Going Good....

The past several days have brought a lot of harvest progress throughout the area. We are a little over 30% done with our corn and hoping to get some beans cut in the next few days. Corn yields are still in a wide range with the higher rolling ground yielding very well and the dark flat black ground about 30% below average. Overall, I still think we will be about 20% below our 5 year average for final yield. A lot of the soybean reports that I have heard have been very, very good. A lot of 60 BPA soybeans have been cut in the area. This past week we also did our first field of variable rate dry fertilizer application. This looks like it is going to work good. It is just another benefit that technology is providing to us. We are putting the fertilizer where it is needed in the field and not applying to the areas that have adequate levels. Hopefully over time it will allow us to continue to raise the yield averages on our farms.

Comments

[Patrick Kimmis]

Are you using any varible rate on beans or do you just Fert in your corn years? How often do you re-test? Have given it some thought, but just can't believe the extra p and k in the poor spots will pay off, but maybe it does?

[Doug Martin]

This is the first year that we have done vrt dry. We have been raising continuous corn so we are planning on fertilizing every year. Usually do not fertilize ahead of beans unless levels are real low. Not sure if it will work but willing to try on a few farms for a couple of years. We will probably test every 2-4 years depending on the farm.