As the Midwest crop tour group got ready Tuesday morning to check the western half of Indiana before moving into Illinois, rains moved in from the west. It was a welcome break from a recent dry spell, and Indiana crops gladly took in the rain. Indiana area agronomist for Brodbeck Seeds, Dan Ritter, said the moisture is vitally important.
“I think most of our soybeans across at least the area I work in are in that stage where they can still benefit obviously from these August and early September rains,” he said. “For the most part, the bulk of our soybeans are going to benefit from these rains and really top off the tank and add to seed size and weight. So it was very crucial rain not only for the soybeans but I would say for a large portion of our corn as well.”
Ritter works the western part of the state, and he urges farmers not to back off the scouting practices. It is a good time, via scouting, to begin setting harvest priorities.
“Be earmarking those fields that, hey I’m seeing a little more disease here. Perhaps I need to watch for the stalk integrity if we’re in a field that’s very stressed, and let’s work on getting a harvest schedule lined up, especially as we get into mid-September. Let’s start looking at which fields we want to put on the harvest schedule first to manage our harvest and get the crop in and under roof as soon as possible.”
But he adds scouting also adds to the management base of knowledge for 2018 decision making.
“Maybe I made a fungicide application or maybe I made a certain herbicide application. We’re really looking at the efficacy of what we’ve done out there and getting that first little bit of information of how well did the management practices I put together work this year for me. Then ultimately, we’re going to have data off of our yield monitor, but it kind of gives you a sneak peek at what we did from a management standpoint and how well that worked.”
What will stalk quality be in western Indiana the rest of the season, and how do crops in the west compare with eastern Indiana? Ritter weighs in during the HAT interview:Dan-Ritter-August-17-update