As we near spring planting, farmers have plenty of planting and management choices to make. From seed varieties to herbicide choices, every spring offers different decisions.
Wheat varieties Faller and Prosper are likely grab the lion's share of acres this year but there are some recent releases I am looking forward to seeing in the field. Agripro's Valda, University of Minnesota's Shelly, West Bred's 9653 and Croplan's 3530 are a few that will be increasing in acres or new to some of my farmers this year. These four varieties really focus on yield first but seem to have higher protein than Faller typically would.
Another idea in wheat we will be trying this year with some farms is the concept of "There is more revenue to be made with fungicide application on the flag leaf versus spraying for head scab." This was a statement presented by University of Minnesota at the Prairie Grains conference last December. Where we are planting moderately resistant (MR) scab rated varieties this will be a practice we will try.
Of course you couldn't go to a meeting this winter without hearing about the new dicamba tolerant soybeans and the regulations that go along with the application of the dicamba product. Yes, there are concerns with using dicamba, and I'm not going to be ignorant to that. However, we have been using dicamba for many years in a less safe formulation along with a lower rate, and we haven't seen as many issues as publicized. There are other herbicide labels that seem as difficult to apply as the new Engenia or Xtendimax may read, but they simply haven't had the publicity that these new dicamba products have received this past winter. What all this dicamba talk has reinforced for me, though, has been the importance of the soil applied product first and the possibility of not even having to use the dicamba product if our pre-emerge program does a solid job against the weeds we are going after. I am more excited about looking at the new soybean varieties the dicamba system and the Liberty system will offer. The Liberty system has been around longer but will certainly see an increase in acres if farmers are hesitant to raising the dicamba beans. Going from Roudup Ready 1 to Roundup Ready 2 we saw an increase in yield, and now going forward with these new genetic traits, I am sure we will see another increase in yield.
Corn yields in 2016 were, in most places, quite good. What 2016 may have taught us is there is more yield potential out in the field than we are planning for, if, of course, the environment is there to promote high yield. I will be pushing yield goals again for 2017 primarily in our zone managed fields. In reviewing some 2016 yields, there are places where farmland is producing 50-70 bushels over our target. 2017 might not be the corn environment 2016 was but if something we can do in management such as fertility or population can help keep some of the 50-70 bushels environment gave us we should try to capture it.
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Editor's note: Mark Huso, of Huso Crop Consulting from Lakota, N.D., is a crop consultant who works with farmers in North Dakota's Nelson, Griggs, Steele, Grand Forks, Walsh and Ramsey counties. He is involved in the production of cereals, canola, corn, edible bean, soybean and sunflower production. Connect with him at husocrop@polarcomm.com or on Twitter at @husocrop.
