It sure has felt like spring many days the past two weeks. But it isn’t yet, and it also isn’t yet time for planting in Indiana. Telling farmers to cool their jets on that overwhelming desire to plant isn’t easy for DEKALB Asgrow Technical Agronomist Jason Harmon.
“It’s hard to tell somebody to cool their jets when I’m getting pretty darn excited,” he said. “Whenever we get these warmer temperatures, we’re ready to start a new season. That’s the beauty of farming, we get another try at it, and I’ve got to think what’s the agronomics behind the decisions we make, and we’ve got to look at that calendar. It’s proven itself in the past and we’ve got to pump the breaks. It is still a really good time to make sure our ducks are in a row, make sure that planter is ready to go.”
Harmon says ground conditions are becoming more and more favorable and it’s surprising how dry the subsurface remains in many parts of his territory of northern Indiana. It creates a good opportunity for additional field prep where it may be needed.
“Last fall was extremely favorable,” he told HAT. “We didn’t have the instances where we were rutting up the fields trying to get the 2020 harvest out, so we were laying a good foundation for this growing season. I know a lot of fall tillage got done last year, and done really, really well. We were able to fracture that soil structure, and so right now we’re looking at about the same. So, we can be prepared to go out there and get everything lined out and warmed up. You want to make sure that tillage equipment is set and dialed in. We don’t need to be doing anything too deep right now because we don’t have that issue of subsurface compaction from the previous fall. That’s a blessing.”
Where are farmers right now on their corn vs. soybean planting decisions? Harmon says in an area of predominantly rotated acres, most farmers have their plan in place, but there could be some last minute shifts.
Hear the complete discussion with Harmon here: