Although later than what many would like, 2024 north-central Indiana corn and soybean crops are off to a good start. That’s the assessment from Daniel Stauffer, field sales representative at Channel Seeds.
Planting progress got a nice bump throughout the state and in his territory in the last week, even with plenty of rain events.
“But the positive out of all of this is that last week to 10 days a lot of seed got in the ground here in North Central Indiana and a lot of folks made some good progress getting seed in the ground and getting a good start with the temperatures we have.”
Stauffer says farmers are concentrating on helping the crop get off to the best start possible. Weed control heads the list.
“Getting nitrogen on in a timely manner, getting control of these weeds because they were 2 to 3 weeks ahead of our pace from a spray standpoint,” he explained. “A lot of growers were waiting on seed to get in the ground to keep their spray pace going, and so getting control of weeds, and then we have heard a few spots here and there of some insects. Some Asiatic beetles have been found in some wheat fields that cause issues with seed in the ground, seedlings, as well as some army worm has been found in some wheat fields. So just keeping an eye. watching your fields, scouting to see if any sort of pesticide application needs done.”
As wet as it has been, north-central Indiana is setup for disease to move in, so he said a fungicide application would be wise. Stauffer said that decision will be a balancing act given current commodity prices. One approach could be an early application at ½-rate “and then come in with a full rate of fungicide later in the growing season depending on what we’re seeing in the fields.”
Hear more in the full HAT and Channel Seeds update:
