Field trial will evaluate effectiveness of utilizing nitrogen

SHABBONA, Ill. — Rain at the end of August was good timing for the double-crop soybeans growing in northern Illinois.

“It rained a half of inch north of Shabbona and 1.5 inches by Leland, and with the heat, the beans have changed a lot,” said Berkeley Boehne, who together with his brother, Vaughn, raise corn, soybeans and wheat on their DeKalb County farm, where they also feed pigs and operate a custom manure application business.

“We usually drill the double-crop soybeans, but this year we rowed them to get them out of the ground faster and to get a little more height so they are easier to harvest,” he said. “I think it paid off because there’s a lot of flowers.”

After harvesting the wheat, Boehne sprayed the field with Roundup to control the volunteer wheat.

“We sprayed again for the waterhemp and now the whole field is filling in nicely,” he said.

The double-crop beans are typically harvested in November.

“As long as we don’t get an early frost, I have pretty high hopes for them,” Boehne said.

He finished summer manure pumping a few days before seed corn harvest began in Whiteside County.

“That’s about normal to start seed corn harvest after Labor Day,” he said. “We have a couple of customers that raise seed corn, so we’ll start pumping manure again for those acres.”

This fall on their own farms, Boehne is going to conduct some tests by adding nitrogen stabilizer Instinct when making manure applications.

“For our summer and early fall manure applications, we get about 70% of the value of the manure for nitrogen,” Boehne said.

“If there is no loss and we can increase that to 100%, that pays for the product really fast,” he said. “We know we’re going to have some corn fail — it should fail if it is not treated.”

The plan is to keep the trial as consistent as possible by applying manure from the same farm and planting the same corn hybrid next year.

The trial will be divided into 40-acre blocks and the key, Boehne said, is to make sure the manure is well agitated after the Instinct is added to the pit.

“The goal is to spread less gallons on more acres and minimize the nitrogen loss,” he said.

Organic farmers can’t use stabilizers, Boehne said.

“We’re learning more about chicken litter which is a high nitrogen source,” he said. “We haven’t spread any, but it’s getting popular since it contains about 30 units of nitrogen per ton.”

Plow Day

The Northern Illinois Plowboys had a successful day in August plowing some of Boehne’s harvested wheat acres.

“There were 30-some tractors and the furthest group came from the Freeport-Chadwick area,” he said. “They plowed about 200 acres in eight hours.”

After the plow day, Boehne applied manure and planted a cover crop of radishes and oats in the fields.

“The radishes absorb the nutrients and lock them up,” he said. “They will decay next spring and release the nutrients.”

The radishes also help to reduce compaction.

“Some of the radishes get huge and their roots go down two to three feet,” Boehne said. “Planting the cover crops has worked really well for us for the last three years on the wheat fields.”

As harvest season approaches, Boehne said, there have been few late-season challenges for his corn and soybean fields.

“We met with our Pioneer dealer and he said there is not much on the radar for pests and diseases,” he said. “There were no concerns.”

The farmers are working on combine maintenance in preparation for the beginning of harvest.

“Our guy comes from the dealership in Somonauk and they can’t get ahead because they’re short on manpower,” Boehne said. “We need to get some more kids in the pipeline for these jobs.”

To help improve their efficiency, the family recently purchased an elevator in Lee.

“It has 650,000-bushel capacity so that is going to be our corn facility,” Boehne said. “It hasn’t been used for four years, but we’ve got it ready so we’re excited.”

He is planning to plant 500 to 600 acres of wheat this fall.

“It sounds like wheat demand might increase because the crop is not that good in Europe,” he said. “It will take wheat and corn to make up for some of that so we need trade deals because we have a lot of corn to get chewed up.”

However, not much is happening with international trade since so much focus is on the upcoming election in November, Boehne said.

“It’s going to be really tense for the American people over the next three months and I hope it doesn’t divide us even more than we are now,” he said.

Cleaning and normal maintenance on the hog barns were completed prior to the new group of pigs arriving at the farm on Sept. 12.

“The barns will be filled in a week and that will be nice because we won’t have to deal with that during harvest,” Boehne said.

New roofs were put on the pig barns on the south farm last year.

“Those buildings are 29 years old,” Boehne said. “The barns on this farm are 28 years old and this year they got new roofs.”