Strategic Farming: Field Notes

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Ryan P Miller: So with that, I do want to welcome. we've got Dr. Debalin Sarangi. We've scientists with the University of Minnesota. Welcome Debalin.

Debalin Sarangi: Thank you, Ryan. Thanks for having me.

Ryan P Miller: So he'll be on we got Tom Hober, said a a research scientist. does a lot of weed science work down in in agronomy work down in Wasika at this other research and outreach center

Ryan P Miller: and then we've got Dave Nikolai on who's also been moderating these sessions. But we'll have him talk a little bit about corn and and some of the considerations there with the droughty conditions. And then in the background there, I can see Brad Carlson, we all know is very tuned with nitrogen nitrogen management. I thought so.

Ryan P Miller: We brought them up just in case the discussion heads that way. So

Ryan P Miller: With that, I guess Dublin, maybe we'll start with you to to just kind of

Ryan P Miller: you know, it's been a weird year, for we control from

Ryan P Miller: limited activity to pre emergence herbicides to in our case in Rochester, at that site no activity because of the planning date and total lack of precipitation. but you know, maybe you want to start and and and address some of the things that have been coming to your mind and questions that may have been coming across your desk.

Debalin Sarangi: Yeah, thank you, Ryan. And good morning. Everyone. So yeah, today, we are focusing on this drought situation, and I was constantly talking to our colleagues in different parts in Minnesota

Debalin Sarangi: and like a couple of weeks back, when I was talking to Bruce from Lamberton.

Debalin Sarangi: He was telling that Eastern Minnesota people should understand how it fails when it is dry in western part of Minnesota. So yeah. So we are experiencing a exceptional drought situation. And we do. most of our research out of Rosemont research and Outreach center.

Debalin Sarangi: And I can talk about how it looks like, because I have the data rainfall for the June month, and we got

Debalin Sarangi: close to one inch rain in the whole month, and which is which is 3 inch less than the normal. So in a normal year we'll get about 4 inch rain in whole June, but we got about a inch about an inch. So that's that shows like how dry it is. But last weekend we got

Debalin Sarangi: about a quarter to I don't know. Maybe quarter inch of rain, and that helped our crop, and I checked the crops. It's looking good I mean looking better, I would say, not good looking better.

Debalin Sarangi: But at the same time the water had started emerging again, so due to the dry year. We saw earlier in the May, like by May 15 there were. There was some emergence of water hemp, and after that the emergence really went down. And I was thinking whether they will come back or not, but I knew if there is rain, if there is enough motion in the soil. They will come back

Debalin Sarangi: because our swimming and corn is growing slow, due to this dry weather. They are not closing the canopy soon enough. So I saw this week that small water hemp. It started coming up again.

Debalin Sarangi: and lamps quarter still coming up. So it's like we are end up June. So usually we don't see that much lamps squad or emergence later part of the June. But I'm still seeing lamps. Quarter is emerging. Only cup grass is emerging.

Debalin Sarangi: and I saw wik of grass. He's one of the species that german it through the dry period. I mean there was no new emergence from water hemp or Labs quarters, but uly Cupcra started. keep growing and keep you merging. I saw that

Ryan P Miller: so so, Devlin. A couple of weeks ago I had a couple of discussions with farmers, wondering, you know, it was time to put on a post emergence, herbicide application for slavery. But we're looking at soybeans that

Ryan P Miller: they just at least in this area, look like they were on. Pause. Right? They're growing real actively. And so

Ryan P Miller: there was a lot of questions around. Well, should I go with my whole program, or should I split my program apart? And so we kind of through some talking decided like maybe they would do their their glyphosate application with their volunteer corn

Ryan P Miller: 2 weeks ago, let's say, and I hold back, they happen to be an analyst soybean system, both of these hold back that enlist for later for for the situation where water he might start to merge after we get a little bit of rainfall. And so that's that was the strategy that that we came up with.

Ryan P Miller: Now, what about a grower. you know. Maybe I did my whole load 2 weeks ago. Now, what do I got to think about? As far as you know, some of that water hemp that's gonna emerge. Well, the

Ryan P Miller: prop is going to be a little slow to canopy.

Debalin Sarangi: Yeah. So that definitely depends on what is the stage of your crop, because if you're in the dryer part of the state, and if you got some rent earlier in the May, and you planted your corn or soybean sometimes around that time. So probably you got some activation of your pre.

Debalin Sarangi: but if you are, if you planted your corner. So I mean later, part of the May, which was really dry. probably you had very limited activation of the And

Debalin Sarangi: I hope that you spread your post early enough in that situation to tackle those weeds, because we have some plots that was planted may fifth, and those those plots are still looking great in the from the standpoint of

Debalin Sarangi: priests. But then we have some plots that was planted, maybe 2 weeks after, like around May 20, and Pretty did not get activated, and it was like a really we d plot. And if I go back now to spray some of the posts.

Debalin Sarangi: I think the lamps quarter would be one feet or one and half feet tall, so so I hope the folks who planted later part of the May and did not get enough activation of the Pre. They already sprayed their post. But you still have some options, for example. like

Debalin Sarangi: if you're if you want to spray some kind of clean up treatment for liberty you still have option to spray it until R. One stage of soybean, and like as same like in list one, you can spray through part 2.

Debalin Sarangi: So some residual Harvey side, because I told you the water am started coming up so you can tank mix your treatments like liberty, or enlist one with some kind of residual and that will give you some opportunity for residual control for water. Hemp and example could be warrant.

Debalin Sarangi: It can be sprayed before our 2 stage or full flowering, so you can spray until our one of soybean Our cloak will be slightly earlier. if I'm not mistaken. It's I think, up to v. 5 stage of soybean. So if you're so in past v. 5, and it's close to our one, maybe it's not good choice for you.

Debalin Sarangi: But yeah, there are some group 15 s. that you can still tack makes and get some control of the water ham. Residual control of water. Hem! And just just, I would remind you, if you're using analyst one, or even liberty as a clean up treatment right now.

Debalin Sarangi: be careful. If your water hemp or lamps quarter is tall enough like one feet of 6 80 in. Tall.

Debalin Sarangi: you may not get 100% killed because I saw one picture yesterday. Somebody put it on the twitter from the western part of Minnesota. And definitely he sprayed in list one to water hemp, which is close to one feet tall, and it's not dying, so not necessary. It is registered to at least one or 2 4 d. But it was sprayed when it was too tall.

Debalin Sarangi: So you have to take care of the growing points. How many growing points on that plan!

Ryan P Miller: So first, along those lines, you know, we also have very harsh growing conditions, and weeds are known hard. Not one that comes to mind is is Lamb's quarter in particular, like

Ryan P Miller: when we've got droughty conditions

Ryan P Miller: are there other things to think about? Then, aside from size, if if things have got away from you. What other things are you thinking about to kind of boost your control in those environments where we've got? Maybe we've got a little too tall. And we've got a harsh environment that they've been growing in.

Debalin Sarangi: Yeah. So that's a very good question, Ryan. So you should consider some of the things regarding adjuents, because in a dry and like hot, dry conditions, some of the adjuants can help you to absorb those herbicide inside the plant and so that's kind of bush the herbicide activity.

Debalin Sarangi: and for herbicide, like liberty, consider other factors like you should spray when it is a sunny hot day with some humidity in the environment, because that helps with the liberty, activity, or glucose in it. Activity. So those are definitely a few things you should consider. So just read the label

Debalin Sarangi: and don't escape any kind of adjuants if it is mentioned in the label, because especially like dry and hot conditions those adjuants helps uptaking up those herbicide in the weed.

Ryan P Miller: So something else that comes to mind Dublin, you know, some folks, you know, they're in a list system or a liberty system where they can can use those products. But some folks are gonna be using the ppos in a post emergence situation to control control weeds and

Ryan P Miller: something that comes to mind, or some of those restrictions. Now, as we get later into into into the month both the cut offs as well as some of the carry over concerns, for in particular for mesopen. So that'd be a flex star would be a product to everyone's familiar with. But there are many products that have for mess been in it.

Ryan P Miller: And do folks need to start thinking about making a change and and look at different ppos, if that's what they're planning on.

Debalin Sarangi: Yeah. So this year, I got actually a couple of the pictures from some of our crop consultants and growers. They texted me some of the pictures of soybean and corn injured from last year's herbicide application. So I can tell you. I saw a picture of a stinger or a pro parade injury on soybean

Debalin Sarangi: like last year's clo per lead injury from in this year's soybean. And similarly, I saw some flexter or form of of an injury from last year that carry over to this year's corn. So yes, that's because, you know, last 3 years kind of we are straight into this drought spell.

Debalin Sarangi: and some part of the State got ran some part did not, so I think that is one of the consideration you should keep in mind, and one of my colleagues used to say that if you spray anything in July, that's not a good idea, because there is a high chance of carry over to next crop or next year. So

Debalin Sarangi: definitely consider those things, and I will give you example like

Debalin Sarangi: I saw this year. Somebody send me pictures of clo pirate a stinger injury as well as he said, another picture of some kind of HP. Pd. In Julian, we figured out it is probably callish to or miser try, and from last year.

Debalin Sarangi: But if you consider those 2 herbicides, if you see their half-life, I'm just coming straight from the herbicide handbook, calisto or mizotrine has 15 days of half-life, whereas a clo pilot, your stinger has up to 70 days of half life, so

Debalin Sarangi: still, like we saw some injury from both the herbicides this year in soybean from a crop consultants picture. So I'm just trying to remind you like, if this dry spell continues, if we don't get enough rain in the future. this year, maybe. it's not good idea to spray

Debalin Sarangi: Some of those herbicide like clo parade or form is often in later in the season. especially when we are heading into July.

Ryan P Miller: Yeah. And those those carry over those half-lives. I mean, that's kind of book value. And when we don't have precipitation and biological activity in the soil.

Ryan P Miller: those things kind of tend to drag out when we see see potential more potential for some of those issues. No, exactly, Dave. you know, here's something for you. If if we're switching away from Flex Star because we are getting late. We're concerned about carry over to our corn crap. There are probably a couple of products

Ryan P Miller: that you're familiar with, right blast from the past that we could switch to, if need be. Now these tend to ding up or bronze your beans pretty good, but there are a couple of options.

Dave Nicolai: Well, you know. Certainly the you know the Flex Star has been an issue in Iowa and Minnesota in the past. probably will can continue to be another. There's reports in the Red River Valley of of Carry over as well from last year when it's dry.

Dave Nicolai: But you know the the all the standby's, the the acid floor fan, or the blazers the cobra's. I think those are the things you're referring to, Ryan.

Dave Nicolai: probably might have a I have a fit. I think you have to look at all of these labels. So when it comes to their gross states on savings, because we've already got sorry beans that are are starting to bloom Dublin, you know, and becoming our one we've we've switched over the you know, summer Sol to here. We're at the point, obviously, where these are going to get

Dave Nicolai: a little shorter. So that's triggered that so That has an effect to when what you can apply and what you can't, because you're having a portion of that field that's already going to be in our one

Ryan P Miller: good point, Dave. I so, Tom, what's been your observations there from Wasika is we had a little bit further to the west and south. I know you guys have had a little bit more pre sip. But I it's been a a weird year, I I think, for for everybody, and and have seen some unique observations as far as weeds and things.

Tom Hoverstad: Yes, it has been a really peculiar year. the rainfall's been the big story, you know. We we were doing fine until about the fifth of May, and then we had

Tom Hoverstad: somewhere between 7 and 9 inches of rain, and about 10 days pretty much across the whole southern part of the State. Now that

Dave Nicolai: that led to some ponding, much more re-planning than I've seen in 40 some years of doing agronomy work in this part of the State so.

Tom Hoverstad: and led to some challenges. Even when we got back out, some people pushed a little bit to plant it in some what conditions. And then it turned hot and dry. And

Tom Hoverstad: now we've seen a lot of things like Dublin mentioned that I think there's potential even for some of that cliper lid, when the soybeans are trying to do everything in the top

Tom Hoverstad: couple inches of soil, and maybe the concentrations are a little too strong and as hot and dry, and everything's coming from the soil surface.

Tom Hoverstad: Mother Nature did quite a bit for us, and the small-seated broadle of weeds. they didn't really come that top quarter inch of soil. It was very dry, so I haven't seen a lot of lambs, quarters, fox tales been less of an issue.

Tom Hoverstad: I think Devlin mentioned woolly cup grass. He's seeing barnyard grass. Those are things that come in warmer seasons like this, and I'm I'm a little worried about that. The one thing I think is is has potential to get ugly is water hemp Soybeans

Tom Hoverstad: are short. They're not growing like normal, and you mentioned they are flowering. That's that's sort of a day length thing, it really it doesn't really matter how tall they are.

Tom Hoverstad: If water hemp has a canopy, and we do get the right conditions, it will. It will rear its ugly heads. So pay attention to the what we can do with some residuals on this crop this time here, and someone also mentioned that

Tom Hoverstad: both from next year's standpoint and this year's standpoint. not very many good things happen when we start spring. So it means for weeds in July. So we're getting right up there.

Tom Hoverstad: Some of those big lamb's quarters. What can you do? Well, some people might have their old cultivators. That might be a a tool that comes into play this year when when the sweeping canopy isn't doing its job.

Tom Hoverstad: that's something we can think about. So we picked up a nice in terrain. Corn is starting to use some of that deeper soil moisture. I think most of the southern part of the State. There there is a decent.

Tom Hoverstad: We have good water, holding capacity soils, and if we can get enough rain to where the crop can utilize some of that

Ryan P Miller: we'll be fine, and I, I, Minnesota, crop news, put an excellent piece out on early season drone. I think people should steer towards that and read that. I think you'll you'll learn a lot, and we'll put that in the links that'll come near the end of the presentations or or the discussion here today. one thing I want to mention is the the amount of

Ryan P Miller: Hpbd injury I saw in corn, and where we had multiple hybrids planet. There appeared to be some differentiation in in how well

Ryan P Miller: corn hybrids could handle some of those products. in particular, we have a little trial we're doing with the Dean Melvich on some fun to side things, and

Ryan P Miller: 2 different hybrids in there, and I used a a product in there.

Ryan P Miller: early post at the full strength. I won't name names because I, you know.

Ryan P Miller: typically don't see this. But we we did see

Ryan P Miller: source differential response. And I know a number of growers in the area that did see some of the same things in particular, where they charged up their booms, they'd see some pretty extensive bleaching and and injury to to the corn crop anywhere where they overlapped. And and I would. I'm kind of putting point my finger at the the lack of moisture. And this, you know, kind of the challenge of a

Ryan P Miller: to grow and metabolize the product. Just kind of throw that out there, because there were no insecticides involved. There was not an organoposphate that would have caused

Dave Nicolai: that sort of thing to happen. So you know, one thing I wanted just to mention with Tom, you had the field day the other day at was Sika, and you were some replant in the area, you know, because of flooding and or crusting over, and that type of thing. But you know some of that corn that. V, 5 to v, 7. And then maybe the Brad can comment on this is you know. Did we have an issue? You know, we have a lot of situations where we have stress on the crop at that. V 5 to 7.

Dave Nicolai: Typically, you know, it's just genetics that affect the number of rows. But you know, if we have severe stress in there or you know, if we had some of those areas, did we have Brad up a a, a lack of end that hurt us earlier on. If these corn reps get.

Dave Nicolai: get down deeper and so forth, or are they? Can they recover?

Brad Carlson: Well, there we did see some some evidence that there was some nitrogen issues not severe. you could just tell that the color of the crop wasn't quite exactly what we'd want. The the rainfall over the weekend help things all awful lot. I was really noticing this morning on my drive into Mankato. How

Brad Carlson: dark the the crop has gotten dark green. The crop has gotten since the rain over the weekend. Remember that the the nitrogen cycle is going to turn that nitrogen into nitrate and nitrate is primarily moving into the plant through water uptake. And so when they most of the nitrogen is up in that top foot of the soil, and the top foot of soil is bone dry. And even though you may not see

Brad Carlson: great drought stress, although we did see quite a bit of drought stress by the end of last week. it's picking up the water from the bottom of the root system where there's not a lot of nitrogen so That could have been something that was affecting, I think. Personally, I I've seen a lot of unevenness and fields that, in my opinion, probably was a lot more related with water availability just simply based on so

Brad Carlson: and landscapes. And so we we know that there's different soils that that hold water. Better have deeper water or water. Tate access to water tables. Other places on the landscape are more drill prone. And so I'm seeing a lot of different a lot of raggedness and unevenness and fields based on that in the last 3 weeks. you know, at this point

Brad Carlson: because of the the weather. Now the warm temperatures. Now there is some moisture, at least in a lot of parts of the state, not everywhere, but most places have decent moisture in the top.

Brad Carlson: This is the time of year. We start seeing a lot of mineralization and nitrogen on a soil organic matter. So provided we continue to have some moisture now on that top 6 inches photo soil I don't anticipate seeing a lot of nitrogen stress visible what you're going to potentially see, though, is, if we had nitrogen issues, loss issues based on

Brad Carlson: what the weather was like earlier in the year. Now those will probably start manifesting themselves in late August. The crop might just simply run short toward the end of the year. frankly, our research has shown that it's it's really ineffective to be applying in season nitrogen in Minnesota, past about v. 10 v. 12. We're kind of there with a lot of the

Brad Carlson: the the fields. And so ultimately, now, there's not a lot you're going to do management wise. It's really more of a case of paying attention to this and deciding. if there's any lessons to be learned, as far as what you're going to do next year.

Brad Carlson: you know, we know that there's been a lot of trend towards side dress nitrogen the last decade or so we've had a couple of years where it was really challenging to get out in the field because of it being too wet. on a consistent basis. And now this year we had a lot of situations where you could get out there. But producers were calling and saying, it's so dry what's going to happen to it when I put it on

Brad Carlson: So I guess when I talk about other lessons to be learned for the future, you know, that's maybe something to be thinking about is, is, is side dress.

Brad Carlson: really an important part of how you manage nitrogen? If so, then be thinking about ways to minimize the loss. And if it's just one of those things you think well, it's a good thing to do, you know. Maybe be thinking about that, that. Maybe it's putting you at risk to, to not get your nitrogen applied, or to potentially lose it if the weather conditions are unfavorable.

Dave Nicolai: Good points, Brad. So, Dave, you mentioned you know, early season v, five-seven stresses affecting the kernel number around. And and you know, basically affecting, you know, the number number of rows, a lot of that. It's driven by genetics. But, Tom, you're in a period. Now you get this exponential growth on corn correct in in Wasteika. Maybe some of that that's chest high. We get up to that V 12 stage.

Dave Nicolai: Now we're going to be to point where it's the number of you know, kernels in a row. And and there's a lot of things that can happen, Tom, over the years, you know. Then, when we get to that point in terms of of affecting that, that your length through that that role length in there, in this especially getting into July. Correct?

Tom Hoverstad: Yeah, I think now is is when it's starting to determine how many potential kernels is per year. Right? Still, the main overriding thing is what happens at pollination time. And I think there's there's decent moisture now, and the number of potential kernels probably isn't too bad.

Tom Hoverstad: But if we don't get much rain between now and tasling time, that would be. That would be a a critical time for corn, and we're used to that. We don't like to see hot, dry conditions at pollination

Tom Hoverstad: before then. Sometimes that leave rolling, we see isn't really detrimental to corn eels. But

Tom Hoverstad: be nice to pick up some range here. We did get a nice inch that's gonna carry us for at least 10 days now. And I I looked on the map. Rochester Ryan. Sorry you didn't get that hopefully. Maybe tonight you can pick up the storm. I think there's some potential 40%.

Tom Hoverstad: Well, at least something. There's potential there. But I looked at our records at this point. In time we are much better off, and everybody remembers 1988. at least people my age. When you talk about hot dry, they just 1988 comes to the front of their mind, and and we are much better off than we were that year. So

Tom Hoverstad: also, so once we're at the B 12 ish stage, we got a couple of weeks till we hit tassel.

Ryan P Miller: and it's kind of that critical period we need to start picking up some some precipitation and and and along after that we hit those reproductive phases for a couple of weeks. Here, we really really need some rainfall. You're affecting the total biomass here of the leaves and the in the stem here around the

Dave Nicolai: V. 12. And certainly that corn is up there. But I think Devlin was right earlier when we talked about crop canopy. It's if that's the soybeans where suffering situations there, you don't have that shading competition devil and Tom, especially on that late emerging water. Hem! So I think that's something to keep an eye on corn. Yeah, it could probably shade in. But

Ryan P Miller: one thing I just want to call your attention to before we run out of time. Here we do have some upcoming crop and weed management tours both July 6, and Rochester at the site as well as July twelfth, at at Rosemont.

Ryan P Miller: It, Rochester. We're going to expand the discussion a little bit to incorporate some insect topics. We had quite the issues with Army Worm. And so Bruce Potter will be there to discuss some of some of the management concerns we've got around Army warm and cut worm, and some of the things that happen this year, and so

Ryan P Miller: we'll also have Bay yang there. Who's our new corn entomologist? So you get a chance to meet him. we're looking to connect him with some of the growers in that area for work with corn insects, so we'll have a couple of extra things Dublin's graduate students will be down to to talk about some of the work they're doing

Ryan P Miller: with herbicide resistance screening and some of their cover crap thing so and double will be there. So we'll have a a broader discussion. It'll it'll be weed management. But some of the things that play along with weed. So it should be a good time. And looking forward to that.

Debalin Sarangi: And thank you, Ryan and J July twelfth Wednesday. It will be at Rosebound research and Outreach Center. And we'll talk about the only like it will be specifically focusing on the weed management.

Debalin Sarangi: But we'll talk about some of the new herbicide compounds, and then we'll talk about some of the weed biology work that we are doing in the water hemp and jant ragweed, and we'll show you some trials that will show weed management in a soybean system.

Debalin Sarangi: So yeah, there'll be some interesting topic. And also we'll discuss some pros and cons of growing cover crop cereal right cover crop in a year like this, because this is a unique year. And yeah, the termination timing was really crucial, but at the same time we have to weigh the

Debalin Sarangi: way, the pros and cons of growing cereal right cover crops specially year, like 2,023. So yeah, I think those 2 field days will be really exciting, and I'll be there in both of the field days. So if you have time, please try to be there, and I think last week we already sent out and Minnesota crop

Debalin Sarangi: news article about Rochester Field Day July sixth, and then today. Then another crop news article is going out regarding Rosemont Field Day, that is, on July 12, and I think both of the field days will be in the morning or so from 8 30 to noon. So yeah, please, if you can make it, please try to be there

Ryan P Miller: in following the the Rochester day we will have small grains tour up at the Loller farm with the oakum wears ma, so that'll be after the We management test management kinda tour down at Rochester. So

Ryan P Miller: thanks again to our sponsors, Minnesota corn and soybean thanks. So much for helping bring this out there, thanks to the guests that we're on today to help kind of facilitate this discussion without you, this wouldn't be possible. So thanks, guys.

Ryan P Miller: And with that, we're gonna call it a rap.