Southern Indiana Crops Facing Problems
While there are places in Southern Indiana where the corn has been planted and early crop development looks good with plants in the V10 or 11 stage, there are also some areas where farmers are still struggling to get the crop planted. DuPont Pioneer Field Agronomist Dan Emmert told HAT that counties just south of Terre Haute is a prime example, “These guys get hit every time it rains, and they are really struggling to get their corn planted.” He added that many are getting ready to make the switch to soybeans. He said, in some areas, up to 25% of the intended corn acres will not get planted or switched to soybeans.
In addition, insect pressure has been a problem for the young crop. “I have been getting a lot of calls about slugs feeding on corn and soybeans,” said Emmert. He noted that no-till fields have been hit the hardest. Seedling blight has also been an issue but not very widespread, according to Emmert.
By far, the biggest issue for growers this year has been weeds, especially marestail, “The marestail situation is very serious right now.” He said many of the weeds were not killed by the burndown programs and have come back with a vengeance, “Some of them were just burned off at the base, and they are bushing out now.” He said some growers have soybeans that are just beginning to emerge and there are 12 inch tall marestail in the field. Emmert said these weeds are proving very difficult to control, “I know guys that are trying all kinds of things, but nothing is working 100%.” He said the best strategy may be to just knock back the weeds long enough to give the soybeans a chance to catch up.
Listen to the complete report with Dan Emmert on the DuPont Pioneer agronomy page on this web site and in the audio section of the Hoosier Ag Today app for Smartphone and tablets.