From the Fields: Off to a good start

Planting went well. It’s finished. We were more fortunate than a lot of the state. The start was a little bit delayed because of the cold and rainy weather in April and early May. We had a week in mid-May that gave us a really good start. We’ve made good planting progress. The crops are up and look really good in this part of the state.

The corn especially got off to a good start and has good color. With hot temperatures in the forecast, I think the corn is going to really take off. If it has nitrogen and we have rainfall, the heat will help it. Even with soybeans, they’re really starting to grow. I’ve noticed volunteer corn within soybeans. I think we’ll see a lot of beans be sprayed this week.

As the beans get a little bit larger, we could have some aphid feeding. We haven’t seen any of that yet. Sometimes you might have armyworms that are really harmful to the wheat crop and can move to other crops, as well. But so far, we don’t have any big pest concerns this time of year.

Sidedressing in corn is pretty well done. There’s been a fair amount of corn sprayed, as well. Bean spraying to control grasses, broadleaves and volunteer corn would be the next step we’ll see on most farms.