Martin Family Farms

Mother nature missed us again

Mother nature missed us again this weekend with the rain. After one of the warmest and driest May's on record the corn plants are really starting to show signs of stress. It sounds like we only have one good chance of rain in the next two weeks and that is on Thursday. This week we are finishing up spot spraying some corn fields and mowing ditches and starting to catch up on some paper work which is a never ending job.

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Wind Erosion is something we

Wind Erosion is something we do not see a whole lot of anymore with the
increases in conservation tillage and better management. However with the dry
soil conditions and recently tilled soil the high winds yesterday were taking
some of the topsoil and blowing it away. This picture was taken by one of
our neighbors standing by his no-till soybean field and showing the
conventionally tilled field in the background. This is what all of the
area used to look like on a warm windy spring day when everyone used lots of
tillage methods. A good rain would also help this situation. A lot
of our farms did manage to get some rain last weekend, but some only received a
1/4 inch or less which does not last long on hot windy days. A lot of the
corn plants have already taken the defensive position of “rolling up” in the hot
afternoons. We also did some root digging in the dryer areas this week and
are amazed to find that some of the roots are starting to show symptoms of too
much dry weather. There is a forecast for some rain on Monday so lets keep
our fingers crossed.

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US DROUGHT MONITOR

Soybean planting has pretty much wrapped up in our area this week bringing
an end to the 2012 planting season. This week we have been scouting and
spot spraying some corn fields for weeds and applying some nitrogen to some of
the fields that we still had to cover. The corn is growing really quickly
and our early corn will have the rows closed by the beginning of next
week. We are still very dry though. The yellow spot in Illinois on the
drought index map is exactly where we are. We could really use a rain this
weekend especially if the temperatures are going to get hotter. With the
exception of being abnormally dry we are off to a good start for
2012!

Fasten Your Seatbelt For Today’s USDA Corn Production Forecast | Farmgateblog.com

http://www.farmgateblog.com/article/1596/fasten-your-seatbelt-for-todays-usda-corn-production-forecast

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Soybean planting is now underway

Soybean planting is now underway in our area. Mother Nature has given us another good window of opportunity to get some fieldwork completed. So far all of our corn is emerged and looks great. There has been very little insect pressure and the populations look good with even emergence. With the recent rains we do have some subsoil moisture and most of the field tiles are running again. With a few more days of good weather it looks like we will be able to wrap up with the 2012 planting season.

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Another rain event today in

Another rain event today in out area. Fortunately we have not had a lot of rain but we have had another 1/4 -1/2 inch. Although we would like to get back in the field to finish planting this rain is doing a lot of good to the corn that is planted and emerging. Hopefully next week we can get back to do some field work.

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Once again we have been

Once again we have been blessed with a very timely rain. Most of the farms
over the last five days have had between 1.5”-2.3” that soaked in very
nicely. We are pretty much done with corn planting. We have one field left
that they finished some tile work on last week and needed a rain before we could
plant it. We should be able to do that as soon as it dries up. The focus
will then turn to soybeans which we should be able to complete in 3-4 days of
fieldwork. So far the weed control looks good and the threat of cutworms
has been minimal. The frosted corn has recovered pretty good and it is
hard to tell the frosted plants from the others now. This week we are catching
up on some odd jobs and we are also starting to haul lime for the upcoming
fall. The kids are ready for school to wind down. We have been
having basketball and baseball practice twice a week each and are trying to get
ready for the upcoming summer. It looks pretty busy from here until the
end of July.

This week should bring an

This week should bring an end to our corn planting if all goes well. We still have one farm that we are installing some tile on but that should be done this week if we do not get a lot of rain. Temperatures are still pretty cool and we have had light frost 2 of the last three nights but I think the damage will be minimal if any to the corn that is emerged. This has been one of the nicest springs I have ever experienced from mother nature. It is nice being able to plant on our schedule instead of hers. Maybe she is giving us a break from the past couple of years.

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Well we are back at

Well we are back at it again this week. After a beautiful 1.5" rain last weekend corn planting has resumed. There is another chance for some rain tomorrow but next week looks pretty good which should allow us to put the final touches on the 2012 corn planting. The picture is some of our corn that had some frost damage. It is starting to grow back and will hopefully grow through or break off the dead tissue created by the freeeze.

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