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Planting operations are on the increase in southern Indiana, and it’s soybeans leading in front of corn. DEKALB Asgrow Technical Agronomist Jordan Arndell covers the south half of the state, and he is optimistic about progress so far.
“On the west side of the state I’ve seen a lot of people get both corn and beans in the ground,” Arndell told HAT. “On the east side of the state around the Columbus area of southern Indiana, I’ve seen more beans go in the ground not as much corn but clear across the board everywhere in my territory I think we’re sitting in a really good position because the thing we’ve got to remember is, given the weather that we’re dealing with, we’re way ahead of the game. I feel like it’s not quite May yet, so we have plenty of time to plant corn and beans both.”
Arndell is telling growers to go ahead and plant if the ground is fit, but focus this week on soybeans and wait until next week for corn.
“Really I want to see that corn go into a little bit warmer temperatures, let this next cold rain get out of the way, and that’s just going to speed up how quickly our corn is able to emerge.”
He adds that with soybeans the overall yield depends on how early they emerge.
“Now if that takes them a longer time to emerge because the soils are colder and wetter earlier in the season, that’s okay because they’re still going to emerge earlier than if they were planting it later,” Arndell explained. “Node production is pushed by early planting and node production equals higher yield, so I’m absolutely game for people planting their soybeans right now.”
The early planting can elevate the risk of SDS in soybeans. That’s why Arndell hopes your seed is treated.
“In those cases where people may have not used a specific seed treatment for Sudden Death Syndrome, we could potentially see SDS pop up later in the year, and it does not show its face until later on in the growing season. On corn I’m really looking at Pythium.”
The cold and wet soil is a perfect environment for Pythium to develop this year. All DEKALB seed planted in Indiana is treated with Enhanced Disease Control, so that should be a big help.