Don’t panic. I wrote last year: “This season has seen much of the Northeast and Northcentral with one of the latest dates to start planting corn.” Well, this year will be as late as last year and we had some very good corn silage crops last year (if you were able to get them out of the field).
Tom
May 2019 Wet Conditions Management
Not good news. The cool (cold in some areas) and wet is slated to continue. Europe is having some of the same conditions with winter snows still coming down in low elevations and southern areas. The concern is that the weather is due to the sunspot output going into a major naturally occurring decline. When this happens, the magnetic sphere (a magnetic envelope extending from the sun out covering the earth as it were) shrinks. This allows intergalactic rays to bombard the earth. These rays are at very high levels now. They produce clouds. Clouds do two things. First, they reflect heat from the sun away from the earth, cooling it. Second, clouds produce rainfall. We have had both. Neither have anything to do with political climate change. This has happened before during the “little ice ages” in Europe during the late middle ages (1500-1800,) and the dark ages (300-500). There was widespread crop failure and subsequent famines. Will it be that bad again? I don’t know but the real weather scientists are starting to say it is following the same weather pattern in this sun spot minimum.
April 2019 Out of Forage
The horrible weather last fall is having a lasting effect. A number of farms did not get their last cutting of haylage. Even worse, corn planted for silage was left in the field until the ground froze and then combined. Both of these factors are leaving farms this spring short of forage. Some are only partly short, while others are seriously short on forage and may have to cull animal to meet feed needs. What are the fastest crops to grow in 2019?
March 2019 Spring N Dead Alfalfa
This fall was the toughest for establishing winter forage in the 20 years I have been researching the crop. Each year there is a crop that the weather takes particular delight in hammering—this year it was winter forage. Corn did not come off until mid October and the fields were a rutted mess that needed to be smoothed. Winter came at a normal time (instead of late as it had been doing) with most areas getting significant snow by Thanksgiving. Some stands I have seen have 1 plant/ft. square. A few farms though, have winter forage planted on time and doing very well.
February wet soil rotations 2019
This sounds like a dumb question, but it is very apropos. It happens on farms all across the northeast and Midwest. Real farmers grow corn and alfalfa, so they do. Multiple years of corn makes drainage worse as the soil structure collapses and machinery compaction squeezes out what little porosity the soil originally had. In Canada, on silt soils, they now tile on 25 ft space as 50 ft no longer works because of compaction and over worked soils. As I mentioned in the November issue, 15 years of alfalfa grass sod did not remove the yield and root limiting pan that restricted roots to only 7 inches of soil. It was like a paved road underneath. Nearly every, somewhat poorly drained or silty/clay, field I have dug in has a yield/ root/drainage limiting compaction when it was plowed while too wet sometime in the past .
Jan 2019 Money in Manure
The dairy farm recession is into its fourth year. Farms are struggling to find places to tighten or worse, cut corners. There is one place that dairy (and confinement livestock) have that is often overlooked – maximizing the use of the manure that is produced. Yes, it is a waste that must be disposed of – but it has more value than many realize or make use of.
November 2018 Rutted Fields
The wide spread soggy conditions that started in mid-July have continued through harvest across most of the New England, Mid Atlantic, and upper Midwest dairy region. The corn silage was to dry to harvest and fields were too wet to drive. Dump wagons off loading at the edge of the field, tractors pulling trucks as the chopper fills them, broken chains and cables were common sights as they tried to get the harvest. The end result is tremendous amount of soil compaction across all soil types. It happened, now how can we correct it
September 2018 Winter Forage and Manure Part 2
For optimum results winter forage needs to be planted as soon as the corn is chopped off. Research in the August 2018 newsletter showed the advantage of fall manure before planting. Our research found (graph at right) incorporated pre-plant fall manure for winter forage may meet the spring nitrogen needs for yield, but NOT meet our forage crude protein goal of >18%. This is a problem as the field crew is busy chopping while you are trying to get the manure on, incorporated, and the winter forage planted. The other problem of trying to meet all the nitrogen needs by applying manure at planting, is the sheer amount of nitrogen this crop can remove.
August 2018 Manure & Winter Forage Part 1
With the fall harvest season, it is time to plant the high quality winter forage that builds soil health while making you money. As discussed in the March issue, crude protein of 18 – 20% is common with proper management and fertilizer (nitrogen & sulfur). Last year Relative Feed Quality was 180 at harvest. Our variety trial averaged 3.5 tons of dry matter (10 tons 35%DM silage) at harvest
July 2018 Sorghum Variety Trial 2
The bouncing ball of weather has left us with a wide range of conditions across the northcentral and northeast regions of the country. Some areas have had a continuous parade of storms dumping tremendous amounts of water. In others, the corn is rolled and alfalfa collapsed from the lack of water. Except for a rain just before and during July 4, the last decent rain for us was early June. Regardless of the conditions, each year someone some where is scrambling to get a crop in by the beginning of July.
Sorghum, sorghum-Sudan, and pearl millet are all full season/emergency crops getting a second and third look at across the US.