Don’t look now but we are approaching the longest day of the, June 21st. This is when soybean plants are normally triggered to start flowering if they have reached the V5 growth stage. At this point a sizeable percentage of the bean plants are behind that schedule due to the cold conditions during the month of May when the ground was slow to warm up. Many of those fields in northern Iowa were then challenged by several weeks of dry weather when a hard crust trapped the small plants under a hard, thick crust with scant rains predicted. To hoe or not to hoe was the question to those who still owned a rotary hoe.
In a high percentage of the years of the last decade we have had a 10 to 14 days abnormally warm period where the soils are dry enough to let the larger and aggressive operators get a portion of their acres planted when the soil temps are only in the mid-40s. Then Canadian air pushes back into the Midwest, often shutting down planting and even all field work. The cold air usually hangs around for 2.5 to 3 weeks and the rest of the operators then get into a mad rush to meet their May 10th deadline of when corn yields are expected to be optimized.
Quite a few operators in SE Iowa and the western third of the state never received much for late fall or spring rains, thus were quicker to get spooked when the last half of May and the first part of June was unseasonably warm and dry. There are many meteorologists who are still predicting a wetter summer. It may be that the natural weather cycles between too wet and too dry or too cool and too hot level out and end up being just a slight aberration from normal. But if groups or individuals with unlimited funding was wanting to steer moisture fronts to or away from crop producing areas, could they do it? I have seen such equipment work. So, the best way to get this info out is to cut and paste this excerpt from a mid-June publication:
“is artificial weather modification going on? Let us be clear first that governments around the world have directly told and are continuing to tell its citizenry that they are modifying weather. This has come in the form of the Government of Spain saying that it is adding aluminum, boron and other chemicals into air jets to spray across the sky. There are patents for all kinds of weather modification technology, from cloud seeding (old type) to drone electromagnetic spark induction (new type) to both make it rain more and to cause drought, depending on the charge emission, and other methods that range the gamut from chemical cocktails to NOAA citing the danger of frequency modulation in high-powered cellular tower communication equipment to alter the radiative balance on Earth. Not to forget, Bill Gates and other groups financing scientists to experiment in different areas of the world, they have openly come out to admit that they are ramping-up their Solar Radiative Management (SRM) pursuits. And so that is what has been already admitted, but our research has also taken us down different avenues to connect the dots in seeing how satellites are creating a communications frequency web and may be causing “holes” to occur in normal weather systems, and could at least partially explain why we are seeing a rapid escalation in “holes” in RADAR, not to mention that we have calculated a maximum 29% decrease in low pressure systems globally in the last 5-8 years, which is directly linked to the increase in record-breaking drought over many zones in both hemispheres. As a scientific and research organization, we always believe that knowledge and an open mind is important, and connection of different layers of knowledge is key in finding the causes or links in different events occurring.”
So, judge for yourself. Is he right or wrong? Might it explain why droughts and frequent flooding or 100 or 500-year floods occur with greater frequency. He did predict that rain bearing clouds were going to march thru the Midwest delivering spotty yet scattered much needed water. The weekend tallies in Iowa range from 0 to 2.7”. Some of the driest counties in Iowa did get a reprieve, but there remain a lot of weeks and crop development remaining, thus the need for continuing moisture until the crops are in the bin. Lots of areas in many Midwest and important states are reporting very thirsty crops. When I was south of Iowa City in early June the lawns were all brown.
Drought Proofing Crops
I mentioned a number of things that could be done pre-season or in-season to protect against droughty conditions. These include: maximize moisture infiltration into the soil; build soil microbe populations as the microbial bodies and extra OM hold more moisture; pay attention to root architecture by choosing genetic families with both broad and deep penetrating roots; inoculate with and support mycorrhizal fungal populations; use fall and spring tillage to break up shallow and deep compaction while recognizing that all tillage is detrimental to fungal populations; avoid working the ground or planting in soil which are too wet as sidewall compaction limits root growth; maintain high zinc levels in the plants. Those are more natural items. As to in-season foliars the two I know to be dependable are Mainstay Si, which creates 36% greater water use efficiency and the product known as BioEnsure/Heat Shield/Protect Plus which inoculates plants with a Trichoderma fungus that imparts heat and drought tolerance into all plants. One well known corn grower in North Central Iowa has been applying the BioEnsure to corn while the drought was occurring and seeing yield increases in excess of 50Bu/A.
Weed Admonitions
The weed scientists and good ole boys from the Delta states spoke of the year when they had to change their thinking and manage weeds differently because they were getting out of control. The Penn State specialists said we will reach a point when the answers will be management steps that were beyond that of using new tank mixes. I have been scouting a number of fields where the beans were either planted into standing oats or rye or into heavy corn stalk residue where a high % of the seeds never germinated. So far, those fields look good. Will that work in years with very dry soils in the fall or spring?
Another evolving problem expected to enlarge this year is that most weeds if confronted by hot and dry conditions will develop thicker cuticles which any sprays will have a tough time penetrating. We know that the older ‘Burner’ herbicides if heated up by adding AMS and Crop oils would also burn the leaves off the crops plus off the weeds, thus allowing the active to fall on the ground without the AIs penetrating into the weed body. Explore the new surfactants and oils available by different countries. I have liked the Spraytec oils as the company teaches that a slow kill that does not burn the leaves is the best way to kill the weed dead.
Dicamba, Rup and Atmospheric Loading
When the RR crops and then the Dicamba tolerant beans began to grow in popularity and I reread the results of the research project done by Rich Behrens and Bill Lutschens at the Owatonna U of MN research station. They were testing and measuring the ability of the herbicide to move with both particle drift and air inversions. I began to wonder what the states, towns and farms would look like if a high % of their trees were dead. That is no longer a fear. Instead, it is becoming aa reality and more pronounced by 2023 as the trees have increased in susceptibility to insect attack as their immune systems have been attacked.
Are there any feasible answers to this die off? The ash tree recommendations by dendrologists include using ivermectin analogs in early thru late season and synthetic neonicotines early season. As to recover from Dicamba damage application of specific amino acid chelated minerals will do wonders.
Rootworm Scouting and Damage
Insects with their many generations per year and their ability to multiply quickly have proven capable of defeating or becoming resistant to planting time insecticides, several foliar insecticides, most traits and so on. With the expectations that mRNA will last for a short time research entomologists and biochemists will have to work in a few areas to help with the problem. There is one Australian company which has an arsenal they would like to try here, but EPA doesn’t seem to get moving on to grant approval. There are also several biological products which hold promise and again EPA moves every so slowly on them.
Since the 2014 growing season we have been using a mineral and fermentation product to keeps plant healthy and boost yields by 90+ Bu/A if Goss’s symptoms are present. Now that bacterial disease showed up with greater incidence in 2022 in most Midwest States. Its range no includes Mn, S. Dak and N Dak. After seeing how quickly amino acid chelated minerals moved into and thru plants I played a strong hunch and had those latter products with the fermentation product and gained near 100% on tar spot. It takes three months to have the biochemist make the product. If anyone reading this letter is dreading Tar Spot costing them many bushels, I know the mix will give great results if the correct applications are made early enough.
If the current dry conditions continue any bushels a person can produce should command a good price. It is too early to have a strong weather market by June 20th, but it may be starting already.
Bob Streit is an independent crop consultant and columnist for Farm News. He can be reached at (515) 709-0143 or www.CentralIowaAg.com.