Planter tips for successful crop establishment
Welcome to Strategic Farming Field Notes. Today we'll be talking about basically planter equipment and then also what's going on the agronomic side of things for especially corn, but early in planting season here as well. These sessions are brought to you by University of Minnesota Extension with generous support from Minnesota farm families through the Minnesota Soybean Research Promotion Council as well as the Minnesota Corn Research Promotion Council. So I'm Anthony Hanson. I'm a regional educator in Integrated Pest Management for your moderator today.
Anthony Hanson:And today we are welcoming Matt Pfarr. He is another regional educator on the crops team. And then Jeff Coulter, our Extension Corn Agronomist as well. So with that, Matt, we're going to start off with you and I'm going to give you kind of the question that everyone asks about what's going on with the weather and how is that affecting basically what's going on with our planting right now to give us a little status update.
Matt Pfarr:Really a pleasure to join FieldNotes for the first time. For those of you that haven't met yet, I joined Extension last November. I have a background in agronomy from the University of Minnesota, worked in private industry for a number of years. I've farmed on our family farm in Sibley County since a young age, so bringing some of that experience today. In fact, I've got a few cough drops close by because I feel like I've been eating my share of talc graphite dust even through the respirator, so we're, we're we're hard at planting across the region with this weather window we've been we've been having.
Matt Pfarr:If we go back to last fall, Anthony, it was quite dry. Remember that? You know, we had we had, flooding conditions in early summer of twenty twenty four in a lot of the region, then we really dried out 10 the year. And so I don't think fall tillage or primary tillage gave us much compaction, but we certainly have a fine layer of dust on everything this spring, and I think that's adding a little bit to this this cold April that we just got through, know, our nights were 10 degrees below average. We're just starting to see soil temperatures get into the upper 50s at that two inch seed furrow zone.
Matt Pfarr:And so we just have to deal with a lot of those things as conditions change quickly here to begin May and we really want to get our crop planted.
Anthony Hanson:So this is kind of related to the weather question too. I know. Yeah, you're more kind of Southeastern Minnesota where you farm that neck of the woods. I'm out in Western Minnesota. So what have you heard just differences across the state for what's going on right now in terms of either tillage issues or things are running into with planting?
Matt Pfarr:Yeah, it's a variable rain in June was kind of the weather story right along the Minnesota River Valley, we had up to four inches in mid April there. So that shut down kind of the hopes of an early April planting. The areas to the west, I mean, even we don't have to go too much far west to Western Sibley and Renville County, and they were planting the day after, that April 16 rain. So a lot of folks I think are getting closer to wrapping up or putting in the last soybeans, more south central here. There's pockets where we've had a good rain delay.
Matt Pfarr:Everyone's rested up and ready to go again and and get a lot of crop planted in this next week. I would say from standpoint, there's plenty of, cold conditions have have left some mud or muck down there. If we get that cultivator going, we just have to remember, it's a leveling pass. Those shovels are not to be going too deep into the profile and pulling up a lot of mud that's gonna dry out our profile, gives give us some soil clouds that we have to work with with the planter. Where we can get a little more aggressive in the cultivation is a spring tooth harrow.
Matt Pfarr:I usually like to drop that as far as I can before I start to bunch up residue, you know, and make mom and dad unhappy there. But that's really where I get more aggressive, really spreading out the residue on the surface where I can clean it off with the planter. So that's a couple things just to prepare. I know I've been asked to talk more about planter setup and configuration today. So, I think that's a nice lead in.
Matt Pfarr:When we think of our row unit traveling through the field on our planter, our row cleaners are really just tickling the surface enough to get rid of any residue or minor clotting. I've seen, you know, and you can adjust that as you're going in a lot of these modern planters, how aggressive is your floating row cleaner. If we really start to do tillage with the row cleaner, we've sort of gotten rid of that nice couple inches of fluff that we we established with our cultivator and now we're back into kind of a muddy soil profile. So, that's going to lead to other issues like sidewall compaction and things that Jeff can speak to agronomically but that's just the first thing to think about when our planters going through the field is how aggressive are our row cleaners to get to appropriate seeding depth and maintain, you know, are we hitting that hard pan where that seed's going to get water and start to germinate in a good fashion. Moving right along, I really don't have a ton of time here on the podcast.
Matt Pfarr:I want to take some questions, so let's think more about seed opening discs as well as, gauge wheels. I mean those are the two rock stars, right, of the planting unit. So when we think of seed disc openers, this isn't gonna make me very popular with my friends at, let's say, the, the dealership, but about half of those OEM seed disc openers might need to go back to the store when they're bought. I know that that's coming from some of the more fussy growers that I interact with, but one way you can check for a seed disc trueness is just to use your bench vise that you have in the shop and put a five eighths inch bolt or whatever goes through the center of that c disc bearing, and then use a 90 degree carpenter's framing square to position along the edge of that c disc as it turns perpendicular. So you'll be able to see is that c disc writing true.
Matt Pfarr:Not always do we have that press center bearing in the disc really true to the direction of travel or even even completely centered within the disc. It's also your chance to make sure that that disc was formed correctly and the, the edge is free from blemishes. Okay? So that we do that because it really helps with the next step, which is setting the seed disc openers on the planting unit. We know that though we should have a contact period where we're actually slicing and creating that furrow and that true trenching, And then with the three millimeter blade, that should be two to two and half inches of contact.
Matt Pfarr:And I know the way I like to do this is to use a business card and to make sure that I'm, you know, making contact on both sides of the touch of the C disc openers. And then, you know, go back to your OEM specifications on how much overlap you should have there. I would usually check-in three places, and the other caveat here is, you know, you can get three, three millimeter thickness seed disc opener blades up to four millimeter seed disc opener blades. Those thicker blades will wear slower, but they may not create a wide enough furrow for even seed placement at the true bottom of the furrow, right? And so if we, we really want to maintain even seed placement in terms of planting depth, that's going help us a lot with evenness of emergence.
Matt Pfarr:Moving right along, as you're getting use in years out of your seed disc openers, we need to make sure to adjust those every year. There are shims or washers that will allow you to kind of bring those closer together. Once you get half an inch below the original diameter of those openers, it's time to replace. I think this is one of the best return on investments in your entire farming operation to replace your seed disc openers once they wear out. Of course, we can lose diameter over time.
Matt Pfarr:We'll also kind of have a dull edge or the impact of a damaged edge if we hit that rock just right. We can get a little crinkle in our disc opener. So we want to make sure we have a really true cut and for our furrow, and that's really gonna gonna give us a lot of dividends. And then moving right along to gauge wheels. I call those, you know, the second most important part of the planner.
Matt Pfarr:They have an inner lip and that convex shape for less drag along the soil surface. Standard gauge wheel tires are about four and a half inches. People are aware we can go to a narrower width on those gauge wheel tires and maybe in in less residue riding and lower tillage situations, or if we're trying to plant soybeans into cornstalk rows and get really close to that row, you can save some space with narrower gauge wheels. Now from the standard of a gauge wheel, they need to fit really well for the disc opener when they're riding, when the planter is in ground. So, you know, there needs to be no wear and any bushings and bearings in the gauge wheel arms and connection points so that we have a really true, flush contact with the the seed disc openers.
Matt Pfarr:Also, those gauge wheels when they have that good contact, they're not only holding soil down that the disc opener might actually bring up, they're gonna press right into that furrow, and what they're doing is pressing up water for the seed. And so that's the all important thing is seed to soil contact. I like to also say seed to soil to water contact. And then of course, this is where we're getting that pressure or margin, which is basically the scale, what the scale weight would say on those gauge wheels to the ground, to bring up some water and get that press on the soil. So if we have too light of a press, we don't really have a good furrow.
Matt Pfarr:We're not gonna have enough water and evenness in the where the seeds contacting. And if we go too heavy, we're gonna have a really strong furrow wall or compaction, and then that's just gonna slow us down for rooting and and so forth and establishment throughout the season. So, adjust to crop conditions. You know, there's this early planting concept right now in heavier soils where it's wet. You don't want to press too much on your margin on the gauge wheels.
Matt Pfarr:And then the opposite kind of mental exercise is if you're planting sweet corn in early July, you can really press as hard as you want because the soil profile is fairly dry at that point typically, and you really need to press, you know, almost a couple hundred pounds of margin to get up water next to those gauge wheels and for the seed. So I always tell growers dig around between your gauge wheels and your closing system or tie up your closing system for a test run. You'll really be able to seal, see what you're doing there in your furrow. So my takeaway from the introduction here, the most important part of crop seeding, the evenness of emergence and really maintaining genetic potential of our seed is controlled by your seed disc openers and gauge wheels. And I've already been getting texts this morning about our planter and some computer and electronic gremlins, so if we get the hardware piece of this right, you have more time to focus on those fun in season issues that we're dealing with with these modern planters with all the technology on them.
Matt Pfarr:So I'll take any questions, Anthony. Hopefully I hit that on the head there. My contact information is on the extension website. I'm happy to talk more about planter technology and what we're kind of doing on our own farm.
Anthony Hanson:Yeah, and I forgot to ask Matt, what regional office are you based out of just so folks know kind of what region you cover?
Matt Pfarr:Mankato, it's a great office. We have a mix of regional extension professionals there, and I sit right next to a Brad Carlson there on nitrogen management water soil team.
Anthony Hanson:All right, I got two quick questions for you before we head over to Jeff. First one, I was just thinking about what different soil types and people are dealing with say sandier ground. I just was thinking through my head is like, well, I suppose there's maybe more wear on sandier ground, not just rocky ground. Just any thoughts on kind of different soil types and how that might affect your either equipment management or some preventative things that might pop into your head depending on what type of soils people are on?
Matt Pfarr:I would say sanding soils are fairly forgiving and the less clay you have, the less I worry about compaction and the more I think about water uptake. So, first of all, I'm going to press higher margin on those gauge wheels when I'm planting in a lighter soil field like that. I'm also thinking yes about wear, you know, it's a dry sandy gritty surface, you're going have more friction, you might need to replace your disc openers, your gauge wheel tires a little more often, check for wear. Maybe you're only getting three years out of those disc openers instead of four or five. So those sorts of things definitely will impact.
Matt Pfarr:And again, those same fields though, whether they're light or heavy soil, it changes day by day this time of year on how much we should be pressing, what's going on, how well did that cultivator pass work. So being adaptable in this business is definitely the way to go and liking to get behind the planner and do a little digging while you're out there.
Anthony Hanson:Alright. And one quick last question here. You mentioned, you know, graphite a bit, so it's kind of leading into the question of, you know, your seed meter units and, any quick last minute things you wanna mention there before we move on?
Matt Pfarr:Absolutely. Don't try to breathe it in. That's my quick point on that. But I I like the eighty twenty. It's available from lots of different manufacturers.
Matt Pfarr:That's 80% talc, 20% graphite. The modern meter with the pneumatic system is prone to a couple of things. One would be the seed not slipping and flowing fast enough by, and if we also have friction, we might lose some of our seed treatment on that corn, soybean, or other seed, and we don't want to lose that through the fans with that pressure system. So, less friction, less rubbing off of the seed treatment, and then just more maintenance of that active ingredient that we we need to get in the ground for a lot of agronomic and environmental reasons. If we have higher humidity conditions, Anthony, we can go to a seventy thirty mix.
Matt Pfarr:So, we're getting that 30% graphite or just add some graphite, straight graphite to the eighty twenty that you have on hand. You know, usually we get a few buckets of that for the season. That's going to really help in high humidity conditions to keep that seed dry and keep those meters functioning appropriately.
Anthony Hanson:All right, thanks Matt. I think we're going to move on over to Jeff Coulter, our Extension Corn Agronomist here. Matt will keep you on for a bit just in case we have other questions come up. Jeff, great to have you on again this year and just kind of start you off here. What have you been hearing about planting progress and how things are looking in terms of what the corn crop is starting off to be in the state?
Jeff Coulter:Yeah, growers have made pretty good progress. As of Sunday, according to the USDA NASS, I think it was like 44% of Minnesota's corn was in the ground, but you know, regionally it it varies a lot. You know, some places out in Western Minnesota, the farmers are all done with corn and they're working on finishing up soybeans. Other areas that have received some more of the rains, you know, maybe they're 60% done with their corn right now. But with the dry spell that we see in the forecast for the next several days, I think it looks very favorable for many growers finishing up both corn and soybean before the next rain event.
Jeff Coulter:So that's very optimistic.
Anthony Hanson:Yeah, and I guess talking about windows a little bit, this is just my pest plug, but just remember, seed corn maggot that window is lining up pretty good with about this week as well. So maybe a little higher risk for some folks if you have a field history of that. So my question, thinking about weather a little bit more too, especially Western Minnesota, we're a bit drier. So do want to talk a little bit about what are the needs of that seed and seedling initially for things that just been planted recently if you're in somewhat drier soils haven't got much rain is there enough subsoil moisture how much do we need to worry about moisture with those corn seedlings right now across the state?
Jeff Coulter:Yeah, so, the corn seeds need to imbibe 50% of their weight for in moisture for germination to occur. Generally that's not a big issue in the spring. We typically have in Minnesota enough moisture for germination to occur. The issue is when we have uneven emergence and that can result from a number of factors. Things such as inadequate seed soil contact, dry cloudy soil surface, compaction, crusting, that type of thing.
Jeff Coulter:So anything that's inhibiting uniform and consistent soil moisture around the seed is going to lead to some of that uneven emergence. Typically we want to see all of our plants emerging around the same time, which would be kind of a three to four day window for having all the plants emerging. That would be considered ideal. If we come back after emergence and see that some plants are one leaf stage behind their neighboring plants, those plants that are behind are only going to yield about 80% of normal. But the neighboring plants are going to able to compensate a little bit, but it's not nearly enough to pick up the yield loss on those late emerging plants.
Jeff Coulter:In comparison, if we have a plant that emerges two leaf stages behind, then that plant that emerges late, it's gonna have 50% of its normal yield, and the neighboring plants are again gonna compensate a little bit, but not nearly enough to to take care of that. So whatever we can do to try to get most of the plants emerging within three to four days of each other is, you know, basically what we're trying to do here, with corn production and and that's going to maximize our yield potential. So, you know, we we can think of a lot of things that we want to try to do, to get that even emergence. You know, the most important is making sure that all the seeds are placed in adequate and uniform soil moisture. And if we have clods due to tillage when the soil was too wet, that's going to result in air pockets around the seed.
Jeff Coulter:That's going to inhibit the inhibition fast and uniform inhibition of water from the soil to the seed because we've got air pockets in there that are slowing it down. So those are some things that we want to kind of, watch out for. You know, I've been talking to some people that are out in Western Minnesota and, you know, they say it's quite dry. In addition, you know, since we've just planted, a lot of the fields don't have a lot of residue on them. And, for fields that don't have a lot of residue on them, and that are dry, you know, once that wind picks up, that soil is probably gonna move.
Jeff Coulter:And, when that happens, we can expect some of the seedlings to, be cut off from blowing, soil particles. That's something that we we face year in, year out. In addition, when we don't have a lot of residue coverage on the soil surface and it's dry like this, if we get, some heavy rains, that can lead to crusting. So, those are a couple things we want to watch out for. If we have seedlings that are cut off at the soil surface, they just grow back, but the problem with that is that it causes this unevenness in the stand in some cases.
Jeff Coulter:And, when we have that crusting occurring from that heavy rain on that soil that doesn't have a lot of residue coverage on the top of it, then we can get that crust and that's something that we want to be looking out at and you know if needed we may have to take a rotary hoe out there to break that up.
Anthony Hanson:And Jeff, I know it's a complicated subject dealing with that crusting sometimes and kind of what's the prognosis if you do have crusting and you take rotary hole out there, how much corn are you potentially damaging or how much do you actually have for functional emergence afterwards? Is it somewhat reliable or is it pretty hit or miss depending on the field?
Jeff Coulter:Yeah, so if you've got a crust out there and it's it's pretty severe, you know you take the rotary hoe out there you can pretty much pull up two to 3,000 plants per acre. You can increase your stand by two to 3,000 plants per acre typically just by the rotary hoeing. Now you're gonna lose a few, but, generally the benefit almost always outweighs the loss. So, know, the rotary hoe it's good to be ready to go and be on top of it and not behind when it comes to getting that done.
Anthony Hanson:Alright, how about soil temperatures? How are things looking there? I assume for most of the state unless you're in really wet low ground we're not worried about cold temperatures too much in terms of soil temperatures?
Jeff Coulter:No, at this point you know it's just get the crop in the ground and it's warm out so I think that's we don't have anything to worry there. You know, looking back at the planting season, there were a few nights, maybe three nights where it got down to slightly above above freezing for air temperature. So that would have pulled that, two inch soil temp down a little bit, but I think for the most part we don't have much to worry about and I think things should be good. There is a possibility that maybe, you know, people who plant on one particular date for example may have some risk of some emergence problems in some areas, but I think that's pretty minimal overall. So definitely good to be out there and looking at your your stands as they're emerging and make sure that everything's okay because if we need to replant it's it's important to get that done sooner rather than later.
Anthony Hanson:And that's maybe a good transition point a little bit too for another question. If someone is delayed in planting or if they have to replant, do you want to remind folks what's the window for corn in the state in terms of planting date and potential yield. So are we kind of getting to that point where it's going to start losing yield a little bit now?
Jeff Coulter:Yeah, so I think at this point we don't really have much to worry about. Typically the general guideline is once we get to about May 10, the yield potential of corn starts to decline, but that fluctuates based on the year. You know, we've had some warm weather recently, so now things are starting to grow out there. We're starting to see, you know, the leaves on the trees are getting bigger, the grass is starting to grow, and we're accumulating growing degree days now. So the more growing degree days that we lose due to delayed planting, the greater likelihood of some yield decline due to the delayed planting.
Jeff Coulter:But based on the forecasted dry weather that we have ahead of us, I don't think we need to worry much at all about delayed planting. I think it's just about getting the crop in as we can and doing it in good soil conditions. And I think things will just kind of take care of themselves for that.
Anthony Hanson:Yeah, just also related to weather a bit, I know later out there some forecasts later in May talking we might be getting some heavier rain but know that's the long term forecast too. So I guess any just general thoughts and advice of what to look forward to in the rest of May in terms of potential weather and how that might be affecting the crop?
Jeff Coulter:Yeah, I guess it's that's a little ways out there. You know I would say it was pretty dry last fall. It's been kind of a dry spring for the most part. When we look at kind of what the NOAA is predicting for their precipitation and air temperature outlook, they're leaning for below normal precip for the month of May and above normal air temperature for the month of May throughout the state. And for their seasonal forecast, is basically most of the growing season, they're looking for below normal precip only in Western Minnesota.
Jeff Coulter:For the the Eastern And Central Part of Minnesota, they're looking at about a a normal, precipitation amount expectation. And for air temperature, they're looking for pretty much normal air temperatures for throughout the the state. So looks like a little bit warmer and drier May than normal, especially in Western Minnesota and but then for the rest of the growing season, their outlook is, kind of neutral. So I guess, you know, based on how dry it's been, especially in Western Minnesota, we're going to need some timely rains to get us through, and avoid some of that, temporary drought stress that can occur. And if we don't have some of the timely rains, we may see some temporary drought stress occurring in, you know, the mid to late vegetative stages, which could be, you know, around the July 4 and beyond.
Anthony Hanson:All right, I have one more question for you Jeff here, unless we have some other ones come in from any of the audience listeners here. So I know just talking about corn in general is kind of moving further north into Minnesota. So I guess any comments on how things are looking in terms of the agronomics of corn production in the northern half of the state where we maybe didn't see it as much before, especially as you get further north closer to maybe Moorhead Crookston area, seeing a few more acres of corn here or there. Kind of anything to talk about for that group of folks that you know maybe they're a little no further behind in degree days there so might have a little bit of a lag effect there potentially but anything else just in terms of genetics agronomics going on in general for that part of the state?
Jeff Coulter:Yeah, generally not much differs as we move further north for growing corn. You know the big thing is the weather so it's it's going to be a little cooler, the crop's going be a little bit behind compared to that in the southern part of the state, but you know we can achieve good yields in Northern Minnesota easily 200 bushels an acre if we have a full good growing conditions. Typically what we see though sometimes in Northwest Minnesota is, we see this late season drought it tends to be a little drier there than it does in the rest of Minnesota. And, also we can see that the growing season can kind of, in some years, come to an abrupt close. And that can be devastating if we have a hard freeze, say when the corn is not mature and is still got some milk in the seed yet.
Jeff Coulter:So that happens occasionally and that can be very devastating. But if we can have a full growing season, we can do excellent. So my suggestions would be, you know, if you're in the Northern Part of Minnesota and you're growing corn, be careful not to push the relative maturity too far. You know, we want to pick something that we can, make sure that we can get in the ground and have that mature before harvest. And the other thing with Northwest Minnesota is oftentimes we're faced with significant planting delays due to wet soils.
Jeff Coulter:So we have a potential for a shorter growing season combined with a potential for later planting. So we need to be careful not to push the relative maturities too much and try to pick something that has a good likelihood of making it to maturity before harvest.
Anthony Hanson:All right, thank you Jeff. We did have one question come in. It's actually related to more of the weed management side of things. So I think that's a good segue to mention that next week we actually will be talking about that very topic. So if you want to hold that question for a week, that'd be great.
Anthony Hanson:So we'll be having two folks on next week. That'll be Deblin Sarongi and Ryan Miller. They will be talking about early season weed control and dry soil conditions, how that might affect especially pre applied herbicides. So with that, I would like to thank both the University of Minnesota Extension for basically helping organize this field notes session and all the ones we have this season, and our sponsors for this Minnesota Soybean Research Promotion Council and the Minnesota Corn Research Promotion Council. And hopefully we'll be able to see you next week and have a safe planting season everyone.
Anthony Hanson:So thank you.
