Great Spring

What a wonderful spring we are experiencing. I walked several corn fields today and I must say the condition of the crop is very good. Sure there is yellow corn and uneven emergence. As compared to recent past springs, the corn is in the ground earlier, and has emerged rather quickly.

I want to talk about some of the situations I observed today. First thing was that I found some skips within the rows of corn. Not many by any means, but more in corn on corn. Scratching in the skip I found the seeding just preparing to poke through the soil surface. Sometimes those seeds were planted shallow. I have talked with many growers who commented that the ground did not freeze out and that made it difficult to place the seed uniformly. Down pressure on planters was a topic discussed all spring. Some said they had maximum down pressure and the rows set to plant two inches deep and still had a tough time getting the seed over 1.5" into the ground. I don't think the unevenness of stand will hurt yields. the seedlings are all small and the slow growing ones will catch up quickly. This week is going to be warm and I think you will see even stands soon. I may be wrong, but we will see soon enough.

Some of the corn seedlings are emerging with a yellow color to them. If we look at the weather from the past two weeks, we will see cooler temps and quite a bit of rain. The emerging seedlings last week were much more yellow than the ones this week. With warm temperatures and sunshine, the corn will green up quickly.

Stand counts have been very good with the emergence issues I have mentioned. I count stands when all the corn is emerged that is going to emerge. I counted six different populations today and they ranged from 33,333 to 35,500. I could write all day about the proper plant stands. They depend on soils, hybrids, environment and many other factors. In my opinion, and this is based on last year's population studies, 35,000 is right where the stands should be. I will count harvestable ears in August and calculate yields. We will see then where the populations are at that time.

I have been fielding many questions about cutworms. Today, the University of Missouri reported an extensive outbreak in Knox County, NE Missouri. The way to monitor Black Cutworms is that 300GDUs after an outbreak, cutting will be noticed in corn fields. Iowa State is saying some hatching is happening in Iowa. I will keep track of the monitoring from the Universities and report when we all should be on alert. I will send a text message by cell phone.

If any other matters arise that should be reported, I will get that information to you.

Stay safe.

Perri

310-929-7851