come up with a sturdier water line,” said Dr. Bruce Stewart-Brown, a veterinarian and senior vice president of Perdue Farms, as he watched two of them swing the tube that supplies water to the pen.The frisky birds and their more sedentary neighbors here in a barn on the Delmarva Peninsula are part of an experiment that could help change the way Americans eat, and think about, poultry.

PERDUA FARMS one of the country’s largest chicken producers, has been raising what are known as slow-growth chickens side by side with the breeds that have made the company so successful. The new birds, a variety known as Redbro, take 25 percent longer, on average, to mature than their conventional cousins, and so are more expensive to raise.

Perdue is trying to find just the right slow-growth breed, and it has a strong incentive: A fast-growing cohort of companies that buy vast quantities of poultry, including Whole Foods Market and Panera Bread, are demanding meat from slow-growth chickens, contending that giving birds more time to grow before slaughter will give them a healthier, happier life — and produce better-tasting meat.

“We want to get back to a place where people don’t have to put a marinade on their chicken to make it taste like something,” said Theo Weening, who oversees meat purchasing for Whole Foods and recalls how his mother bought chicken by breed in the Netherlands, where he grew up.

Mr. Weening is realistic, though. “We have to figure out how can we make this happen so we’re not ending up with a chicken nobody can afford,” he said.

That is the big challenge for chicken producers. Dr. Stewart-Brown, of Perdue, said it cost about 30 percent more to feed the Redbro birds; the expense can run even higher for other slow-growth breeds, some of which can take as much as twice as long to reach full weight as conventional birds.

Differences in their musculature may cut into a producer’s profits as well. The Redbro chickens, for instance, have skinnier wings than their conventional cousins, and wings command a high price by weight.

“I don’t know that we’ll be selling any of these kinds of birds in pieces,” Dr. Stewart-Brown said.

Consumers would also have to accept some trade-offs: While the new chickens have a fuller flavor, their meat tends to be distributed differently over the body, with more generous thighs and smaller breasts than the chicken most Americans are used to.

Perdue has been testing different breeds for about the last 18 months, using insights it has gained since it acquired Petaluma Poultry, a boutique business that produces slow-growth, pastured and organic chickens. Perdue expects to start selling a slow-growth chicken in grocery stores sometime in the next few years.

There are already several smaller companies selling such chickens, including Emmer & Company, Pitman Family Farms, White Oak Pastures and Crystal Lake Farms, which was bought in February by the meat supply company West Liberty Foods.

But Perdue appears to be the first, and so far the only, major chicken supplier to test slow-growth birds. The other four big producers have expressed little interest, though Tyson Foods, the country’s largest chicken producer, owns Cobb-Vantress, one of three large genetics companies that maintain a sort of library of bird types that they continue to tweak in response to demand from chicken producers. (It sells eggs or chicks with the genetic components for slower-growing chickens.)

Last year, Bon Appétit Management, which supplies many college kitchens and runs a chain of restaurants, announced that by 2024 it would sell meat only from slow-growth chickens.

“The reaction I got from the mainstream chicken suppliers at that time was kind of deadpan,” said Maisie Ganzler, who is Bon Appétit’s vice president for strategy. “They essentially said: ‘Well, it’s interesting that you want to go in that direction. We don’t.’”

Since then, Bon Appétit has been joined by companies like the Compass Group, which owns Bon Appétit; its competitor, Aramark; Nestlé; Starbucks; Chipotle Mexican Grill; and, last Friday, Subway, the nation’s largest fast-food chain.

The Global Animal Partnership, which sets standards for the welfare of animals raised for meat, said that by 2024 it would give animal-welfare certifications only to slow-growth chickens, a move that would affect some 270 million broilers, or about 3 percent of the nation’s flock.

The chicken industry, fearing that the string of announcements might force the kind of rapid changes that snowballed in the egg business after companies demanded eggs from cage-free birds, quickly produced a report that predicted dire consequences if there was a similar move to produce slow-growth chicken. Compiled by the animal medicine division of Eli Lilly & Company, it estimated that a shift to slow-growth production would require more land, water and feed. The industry also contends that without the efficiency of today’s chickens, which pack on more pounds with less feed over fewer and fewer days, the world will be unable to feed its growing population.

Today’s conventional broiler chickens have been bred over the years to produce the most amount of meat in as short a time as possible, reducing a farmer’s costs and increasing profits. In 1935, the average broiler chicken reached the slaughter-ready weight of 2.86 pounds in 98 days, according to the National Chicken Council. Today’s broilers are an average of 6.18 pounds at the time of slaughter, when they are about 47 days old.

Food is the largest cost for chicken producers, and the Redbro birds don’t eat as much as the two conventional chickens Perdue is using for comparison, Dr. Stewart-Brown said. “They’re bred to put on as much weight as possible in as little time, so they have quite an appetite,” he said of the conventional chickens.

But because the Redbros take longer to mature and are far more active than the conventional birds, they will eat more to produce each pound of meat, he said. And because they are more active, they need more space, which Dr. Stewart-Brown estimated would mean limiting the population of a chicken barn to 22,000, or about 3,000 fewer birds than is standard with today’s breeds.

The Redbro birds stand taller and drink less water — “I like that,” Dr. Stewart-Brown said. Their higher activity levels also help aerate the litter that covers the floor of chicken houses; drier pens, he said, are less likely to create food-safety problems.

Conventional birds need larger feet and shorter legs to support the fast development of their musculature, which is the meat. Their muscles grow faster than their skeletons, so by the time they are slaughtered, they cannot move around easily for long and end up nesting in litter, which can lead to sores on their sternums, and foot and leg problems.

“The breeding companies have done a great job of giving their customers, the chicken producers, what they want, which has been fast growth with lots of muscle tissue,” said Anne Malleau, the executive director of the Global Animal Partnership. The group is working on a protocol for assessing genetics so that it can then establish a list of breeds or standards that will qualify as slow-growth.

Mike Cockrell, the chief financial officer at Sanderson Farms, a large chicken producer, noted that it’s already possible to produce a conventional bird with a longer life span. Sanderson and other chicken companies produce what are called “big birds,” conventional chickens that weigh roughly nine pounds when slaughtered at about 56 days.

“So is that a slow-growth chicken?” Mr. Cockrell asked. “Of course we’ll respond to customers, but I’m not really sure we know what we’re talking about here.”

In marketing slow-growth chickens, Perdue and others will have to make consumers understand why they are paying a higher price. Emmer, for instance, sells two 3.25 pound birds for $59 on its website, while the suggested retail price of a Sonoma Red (from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry) that weighs four pounds is $16.

Shoppers often say they want better welfare for the animals they eat, then balk at the cost that adds to the price of a pork chop or chicken breast. Ms. Malleau said she believed, however, that a growing number of consumers were diversifying the proteins they ate.

“As a society, we’re going to be making different choices than we did 20 years when it comes to protein in our diets, and in some ways, this move to slow-growth chicken is a gamble on that,” she said. “We’ll see how it turns out.”BY STEPHANIE STROM.

WOMAN OF THE YEAR IN AGRICULTURE AWARD.

Women have played a crucial role in the history of agriculture in Florida. Not only did they raise the children, maintain the home, care for the sick and injured, and provide grounding for the family, they toiled alongside their husband in the fields and pastures. They were the epitome of perseverance, strength, resolve and dignity.


Since 1985, women who have made outstanding contributions to Florida agriculture have been honored with the “Woman of the Year in Agriculture” award. This award, sponsored by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in conjunction with the Florida State Fair Authority, is presented to the recipient during the Florida State Fair in Tampa.


Recipients of the “Woman of the Year in Agriculture” award have come from all parts of the industry, including cattle, vegetables, timber, citrus, row crops, equine, horticulture, tropical fruits, sugar cane, dairy, agricultural journalism, and agricultural education and outreach.


In 2001 the award program was enhanced to help heighten awareness about the women who have helped make Florida agriculture into the important industry that it is today. Since then, a documentary video about each new recipient has been shown during the award ceremony, and a booklet outlining her contributions to agriculture distributed to those in attendance. SOURCE- ARCHIVE OF WOMAN OF THE YEAR IN AGRICULTURE AWARD BOOKLET.

WTO MEMBERS WELCOME NEW CHAIR OF AGRICULTURE TALKS.

Ambassador Karau replaces New Zealand Ambassador Vangelis Vitalis who returned to his home country in early 2017.

In his address to WTO members, Ambassador Karau said: “I am humbled by the confidence shown in me by the members and would like to assure you that I will carry out my tasks with determination and dedication.”

He stressed that the work ahead in agriculture negotiations remained challenging. “The technical and policy issues involved in the negotiations are complex,” he said, “but that is not the end of it. Agriculture fills a central place in our discussions at the WTO. And food is an essential part of our lives. Therefore everyone has a stake in these negotiations.”

Outlining his plan for the way forward, Ambassador Karau stressed that he is firmly committed to the consensus and transparency principles in agriculture talks. “I know that trust is absolutely essential in my new role as Chair and I commit to working fairly, objectively and transparently with all delegations. I will always listen to you and respect all points of view,” he said.

He informed members of his intention to convene an informal open-ended meeting of the Special Session as well as dedicated sessions on public stockholding for food security purposes and on the special safeguard mechanism for developing countries in the second half of May.

“I know that there is no time to waste with the Buenos Aires Ministerial meeting just around the corner,” he told members.
Ambassador Karau is the tenth chairperson of the agriculture negotiations since talks began in March 2000.
WTO agriculture negotiations chairs:

• March 2000: Roger Farrell (New Zealand, ex officio as Goods Council chairperson)
• June 2000 to March 2001: Jorge Voto-Bernales (Peru)
• March 2001 to Doha Ministerial Conference: Apiradi Tantraporn (Thailand)
• From Doha (Nov 2001, chairing first meeting in March 2002) to Cancún (Sept 2003): Stuart Harbinson (Hong Kong, China)
• From Cancún (Sept 2003, chairing first meeting in March 2004) to summer (July) 2005: Tim Groser (New Zealand)
• From summer (Sept) 2005 to April 2009: Crawford Falconer (New Zealand)
• From April 2009 to June 2011: David Walker (New Zealand)
• From November 2011 to July 2015: John Adank (New Zealand)
• From September 2015 to November 2016: Vangelis Vitalis (New Zealand) . NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

CHALLENGES, YIELD THREATS OF CATCH-UP PLANTING.

A survey of 700 corn farmers conducted by Dragotec USA shows that more than 48% say delayed planting is their biggest concern among all yield-limiting factors. In addition, excessive moisture and soil compaction are among the top-10 variables, both of which are part of the equation this spring.

Leading up to this month when most of the Corn Belt’s crop is planted, April has been anything but friendly to the majority of corn farmers. That has meant a slow start to planting. While farmers have the equipment to plant a lot of corn fairly quickly today, the first few steps out of the starting gate could come back to haunt farmers later on in the season in the form of yield loss potential. Playing catch-up during planting can lead to compaction and other field conditions that may lead to crop variability manifested later in the season as yield loss, warns Fenton, Iowa, farmer and Dragotec USA president Dennis Bollig.

“Soil compaction can absolutely blow up in a wet spring. Even with a good tillage program, your tractor is causing compaction, and a field cultivator is not going to overcome that,” Bollig explains. “Compaction can cause a lot of variability within a field and ultimately lead to a challenging harvest, and wet springs like this year can cause a lot of issues with compaction.”

Bumping up planting speeds can sometimes lead to more compaction, regardless of the moisture and overall condition of the soil during planting. “The faster you drive with your planter, the more down pressure you need to keep the row unit on the ground,” Bollig warns.

“Today’s high-tech planters can control down pressure better, so they’re trying not to exert any more than what is needed to get the seed in the ground at the proper depth. Differences in down pressure can cause variability, and that can create microenvironments in your fields. Though planters can adjust to a lot of that variability, it still affects yield in the long-run.” BY DAVE MOWITZ.