April is here and the weather in the month can be very fickle. This was proven by the short periods of heavy snow which occurred on two days last week. Generally warm temps were the rule thru most of Feb and March with many days of record warmth. It almost felt like a sin to not be putting seeds in the ground on those perfect days, but experience has taught us to be realistic and know that conditions can change quickly and drop us into a late winter scenario. The moisture situation is a bit worrisome in that no major moisture front has moved thru to put much water into the profile. We are still waiting for the big front to move thru the Midwest dropping three to four inches of rain over a wide portion of the crop growing states. Getting a slow-moving front delivering that moisture will help our crops tolerate dry conditions, if that is the outlook again for 2024.
Our meteorologist just laid out his best guess for the next twelve months as to temp and moisture trends. He gave it on a month-by-month basis. He says April will be wetter and cooler. May will be a month of rising temps and drier and so forth. Both June and July are supposed to be normal to wetter than normal. August looks like a hot month and short of moisture. Sept looks hot but with good moisture. He does his calculations by watching seventy some cycles and the geo-magnetics of the earth, the sun, and major planets.
National Events
The notable events of this time period that could influence us in the Midwest may have been the large container vessel crashing into the large bridge in Maryland, the upcoming solar eclipse and the earthquakes in Asia. The bridge event may affect us because the port it serves is a major shipping point for many Ag goods arriving into or being shipped out of this country. There remain seemingly small facts occurring in connection with the company that demand attention. Such as why did one of the owners of the shipping company drown when her sports car careened into the ocean accidentally just a month earlier and why was the black box of the vessel turned off just before the collision?
As to the eclipse scheduled for April 8th, will it be anything more than the other benign eclipses of the recent decades. They do attract attention, lots of attention, and speculation. We had plans to head to KC to get a better view of it, but I35 was so packed with traffic that we could not get even close to our destination. Luckily the clouds cleared for a few minutes allowing a decent view. As to the Taiwan earthquake, my wife was on Twitter (X) the evening before and showed me pictures from Japan of the water levels in the harbors there receding much more than normal. What effect might that have on worldwide computer chip supplies?
The 2024 Growing Season
As the calendar moved into our fourth month we know things in the Ag world will quickly get very busy. Those committed to tillage will soon have their field cultivators smoothing the fields to create a clean, level seed bed in preparation for planting. No-tillers may wait a bit longer as the extra residue makes those soils a bit longer to warm. Once this all happens the planters will begin running. Then the 2024 cropping season will begin in earnest. In some ways it is like a sprint to get as much done at a hectic pace, just in case the many fog days in January translate into a wet spring and planting delays become the norm.
The major challenge for growers has been to develop a cropping plan using the lower projected commodity prices and the still high input costs which have declined from their highs of two years ago but have not dropped as much as the percentage drop in grain prices. Then due to the spending spree in DC and resulting inflation, borrowing costs have increased dramatically. The declining value of the dollar has led to land prices going to unseen levels driving cash rents higher. Talk about a vicious cycle.
So, it appears that the best course for a farmer or farming enterprise to follow is to learn what is not being taught in any land grant university, any major fertilize company, or any major input supplier and to learn about this so-called Regenerative Ag which requires an operator to take a fast course on microbials to learn which ones do the best job of converting the formerly unavailable minerals fixed or oxidized in the soil into the plant available or reduced form. No one company has all the answers and no one product constitutes a silver bullet.
Growers who have gone this route and have not seen much improvement may learn that the biological mix they are using are based too much on bacteria and lacking in fungal numbers and a narrow species blend. Diversity is good in that each species can play a role.
To lend clarity to this conundrum and to make most of us feel really stupid, two very experienced agronomists with great knowledge in microbe genetics and testing procedures put their heads together and developed the so called BeCrop soil test. The test has several components and includes the Haney test, several carbon tests, detects the mineral concentration in the soil, then looks at the fungal to bacteria ratio and from that gives guidance as to what factor is yield limiting. Based on answers to my quizzing a certain soil and tissue testing lab I learned that the deficiency frequency in the Midwest for the minerals of Moly, Boron, Manganese and Zinc was 95%, 90%, 85% and 75%. Deficiencies in three of the four can lead to disease issues. Two of the four plus sulfur shortages can results in Tar Spot problems.
A high % of the microbial mixes are heavily bacterial based and lacking many fungal species. And if a grower corrects this occurrence and has been applying a fungal based product, and keeps using 82% N, doing much tillage and the #1 non-selective herbicide, the results of continuing usage of those three is a die-off of those beneficial fungi. The three sources best known for being commercial sources of products heavily fungal based are BTI of Dallas, Dave Olson of California and Mark Lejuenesse of Fl.
Problems Up in Canada
Our farming neighbors to the north, the Crazy Canadians who like their short and intense summer growing seasons raised lots of RR canola and lentils (various beans). The vast majority of the canola acres are of the RR varieties. For the last 10 to 15 years the #1 non-selective herbicide has been applied to the crops. Rather than just disappearing or becoming a benign product, when a higher grade of P was applied, as in a PO3 (phosphite) was foliar applied the herbicide was desorbed and free to move of the soil colloids and into the soil water and taken up by the crop roots. ‘Bingo!’. 80 to 90% crop losses.
What about our soils which have often received years of semi-yearly applications of manure. Having manure regulations which are P based allows some very high gallons to be applied to many fields. When might these go ‘Bingo’?
Terminating Cover Crops
Cover crops are gaining in popularity on erodible soil types where they have longer growing seasons and water erosion is more of a problem. Where used they dramatically help limiting soil erosion by wind or water. In colder northern parts of the corn belt establishing a cover crop in a shortened season is more challenging. So, using covers is considered a soil health benefit. The # 1 question then becomes what is the best way to terminate a cover crop. I have seen decent results with spraying Boron:Fop or Boron:Dim mix, but the most commonly used product then may cancel most of the benefits being a negative.
Two weeks ago, I had the chance to do a demo using a non-selective, formerly vinegar based product to a very heavy growth of mix grasses and broadleaf weeds using a backpack sprayer. The observers who produced a specialty food crop were very interested in the results as were the resort managers as they were hoping to find a new product to use in controlling unwanted vegetation. They asked if they should come back and view the results in two or three days. I said to come back in two hours. We returned in two hours and saw the only survivors were a few grass plants with stems about ¾” in diameter. Two days later every grass plant and weed were toast.
Knowing that most of the vineyards have been using the same herbicide in controlling weeds, and are looking for an alternative, they now have one available. In the same note, we had a very smart Martha Carlin speak at our conference a year ago. Her claim to fame was that she and a team of microbiologists using deep sea soil cores and ancient amber sleuthing to find select strains capable of degrading this herbicide’s residues in the soil. If anyone is interested in reading a very thorough twenty-page report on the discovery process, just send a note to our website and I could post it.
Bob Streit is an independent crop consultant and columnist for Farm News. He can be reached at (515) 709-0143 or www.CentralIowaAg.com.