Plant21

It’s been a “roller-coaster” growing season for Illinois corn. Brad Mason, Pioneer field agronomist, said there’s a lot of variability in corn across his region that’s bordered by I-80 to the north through McDonough and Fulton counties in the south.

About eight inches of rain soaked the Kindred family farm over four days and Ron and Jay were preparing for mowing on Monday morning, June 28.

Hello from Graze-N-Grow. I feel blessed since our last rain, seven-tenths, because crops and pastures are doing great. I recently talked with a friend, an organic farmer, from extreme northern Iowa, who’s had all of 3.5 inches for the whole year and nothing so far in June.

As corn and soybean plants pop up across the state, don’t be too stressed out about uneven emergence, said Steve Gauck, field agronomist at Beck’s Hybrids.

It finally dried out enough for us to complete our corn planting and wheat chopping and have a good start to hay making. Unfortunately, it all happened at once. We will now turn our attention back to manure pumping on the harvested wheat acres and follow that with more corn planting.

Ron and Jay Kindred were setting the population on their four-row planter to prepare for replanting some corn upon arrival late Wednesday morning, May 26. “We’ll be replanting some corn when the ponds dry up after this next rain goes through. All of the corn is up enough that we can see where we need to plant-in,” Ron said.

The pressure was on Trivapro®, the Syngenta fungicide with three active ingredients, to prove itself straight out of the gate.

Whoopee! Grazing season is underway and all is grand. In the last two weeks, we have had an absolute forage explosion. It has exceeded anything I have experienced. We seemed to have gone from 4 to 6 inches to 10 to 14 inches almost overnight in some near-perfect — at least for cool-season grasses — conditions. It has been a sight to behold.

Spring is in full swing. Lots of green, green grass and baby calves everywhere. We have moved calving back further and further to avoid miserable weather and yet it still seems pretty darned chilly here in mid-May some mornings. Corn planting, manure hauling and feeding cattle are top priorities, but will very soon give way to chopping wheat and baling hay.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Wisconsin Farm Bureau and National Farm Medicine Center want rural residents to know that #FarmNeighborsCare.

Wisconsin farmers say spring planting is ahead of schedule this year.

The Kindreds were making one last push to plant soybeans the day before snow was forecast in central Illinois.

As times get busier on the farm, with more moving parts, shortened timeframes and more things to do, it can be easy to wish there were more hours in the day. The farm’s leader, especially, can find that there’s an unlimited number of tasks to do.

Great Plains Manufacturing continues to offer innovative solutions to help producers, including additional features to the BD7600 box drill.

Granular and Pioneer Agronomy, both cornerstones of Corteva Agriscience, have joined forces to create a first-of-its-kind resource for U.S. farmers. Their proprietary digital planting guide brings together the best of Pioneer Agronomy expertise plus more than 5 million acres of anonymized Granular and Corteva data and insights.

Spring is my favorite season of the year. It brings the warmer weather and anticipation of new life. There are flowers already blooming in our yard and others pushing their way through the ground. The pasture is turning green and will be growing soon. I keep the sheep in until about May 1 to give the pasture time to recover from winter. Now that we do not have any horses, our pasture feeds the few sheep we have all summer and into the fall. We have several big bales of hay left from last year. Maybe this year we can sell our cutting of hay.

As spring arrives and temperatures rise, farmers across Indiana begin to plant the state’s 15 million acres of crops. To keep motorists and farmers safe this planting season, several state agencies have partnered together to encourage Hoosiers to be alert, slow down and share the road with farm equipment.

This time a year ago, Indiana farmers had a lot of unanswered questions as they entered the second month of the COVID-19 pandemic. Would they be deemed essential workers? Could they get the parts they needed for their equipment? Was a farm recession looming?

There were no surprises in the agricultural supply and demand estimates report April 9 as the trade turns its focus to planting season and the upcoming weather conditions.

With the planting season just around the corner, the Kindreds took a break from machinery maintenance to spend a few days bringing soybeans to the local elevator.

The year’s first survey-based look at planted acres opened the bull gates and sent the corn and soybean markets limit-up soon after the prospective plantings report was released March 31.

“I” state farmers said they intend to increase soybean acres this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s prospective plantings estimates released March 31.

If you’re a corn and soybean farmer or an ag commodity futures trader, one of the biggest make-or-break days of the year looms: On March 31, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will issue its Prospective Plantings report.

It won’t be long. Soon planters will roll across fields, starting the journey that makes or breaks our farmers’ hearts, backs and bank accounts.

AGCO Corp., a global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of agricultural machinery and solutions, has released yield results from its 2020 Fendt Momentum Crop Tour.

Farmers can expect favorable planting conditions compared to last year’s spring months, according to Matt Teply, a technical team agronomist for LG Seeds and certified crop adviser.

Responding to strong farmer demand and proven performance, Kinze will expand its True Speed high-speed planting technology to five more planter configurations for the 2022 season. The company also is introducing several new features to enhance its innovative Blue Vantage planter display.

Golden Harvest corn and soybean seed products once again outperformed competitors in fields across the United States, despite a season filled with weather and economic challenges.

A farmer’s nutrient management journey starts with a soil sample. After the soil is analyzed, it’s time to develop a smart strategy to deliver nutrients in field throughout the season.

Soybean seedling diseases have been referred to as the hidden yield-robbers, as well as other terms not fit to print, and similar to the battle against weeds, require an integrated management approach to control.

The relationship between row cleaners and planter row units has been rocky and a new innovation aims at smoothing over that sometimes negative interaction.

A quick sample of emerging corn can give farmers insight into pests, disease, cold injury or uneven planting depths.

The potential for flooding in northern Illinois during the spring is much lower as compared to the last two years.

Technology has come a long way since Ron Kindred started farming with his father in 1980, and he was taking another major step into the tech realm this month.

When fields thaw this spring, farmers may find winter weeds have taken root in their fields.

Farmers Business Network works to develop seed to maximize the return on investment for farmers.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture registered dicamba products for use on soybeans in 2021 that includes restrictions that differ from the federal label.