Producer Page: Planting

Details: Created: Friday, 13 May 2016 09:16; Written by Mark

News of Note--- You have probably heard that Peoples Equity Corp. (our ownership group) has entered into an agreement to purchase Paragon Bank of Wells. We are very excited about working with the staff and customers of Paragon, and we are dedicated to a long future of independent community banking here in the Wells area. We will continue to be focused on agriculture and the local businesses that support our farming community.

Insurance Insight--- A quick reminder…..with the early planting, we will have crops emerged soon and you should verify and/or purchase hail insurance soon if you want that coverage to protect your investment in your crops. Your federal crop insurance should already be in place, but the hail policy may require a separate application.

Pre-emerge Priority--- With rain and wind recently, the application of herbicides has been a little tricky. With increased glyphosate resistance the need for timely pre-emerge chemistry is more important than ever. The window for applying some of the products is very narrow, so plan ahead to have supplies on hand or be on a spraying list and communicate with your custom applicator.

Considerate Chemicals--- Stop by and visit your neighbors. You should do this anyway, but a short talk will help you be sure you know what is planted next door. You can’t assume that everything is Round-up Ready and hang the spray boom over the border anymore. There are many acres of non-gmo crops and even some organic fields, so be neighborly and be careful.

Marketing Minute--- Finally some upward movement in the grain markets!! It may be time to consider sales of old and new crop…..at least be number crunching and weighing your options. If you intend to sell during the busy planting season, have your sale orders in place so you don’t miss your opportunities. Talk to your marketing advisor and make a plan.

Dicamba Delay--- An exciting new possibility for weed control in soybeans is Dicamba-tolerant beans. Actually these traited soybeans are available for purchase in Minnesota, BUT no dicamba herbicide formulation is approved for application at this time. So it is ILLEGAL to apply dicamba (banvel) on tolerant soybeans in Minnesota this year. Monsanto is estimating that their formulation of dicamba will get EPA approval sometime this fall. So hopefully next year! Also note that the dicamba that will be approved is not the same as the old jug of Banvel that you have laying around, so even after approval you will need the approved product or you will still be outside the rules. (not to mention increased chance of crop injury and drift). Another consideration is whether your elevator will accept delivery of these dicamba-tolerant soybeans this fall…..so check this out before you plant!

Emergence Estimator--- After the warm and dry start to planting, last week was cold and wet, leaving many farmers wondering about emergence of corn seedlings. Most varieties need to approach 120 Growing Degree Day Units to pop out of the ground. A website you can use to get GDD measurement for your area and planting date is mygeohub.org/groups/u2u/gdd

This site enables you to zoom in on your county and enter a planting date to get a chart of estimated growing degree days for scouting purposes. You can also use it measure GDD’s for crop maturity later in the season.

Tech Talk--- Have you tried our Bill-Pay product yet? It is a real time-saver and very convenient once you have set it up. So you can save stamps and check writing by contacting us and getting started with this nice feature on our website.

Cash Flow Follow-up--- In this tight margin time-frame, you will want to occasionally review the cash flow we worked on this winter. It will help you stay on budget and identify any potential problems developing. I realize that farming is a weather-related, always changing business, but the cash flow is a useful tool for analysis and benchmarking.