September has arrived and with it the days are getting shorter, the fall harvest season is getting closer and the birds that congregate for their journey to their southern homes have taken off already. I would normally say that the days are cooling off, but not yet. Actually, there are still a few days on the calendar predicted to be 12 to 15 degrees warmer than normal.
Time Marches On
We buried one of my two remaining uncles two weeks ago. He was Bernard ‘Bernie’ Koenigs. He was born and raised on a small dairy farm in Mitchell County along with seven siblings, with my mother being his oldest sister. Like many kids in his class they spoke German at home until starting grade school where they learned English. That meant that each day began very early so they could get the cows milked and chores done. He wanted to see the world, so enlisted in the Army straight out of High School. He spent those years at an undisclosed base in Turkey where they intercepted Russian communications going back to Moscow. While there he learned to speak Russian and Turkish while also learned how to cut hair and to play the guitar and sing. One of his activities was participating in rodeos where he rode the big bulls.
That meant that at the very large family reunions listening to him and other siblings singing along with his guitar songs. That and the food prepared for those numerous reunions is fixed in my memories. After his funeral at the Catholic Church just north of Mankato, MN all of his kids and many of his nieces and nephews participated in a 3 or 4 hours sing-along. He always figured that funerals are supposed to be joyous occasions. He and his wife Judy had five kids with his oldest son Michael gaining fame as a motivational speaker, business analyst, author and technical guy in Hollywood when movies began to include special effects and gyroscopically controlled cameras in movies. He was the go-to expert for the producers. One of my sisters, who is a medium, saw him in heaven the next few days being 25 or 30 years old and visiting with his family members and cousins.
The Last Days of Summer
When I wrote my Aug 20th column we knew that the ProFarmer tour was due to start and that the next week was going to have several record high temperatures at a time when there was precious little moisture left in the top fifteen feet of soil. It is always difficult to make a gloomy prediction, but anyone who went thru 1977, 1983, 1987 and 2012 knew that the percentage of the corn crop which could remain green or turn brown was going to depend on the actual temperatures, humidity levels, wind speed and degree of sunlight versus cloud cover. By the time the heat subsided many of the corn fields had turn color with some turning brown or a ghastly shade of yellow. A high percent of the bean fields still looked in decent shape after the heat subsided. There were some that had been planted early and they began to turn yellow, reaching maturity ahead of schedule. Okay, so that was bad enough and kiboshed the idea of trend line yields for even the optimists. Given the lack of rain, ear size and kernel fill looked good in fields in locations where the scattered showers fell. Most people who can judge crops have identified central and west central Iowa as where the crops were looking the best.
Other warts were showing up by then. Hybrids with shallow rooted inbreds took the heat the worst. Root feeding by heavy CRW beetle populations became very noticeable due to the root lodging which was noticeable even from the road and especially from the air. Traits and planting time insecticides failed in many cases as protein production in plants as the super dry soils lessen N formation and release.
Three of us flew in a small airplane over Hardin and Franklin counties on Aug 28th a bit east of I-35, over fields that typically are too heavy and very prone to ponding water in wet years. From the air any and all lower OM spots were yellow, or brown and approaching death. We did fly over a few fields which had been treated for bacterial diseases and they remained green.
Then, as predicted, the second heat wave moved in for another week with temps in the mid to high nineties. As of Sunday, most of the early and mid-planted fields gave up the ghost and green color with the ears tipping down. I checked a number of fields that were planted April 10th to 15th,which were showing good ear size and decent kernel depth. As of Sunday night, the kernels were done filling and the kernel tips had shrunk, meaning lighter test weights and likely slower dry down due to no normal black layers forming.
ProFarmer Crop Tour
As most observers know by now the prediction by the tour participants was for a 172 Bu/A corn crop. The problem with that guess is the in most seasons the plants still have moisture available to them and temperatures have moderated. It was publicized that a crop size analyst who had the best accuracy in forecasting final yields of any members of his team, when asked what one factor was most important to predict the corn crop size said it was night time temperatures during the grain fill period. In 2011 and 2012 and now in 2023 there were many days when the air temps were still close to 90F at 11 pm.
Guthrie Center Crops
I did charge up my Canon XF-100 camcorder and headed down to a very hilly, low CSR farm west of Guthrie Center to record how the corn plants looked. Nearly all of the fields around were dead brown and the ears were tipped down. Most of his acres were dark green down to the ground. Most of the ears were 42 to 44 long with kernels up to and over the tip of the cob with almost no dent. Those ears were still filling and adding yield. His fields had received only 8” of rain, and it was the third year in a row with a rain deficit of 15” or or greater. What those acres received was a quart of Take Off and a quart of TarGard via drone in mid-July. We will have the in season and harvest time videos ready because without those few farmers would believe it. We plan to have them edited to show that with the right microbes (HolGanix) and mineral products harsh conditions can be tolerated.
I mentioned last week that the theory where wide swings in heat and moisture conditions coupled with high iron and normal manganese levels can either alone or in concert with endophytic bacteria help plug the vascular tissue in the lower stalk tissue. If two top crop scientists are discussing it, it might be a real problem.
Droughts World Wide
I have not been around the globe, but most of the U.S. had hot and dry weather this season. A farmer from Bulgaria who visited with us after the Farm Progress Show said it was hotter and drier than in 2022. It was the same in his neighboring countries. China reported an all-time high of 124 F.
Early Harvest
With so many bean fields turning yellow in parts of as a whole one can bet on an early harvest. We can only speculate how well those fields might have yielded if they had caught a few showers in mid and late August. At present I have been surprised by the appearance of the plants. Where they were aggressively managed with hormonal product to add branches and energized mineral mixes, the final yields will surprise growers.
With corn planted at pops of 34k, it no longer requires super large ears to produce good yields over 200 Bu/A. But the reality this year tells of parts of the Midwest could have acceptable yields and others will be disappointed and begin formulating their 2024 plans.
Bob Streit is an independent crop consultant and columnist for Farm News. He can be reached at (515) 709-0143 or www.CentralIowaAg.com.