Early-season ‘sins’ apparent at harvest

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — ILSoyAdvisor Soy Envoys recapped the top agronomic challenges of 2024 and what potentially lies ahead for 2025 in an Illinois Soybean Association Field Advisor podcast.

Kelsey Litchfield, ISA agronomic outreach specialist, led the discussion that featured Soy Envoys Eric Beckett, Illinois FS east-central field agronomist; Drew Beckman, Beck’s northwest Illinois field agronomist; Karen Corrigan, independent agronomist and co-owner of McGillicuddy Corrigan Agronomics; Craig Grafton, Bayer Crop Science product systems scientist; Kelly Robertson, Precision Crop Services owner and lead agronomist; and Shelby Weckel, Ehler Brothers sales agronomist; along with Stephanie Porter, ISA outreach agronomist.

Beckett noted the early-season stressors in corn and soybeans showed up at harvest with lower-than-expected yields in some areas.

“It doesn’t just have to be around planting. It could have been surface residue, the way tillage occurred, anything that impacted seed emergence and then shortly thereafter,” he said.

“I’m seeing a lot of issues with stalk quality for both corn and soybeans this year of just how well the plants are able to take up nutrients. It just seems if there was something that wasn’t quite right this spring, it just snowballed and, unfortunately, sometimes it got out of control and yields were impacted.

“On the flip side, we’ve seen some fantastic yields this year, and I think the farmers that really did manage their fields were very well rewarded.

“If you’re not planting soybeans in April, start planting soybeans in April. We’ve seen as much as a 20-bushel spread in much of the area that I operate in.”

Weed Issues

Weed control was another issue this year, and Beckett said if farmers are thinking of using the same management as last year for next year, it’s time for a change.

“It’s going to take more management strategies or it’s going to take doing things differently to get a handle on some of these weed-control issues. We may never completely get to where we were at in, say, 1997 or 1998 after the inception of Roundup Ready soybeans,” he said.

There are technologies in the market to handle early-season stress on plants, and Beckett recommended looking at the return-on-investment of those products.

“A great place to start is in the seed-treatment space. I wouldn’t get too carried away with seed treatments and different add-ons, but there’s some real merit to some advanced seed-treatment packages beyond that standard fungicide and insecticide,” he said.

“Manage everything you can do to get the planter set correctly, tillage and even how the tillage tool is set. Harvest is wrapping up, but even thinking about residue management behind the combine. I saw implications of that this spring affecting emergence.”

Weckel has seen yields below expectations as a result of “the sins of the spring” that usually could be avoided.

“It was a very difficult spring in our territory. It was wet this spring, so we worked in the windows of opportunity, and those windows of opportunity were not always very big. If you were planting when it was basically ideal or as close to ideal as you could get, that meant you were doing tillage a day or two ahead, the soils probably were not ideal to be out there with tillage,” she said.

“There were a lot of compaction issues which then led to additional crown rot, phytophthora and things like that and that’s what led to a lot of our stalk rots because our roots were not very well established. They were stressed.

“We had every stress possible thrown at the crop this season. We had extremely wet situations and then we went extremely dry and then we were back and forth, then we finished very dry so those compaction layers have not allowed the crop to finish.

“Corn yields overall were out of the ballpark, much better than anticipated, but since we didn’t get the later rains, the yields from the fuller season soybeans really fell off, which is disappointing. It doesn’t mean the varieties are bad, we just didn’t have the rains to fill since we missed the hurricane rains, we didn’t get to finish those soybeans.

“I’ve heard a lot of 60-bushel soybeans in this territory just because we did not get the rains to finish those full season, but the early-season soybeans did very well.”

Insects

There were reports of corn yield losses due to aphids.

“There were some other hybrids that had a little bit here or there. In our plot where we always try to do a lot of comparisons and different things, yields were off 60 bushels from the top hybrid to the hybrid that was affected the most by aphids, and then there was everything in between. We had a couple that were off maybe 15, 20 bushels, but definitely affected,” Weckel said.

“I don’t think guys were quite aware of what was going on at that point in time or didn’t notice it. I’m getting a few calls later that maybe the yields are off, you can kind of start to see a little bit of the affects in the residue.”

Beckman estimated there’s been a 10% to 15% yield loss due to aphids on affected hybrids.

“On many operations, the hybrids that were affected are the ones that were the highest yielding in 2023 and the ones with the best late season aphid attack,” he said.

“We are correlating that it seems like the hybrids that have the best late season plant health are the ones that they were somehow able to target. It’s incredible to me that an aphid was able to tell the difference somehow in that plant structure that early on.

“I know right now it’s emotional to say I’m never planting that hybrid again, but there’s a lot of high-yielding products that are getting affected and ones that we don’t want to miss out on going into 2025. We’re even having that conversation on the product advancement side and how affected were a lot of these different hybrids.”

2025 Weed Control

Corrigan stressed that knowing what weeds are in the field is the first step toward control.

“If you have a combination of both giant ragweed, waterhemp and possibly marestail, you can’t use the same products to control all of those. You have to have a mixture to give you a broad spectrum of control,” she said.

“Make sure you know what weeds you have and then make sure the herbicides you mix will cover that weed spectrum.”

Looking toward 2025, the Endangered Species Act is going to have a large impact on what can and can’t be sprayed and when it can be sprayed.

“You’re not just responsible for the label, but you’re also responsible to go to the (Environmental Protection Agency) website, “Bulletins Live! Two.” Then you have to make sure that you understand for your area what your Endangered Species Act implications might be,” Corrigan said.

“All of the herbicides are going to be coming under review and they have to comply with the Endangered Species Act and that’s going to take some management in areas.”

Several farmers told Corrigan they saw yield decreases in some areas they spot sprayed.

“Make sure you read the label. They’re there for a reason. There are restrictions, because not everything is herbicide resistant it’s entire life. Some things are only herbicide tolerant,” she said.

“Roundup Ready gave us a false sense of security and, unfortunately, that’s not how the other products work. Read the label, follow the label, don’t shoot yourself in the foot by doing something that’s causing you 10-, 15-, 20-bushel yield loss.

“One thing we’re not very good at is cleaning out our tanks, and there’s certain chemicals that we use that are really great tank cleaners, and so that can have an effect, also.

“The farmers said that they suspected that was the issue because where they spot sprayed was where they had the issue. They just didn’t have the pods or they had pods that were a little deformed looking and had no seeds.

“There were a lot of 55, 65 bushels an acre yields, particularly in the slightly later soybeans. We had some tremendous yields in McLean County, but out from there were a lot of lower soybean yields that people maybe aren’t really shouting out to the masses, but there were a lot that were 55 to 65 that were really expected to be 70 and above.”

Sampling Challenges

The drought conditions make it more difficult to pull soil samples.

“It’s getting more and more difficult. We never pulled a sample until after the rain from the hurricane remnant was here. We’ve been going as hard and as fast as we can and it’s starting to get more difficult daily as it dries out and the ground gets harder,” Robertson said.

“There will probably be a point in time where we stop again just because the sample we’re getting are probably not going to be very good or representative.

“I already know that the majority of our potash tests are coming back low or significantly lower than they were two years ago and a lot of that has to do with the dry weather and dry soil conditions.

“It’s getting difficult to get a soil sample pulled in a lot of areas, especially in fields that were worked slightly on the wetter side and planted slightly on the wetter side.”

Fertilizer Prices

There is a belief, or hope, by some that fertilizer prices will moderate by the spring. Beckett doesn’t see price corrections anytime soon.

“I think, unfortunately, this might be the new norm for a while just because you look at the stuff that happened with the hurricanes in Florida and then the world conflicts that are still continuing. I think some of these fertilizer prices are here to stay for a while,” he said.

Robertson agreed, adding the other side of fertilizer applications is cash-flow issues.

Insurance Claims

Robertson said there will be a lot of crop insurance claims in southern Illinois, especially on soybeans.

“For six to eight weeks, we were without rain. Anything planted in April, May is probably going to be a claim. The Group 3s were disastrous. I heard of several yields with a 2 in front of it, or a 3 in front of it,” he said. “There’ll be some crop insurance claims on corn in some places, as well, where yields weren’t as good.

“The big thing on fertility, though, is that we’re seeing a 30% or more in calls for samples. So, they’re taking inventory of what’s there. We always see this in either drought years or years of high prices on fertilizer commodity prices.

“There’s been a definite increase in the amount of samples we’re going to pull this year, and that’s reflected in all the laboratories we send to that are running well. They’re overwhelmed with samples right now.”