Lessons Learned In Vertical Tillage

In the last 3+ years we have seen an increase in use and interest in vertical tillage tools.  These tools vary widely in angle of the gangs, disk blade types, and horsepower requirements.  In our area we typically see five different models; Landoll VT Plus, Case-IH 330 Turbo, Great Plains Turbo-till, Salford RTS, and the Kuhn-Krause Excelerator.  All of these different tools are set up differently and provide different results on residue cover, soil disturbance, and seed bed leveling. 

In the fall all of these tools can be used effectively to break up residue and bring up soil to help warm up and dry out the soil in the spring.  The straighter angles of the Great Plains and Salford tools will keep the largest amount of residue on the surface and create less soil disturbance.  The thing to remember with the straighter angled tools is the horsepower requirement is often higher due to the weight needed to get the tool to penetrate.  The angled gangs of the Kuhn-Krause, Landoll, and Case IH will provide the least amount of residue on top leading to an increased chance of erosion, but still less than a traditional chisel plow except the concaved blades on the Landoll VT Plus will be very similar to a chisel plow. 

In the spring we have seen a different effect from using vertical tillage.  The straighter angled tools will not provide a seed bed comparable to a finisher or field cultivator.  In my opinion, these tools are merely a fall tool that will break up residue for decomposition and fit in a minimum till operation.  The higher angled tools will provide a similar seed bed to finishers, but will tend to have more smear while not bringing up wet soil.  I have seen two tools in the last two years give unacceptable levels of smear leading to a hard pan just below the depth of planting.  This picture shows just what this did to the plants themselves.  In most cases I can show you the direction of travel from the differences in height and stalk diameter of the corn plants.

So is vertical till a replacement for a soil finisher or field cultivator?  It really depends on the soil types you are working and spring moisture levels.  In our area the straight angled tools are strictly fall tillage and fit very well in minimum till environments that are heavy on corn in the rotation.  The more aggressive tools can be used in spring, but need to be kept out of wet soil entirely.  If you have noticed in the past 3 years manufacturers are pulling back on the depth of tillage as well with these tools.  We have seen the recommendation go from 4" deep in spring and fall to 1.5-2.5" to keep this depth of smear to at planting depth or just above.  With all of the scouting and digging I have done I would say that if you buy a vertical tillage tool you should keep your finisher or field cultivator, and watch soil moisture levels in spring.  I would also consider using floating row cleaners on your corn planter as more residue is likely to be on the soil surface in spring.

If you are buying a vertical tillage tool consider HP requirements, angle of the blades, and disk blade types.  The Landoll VT has been very popular here, but if you look at it next to a disk you would be hard pressed to tell the difference.  At the 2012 Farm Progress Show in Boone, IA John Deere had a very nice demo about the smear layers each tool makes and the soil disturbance.  Although, it was slightly counterproductive as it showed that the John Deere tool left a larger smear layer.

As we see more of these tools in the country we are seeing prices come down.  I think they have a fit, but be careful how you plan to use them.  If you are interested in them I would demo one and do some digging behind the tool in dry soil to see how it affects the soil and if it is fitting the purpose you need.

As always, I would recommend working with someone who knows the differences by digging behind these tools and has independent knowledge on how they handle your specific growing conditions.

RNAi The Next Breakthrough In Agriculture

By now you all know about our current genetically engineered traits in crops.  We call these events, low dose, as in they are not a very high dose of naturally produced insecticide thus resulting in the insects having to eat a fairly large amount of the plant before it will die.  These events work by shutting down an insect's digestion through blocking receptor points in their digestive tract.  These Cry proteins, and more recently Vegetative Insecticidal Proteins were groundbreaking initially, but with over reliance on single traits and abuse of refuge requirements is quickly leading to insect resistance in parts of the Corn Belt. 

The newest form of traits will likely come from a little known or heard of method.  These traits are currently in developmental stages and will hopefully prove more effective than their predecessors.  RNA interference or RNAi is currently being used in the medical field and revolves around a process called gene silencing.

To better understand this you must understand how DNA is turned into proteins every living thing uses to stay alive.  DNA is a string of chemical bases that contain codes for everything from growing organs to what hair color you have.  This sequence is read and copied by RNA and taken using messenger RNA or mRNA to various parts of your cells to code for proteins.  This process is repeated constantly in living organisms. 

RNAi involves blocking these mRNA from getting to where they need to go typically by destroying them.  So if you wanted to kill an insect you would insert this technology into a plant that would silence a specific mRNA in that insect that would lead to it's death.  The other abilities of this technology could be using RNAi in spray solution to shut down the part of plants that would make them resistant to certain herbicides. 

Like I said before, I doubt you have heard much about this technology yet unless you are in the medical field, but  you will likely hear more in the very near future.  It's exciting to see this as insects are becoming tolerant to pesticides, but will potentially slowly, if ever become resistant to RNA pathway obstruction like this. 

Here are some other good sources on information on SmartStax Pro and RNAi:

http://www.genomeweb.com/rnai/monsanto-moves-rnai-based-pest-resistant-corn-final-stage-development

http://www.producer.com/2013/05/rna-interference-technology-could-be-farmings-next-big-thing/

Rain Is Always A Good Thing For Crops Right?

I am often asked this question by non farm people, especially meteorologists.  You often hear the saying from traders, "Rain Makes Grain."  However, this isn't exactly true. . .  

It is true that crops need water to survive and produce grain, but depending on when, how, or how much it rains we can damage crops.  Early season moisture like we have had this year will and did drown out crops, prevented us from planting, and led to increase disease pressure in our fields.  The fact that it continued to rain during the early parts of the season also led to a phenomenon I call "lazy roots."  As young plants grow, if there is plenty of nutrients and water in the top parts of the soil they will not put roots deep as they typically would.  This in turn leads to problems when we get dry in that top few inches of soil.  Plants need water to uptake nutrients, so when the soil moisture content falls the plants cannot take in nutrients and then they will become nutrient deficient also increasing the drought effect. 

Phosphorus and Sulfur Deficiency from wet soil

A wet spring can also hurt us by moving our negatively charged nutrients like phosphate, nitrate, and sulfate through the negatively charged soil making it more difficult to keep them in the top 2' of soil where plants can use them.  We do use products that help keep nitrogen in the more stabil form ammonium which can bind to the negatively charged soil, but you have to put them on before you know how wet the spring will be. 

Potassium Deficiency from shallow roots

 In legume plants like alfalfa and soybeans that make their own nitrogen, wet weather can hamper their growth imensly.  For these plants to get nitrogen they have to form a symbiotic relationship with a bacteria we call rhizobia.  This bacteria takes the nitrogen that makes up nearly 80% of our air and breaks it down into a form that the plant can use.  If soil conditions are too wet there is no air getting to the bacteria to make nitrogen thus making these plants show nitrogen deficiency.

Nodules on alfalfa plants that house rhizobia bacteria

Ok, so if we have a dry spring that's even worse right?  Not really, in 2012 we had the driest start to a spring in 30 years and still ended up with near normal yields in most of my territory.  Part of this is due to a crop saving rain in the end of July, but the main reason we were saved was the water holding properties of our heavy clay soils.  We can handle dry spells early in the season, but at tassel in corn or podfill in soybeans if we don't get rain it can be a very bad thing.

Don't get me wrong, more often than not rain is a good thing.  It's funny how quickly though we can go from not wanting anymore to needing more, this year it took 3 weeks.  So the next time you are complaining about the weather, just imagine if your livelihood relied on it. . .

 Luke Bryan - Rain is a Good Thing

 

Top 10 Preventable Corn Planting Mistakes

With corn there is little error when it comes to planting time.  Any one of these mistakes can cause 5-20 bushel losses on their own and often we see a combination of 3 or 4 in a given field.  I realize the sense of urgency when it is time, but taking time to think through decisions and come up with a plan is critical. 

#10 Working Too Far Ahead of Planter

During planting time we often see ground getting worked up 2-3 days ahead of planting to stay on schedule and focus on other tasks, but this can dry out ground in advance of the planter reducing germination or delaying germination.  You should try to be within 24 hours of the planter.

#9 Trash in the Seed Trench

We are finding more and more that a single coulter is not sufficient to clear heavy trash and it will often pinch residue into the seed trench resulting in seed being place on residue.  Running floating row cleaners where they are running about 50% of the time and just brushing the surface ahead of the row unit is the best setting.

#8 Plowing With Row Cleaners

Setting row cleaners to the point they are constantly running will create a trench water can collect in and will put your seed in soil 1-2" deeper than your intended layer which may be 5 degrees colder. 

#7 Down Force

You fill up your planter with 24 bags of corn, fertilizer, and maybe insecticide and set your down pressure; what happens when all of this is half gone?  You have too little down pressure, and the opposite happens if you set it when the planter is half full.  Updates like the Precision Planting Air Force system have helped this area.

#6 Planting Depth

I often hear that "we put it in shallow so it will come out of the ground faster," and that is something you should never do.  Variations in soil temperature decrease the deeper you go, so that 1.25" planting depth has a harder time coping with a night time low in the 30's compared to 2" deep.

#5 Planting Ahead of a Cold Rain

It's frequently talked about that planting less than 36 hours ahead of a cold rain will harm emergence and lead to more problems than it’s worth.  I know tucking the planter in the shed with good weather seems like a bad idea, but that first water the seed imbibes is critical to its emergence.

#4 Planting Before 50 Degree Soil Temperatures

So the soils at 48 degrees and the air is 60 degrees, but the next 3 days it will fall back to the 40's for a high; this is a scenario we had last year.  Good current weather doesn't mean the soil is up to temperature and if it doesn't improve that seed is sitting there waiting.  The only time I would recommend planting at less than 50 is if you were around 48 and the next 10 days looked warmer than normal and it was late in the planting season.

#3 Planting When it's Too Wet

We get into this discussion with growers when we talk about closing wheels and seed firmers, "what about if the mud sticks to my seed firmers?"  If it's sticking to seed firmers or you are concerned about build up on the gauge wheels it's too wet to plant.  I've seen more poor stands from planting when the conditions are too wet than anything else. 

#2 Hybrid Placement - Maturity Planting

A common problem we run into is when people just take seed and start planting based solely on maturity; late goes in first, etc.  You run a greater risk of yield loss by placing seed in zones it doesn't do well in than  by planting 102 day corn versus a 100 day corn.  Drydown doesn't do anything to hurt your yield; it's just an added cost later on.  I'd rather have a point or two wetter and 20 more bushels of corn any day. 

#1 Not Checking Behind the Planter

I have a customer who religiously checks behind the planter as many as 10 times per field depending on size.  He worries about being "different" but he always notices mistakes before anyone else because of this.  I have the other side of the spectrum, "it worked last year, why worry."  Catching planting mistakes early can mean a lot of yield in the end, and that's the reason we have gone to the 20/20 monitor the last couple years.  Getting a 3-5 second average isn't cutting it anymore.  You can't see what you are doing, so why not have something showing what you are doing.