Hoegemeyer - the right seed

It is always a great feeling when you’re done planting and are ready to clean up and put the planter away.  However, as the plants start to emerge, take some time and check out your fields.  It may pay you a big bonus!  As you go out to your field(s) take along a trowel and knife plus be prepared to take some notes as you inspect those newly planted fields. 

Uneven Emergence and Stands - dig with your trowel and assess things.
• Was the seed placed in both wet and dry soil and did poor seed to soil contact occur in some areas?
• Are you seeing areas with poor seed furrow closure? 
• Are the slower emerging seedlings planted in heavy trash areas that stimulated cooler soil or maybe caused the planting units to be lifted up more; or on the extreme, did the trash cause hair pinning?
• Does the depth of the seed vary because of clods or root clumps related to planter speed?
• Was the seed planted in wet conditions where mud accumulated on the depth gauge wheels?
• Are you seeing any insect pressure (wireworm is an example)?
• Don’t forget about gophers and turkeys digging up seed.
• Does the field have dramatic soil type changes or other problems to note?
• Are there areas where the soil was compacted by equipment or livestock tracks and/or truck load out areas?
• Are you seeing any chemical or fertilizer problems?

Planting in Cool or Wet Soil - can cause a lot of emergence problems.
• If soils were wetter when the field was planted, check for sidewall compaction.
• If soils were cold and overly wet, check for seed imbibition or see if germinating seedlings are “corkscrewing”.
• Are the slower/delayed seedlings in areas where the soil crusted?
• Check for cutworm, white grub or other insect problems.
• Are seedlings damping off in areas due to some soil borne pathogen.  (Might see more in trashy areas.)
• If you use seed rebounders, did they drag any seed?
• Note if there were wet areas and where they were in the field around the time it was planted.
 

Planting in Cool or Dry Soil - can cause emergence problems too.
• If you are putting higher rates of fertilizer in furrow, check for fertilizer burn to the seedlings.
• If you are you seeing seeds that germinated and started to root and then died, they may have run out of moisture.
• Check for poor seed to soil contact, were there any clods?
 

Are You Seeing Doubles / Triples or Skips?
• Make sure you note this so that the planter problem is remedied before it is put in the ground again.
 

Competition?
• Be sure to note any areas that indicate potential for weed problems and escapes.
• For future reference note any problem insect areas too.

These are some things to consider but be sure to check those fields; it may prevent a few headaches and pay you big dividends too!
 

Much of the region has been blessed recently with moisture in some form – snow, sleet, hail, ice, and even rain.  For most of us, the drought isn’t over yet, but this last weather system has helped relieve some of the deficit.  Prior to the recent rains, I did some soil probing in a field near Columbus, NE.  Throughout the field there was adequate moisture in the top 12-15 inches of the profile.  The soil below this layer was quite dry.  This same field has received over 2 inches of rain since then, and I’d expect that the moisture has made it deeper into the profile now.  Rain events that yield 1, 2, or 3 inches at a time will be important for recharging the full soil profile.  Why?  Look no closer than your coffee cup.  You’ll notice that water climbs ever so slightly up the side of your cup.  This is called adhesion.  The water is actually binding (loosely) to the cup.  Water also likes to adhere to soil particles.  When the top layers of soil are dry, new rainfall will first bind to the soil near the surface because adhesion is stronger than gravity.  Only after the top layer of soil reaches field capacity will water begin to percolate down through the profile.

Your soil profile not only needs moisture from above, it also needs help in terms of management.  I’ve noticed how nearby fields have absorbed the recent rains with different levels of success.  Some fields showed signs of ponding and runoff.  Other fields soaked up every drop.  It’s not that the fields with no runoff were dryer (all of our fields needed rain).  The difference is that some fields were able to absorb the rain at higher rates than others.  Decisions on tillage, how much residue to leave, and compaction are making an impact on the amount of moisture that will available to the 2013 crop.

One comment on soil temperature…
Keith Glewen, UNL extension agronomist, forwarded some recent soil temperature data from the Mead, Nebraska area.  Temperatures at the 4” depth had been on a slow climb up to the 50 degree mark in early April, followed by 4 straight days in the low 50’s starting on April 6 and ending on April 9.  The soil temperature for April 10?  41.5 degrees.  As you make early-season planting decisions, always remember that soil temperatures closely follow air temperatures.
 

What are the odds we head into the 2013 planting season with a full soil moisture profile? I can’t say for certain but there is probably a pretty good chance that some areas of our trade area will not, based off where we stand now.

There are definitely both positive and negative attributes associated with soil tillage when comparing to reduced till or no-till.  No-till or reduced till acres generally have a few more disease and emergence issues compared to conventional tilled fields since the soil remains cooler and wetter a little longer in the spring . The increased crop residue can sometimes increase the likelihood for some foliar diseases like grey leaf spot later in the year as well. Ok, that’s enough on the negatives. Now let’s cover some of the positive benefits of no-till/reduced tillage.

Crop residue/stubble left on the soil surface greatly aides water infiltration (rate & amount) into the soil profile. It also helps catch snow during the winter as well as lessens the impact of rain drops on topsoil in the spring which in turn reduces crusting potential.  Aggressive tillage destroys/lessens soil porosity.  Porosity is a term that refers to areas in between soil particles. These areas typically are filled with air and/or water. As porosity decreases water infiltration also decreases along with total plant available water. It’s quite common in the spring or early summer to see water standing after a brief heavy rain in fields that have been tilled black. That water is subject to evaporation as well as runoff depending on slope of the field.  True no-till fields have very diverse soil porosity within their profile compared to fields that are continually tilled multiple times each year. This includes natural structure pores, earthworm channels, and previous year’s plant root channels.  Each tillage pass works to destroy these.

We know tillage is necessary for many fields depending on soil type, amount of residue, and crop, but going into this next year we may need to ask ourselves which fields truly fall into that category.  There should not have been a high potential for wheel traffic compaction during harvest this year compared to recent years since generally we did not experience wet soils during harvest. Is the soil hard?  Yes, but hard and compacted are not the same. Keep that in mind when planning any deep tillage. University studies have estimated that each tillage pass has the potential to remove .25 inch of plant available water from the profile. Going into next year we may need to conserve every bit of moisture we can when it comes.

Figure 1. Water infiltration with five different tillage systems. NT=No-till, ST=Strip-tillage, DR=Deep Rip, CP=Chisel Plow and MP=Moldboard Plow. (Al-Kaisi, 2011).  (Courtesy Iowa State University).  The picture above illustrates a field with a likely relatively high water infiltration rate.