Southwest
Iowa Crop Update: March 31, 2009
Kyle
Jensen, ISU Extension Field Agronomist
Soil
temperatures
Weather in SW
Iowa has certainly switched to spring in a hurry. The temperature has
shifted warmer, grass is starting to green up in areas, and the frost has
almost all left. I was taking some soil samples last week and got along
fine, the week before (which didn’t work very well) I was finding frost under
the cornstalks. I have been getting quite a few calls about the local
soil temperature. Here is yesterday’s soil temperatures.
You can
always find the soil temperature online on Iowa State University’s web site:
http://extension.agron.iastate.edu/NPKnowledge/soiltemphistory.html
Fertilizer
Application
Fertilizer
application has just started to pick up. Fields have been soft and wet for the
past few weeks pretty much stopping application. I saw a few pastures and
hay fields being spread a week or two ago, now there are quite a few tracks in
fields.
Ammonia
application has really taken off since this weekend. I got a few phone
calls from some producers who did apply at the end of last week, they all said
it could have worked a lot better than it did. The soil is actually a
little drier than I expected, I looked at some ammonia slots right after a
toolbar went across the field. I didn’t notice any smearing or clodding,
the soil was loose and friable.
Is it time
to plant corn yet?
As I
mentioned above, soil conditions are almost perfect in some areas of SW
Iowa. I will have to admit, we planted corn on Monday. The corn
planted was part of a date of planting study that is done on ISU research farms
across the state. The actual start date is supposed to be April 1 and an
end date of June 1. Five equally spaced planting dates is the
protocol. Now this sounds easy to do, but as we all know, mother nature
has something to say about all of this. Monday looked good, soil temps
were 46 degrees, it wasn’t wet, and the forecast didn’t look good so we put
corn seed in the ground. Here are a few pictures, the ground was
soft.
Winter
annuals
I mentioned
earlier that the grass is starting to green up, the fields are starting to
green up also. I did some measuring in a few fields last week and noticed
quite a few winter annuals. Here is quiz for a few of you, email your
responses, I’ll send the first few winners something in the mail. There’s a
hint in the last one.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 4
It sounds like it might be wet and cold this weekend. Take a look at the planter if you haven’t already, planting time will be upon us before you know it.
One last thing, I’m hearing there are some grain quality issues with stored grain. This is just a reminder to check your bins.
Have a good and safe week.
Kyle Jensen
ISU
Extension Field Agronomist
53020
Hitchcock Ave.
Lewis,
IA 51544
(712)
769-2600
(712)
769-2610 fax
(402) 680-0636 cell