cq perspectives mar 2011
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8/4/2019 CQ Perspectives Mar 2011
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OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF CROP QUEST AGRONOMIC SERVICES, INC
C r o p Q u e s t P e r s p e c t i v e s
®
Volume 21 • Issue 2 • March 201
Continued on Page
Corn and soybean prices should remain high, with some weather-relateductuations, throughout the 2011 growing season. Wheat, especiallyhigh protein winter red wheat, should be in great demand throughout thespring harvest and fall planting seasons, says Rich Pottorff , chief econo-mist with Doane Agriculture Advisory Service.
The competition is on in the Plain States for acreage. Soybean andcorn stocks are at or near record lows and demand is pushing prices
ever upward. Winter ooding and a devastating tsunami have virtuallyeliminated Australia’s hard winter wheat crop and production is down inArgentina and parts of the former Soviet Union.
In the U.S. Pottorff says corn acreage is projected to be up by 3 millionacres. Soybeans are projected to add an additional million acres, pushingup total acreage of the combined grain crops signicantly nationwide.Wheat acres are already high and could go signicantly higher for fall2011 plantings, depending on how the battle for corn and soybean acresends up and whether the strong demand for wheat continues.
All in all, the outlook is outstanding for grain farmers as we headtoward spring planting time.
SEED
“From our sources in the seed business, we don’t see any signicant
shortages in seed supply for corn and soybeans in 2011. There will besome seed for new drought tolerant corn and this seed will be in shortsupply,” Pottorff says.
For growers with no irrigation or limited irrigation water, buyingdrought tolerant seed makes sense, butthere are no indications that these orother seed prices will go up signicantlybetween now (early February) and plant-ing time in the Plains. Growers will havesome time to gure out exactly how manyacres of which crop to plant and makeseed purchases once the planning processis complete, he adds.
Prices for seed are going to be higher in 2011 than they were in “We don’t see any indication that seed prices are going to go downwe move closer to planting time. And, while some varieties in gredemand may go up in price, there is no strong indication that seedprices overall will go much higher between now and planting timehe predicts.
In parts of the lower Midwest cotton acreage may be up signic
and whether seed supply can match demand across the entire CottBelt is less certain. When major seed companies sat down a year athey didn’t expect close to 13 million acres of cotton to be planted
With the high price of commodities, seed prices are not likely tolimiting factor in determining which crops to plant in 2011.
FERTILIZER
Over the past several months, fertilizer costs have gone up signicantly. “In some areas fertilizer for fall application just wasn’t availawasn’t a matter of price, it just simply wasn’t available,” Pottorff say
For spring of 2011 there should be a good supply for farmers. Thohe doesn’t forecast fertilizer prices, Pottorff says, from all the informhe has seen, prices aren’t likely to go down, at least throughout the splanting season.
We will likely plant more corn acres this year than we planted lasand application rates will be up to take advantage of good prices. Sodemand for fertilizer will be strong going into the planting season. Owe get well along in planting, there may be some lessening in dema
“I don’t see any real advantage of waiting to buy fertilizer, but I dsee a real price advantage for buying it now. If you can forward pricsome and not have to store it, then it makes sense to buy now. Or, ifhave storage, you might save a little money by buying it now,” Pottosays.
There is a lot of volatility in the fertilizer market, and it’s hard todict prices. Few people, including me, didn’t see a 50% price increcoming for some fertilizers between last summer and now, he state
Outlook For 2011Crop Is Good
ich Pottorff
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John Hecht, Crop Quest Special
Projects Manager, was awarded the 2010
Consultant of the Year award in Janu-
ary 2011 at the National Association of
Independent Crop Consultants (NAICC)
meeting in San Antonio, TX.
Hecht currently consults with the
Navajo Agriculture Projects Inc. (NAPI)
in New Mexico, the Ute Mountain Farm
in Colorado, and Green River Farms in
Utah in addition to managing projects
in the Roswell, NM, and San Antonio,
TX, areas. He has been instrumental in
incorporating Veris® and GreenSeeker®
Technology within Crop Quest’s Preci-
sion Ag Services. Crop Quest appreciates
Hecht’s 31 years of agronomic service
and congratulates him on this honor.
Seed has never been so valuable – whether going into the soil orthe crop coming out of it. Because of the high input costs and thehigh value of their crops, it is imperative that farmers take specialmeasures to insure their planting equipment is in top form.
“If farmers spend a little extra time with their planters, it will paydividends as they move along through the growing season,” saysCrop Quest Agronomist Darin Brummer.
Getting an early uniform stand is critical to high yields. “Seedcosts are going to be high and getting seed in the ground just likeyou want them can make a grower a lot of money with the high crop
prices we are seeing now,” he adds.The rst thing to look for on the planter is to be sure
the coulters are sharp enough to cut through the soilresidue. Make sure the coulters and disks are in lineaccurately, otherwise seed placement may be off.
Worn disk openers and worn rubber seals shouldbe replaced to avoid altering seed populations.
“If the planter is out of line a fraction of aninch, it could cost the grower a lot of moneydue to poor stands,” Brummer says. Discopeners should be adjusted together by remov-
ing spacers behind the hubs to obtain 1-3 inches of disc contact.
Most new planter disc openers are 15 inches in diameter with a0.5-inch bevel. When they wear to less than 14 inches in diameter,they should be replaced.
Make sure the planter is level. Changing tires on the tractor orpulling the planter with a different tractor from the prior year canchange the levelness of the planter. Even simple things like changingthe air pressure in tires can affect whether the planter is level,Brummer stresses.
And, make sure gauge-wheel pivots are not worn to the pointthey ex away from disc openers. As gauge-wheel
pivots wear, they pull away from thedisc openers, which need to makea consistent “V.” Worn pivots willadversely alter your seed trenches.
Seed tubes need to be clean and
ensure tube feet are workingproperly. The
ends of theplanter
tube last
a long time and too often growers don’t think about checking them.But, if they are worn, they can alter planting efciency, Brummernotes.
Once planting time comes, Brummer says the rst thing the grow-er needs to do is be sure the tool bar is parallel to soil surface whenplanting. If not, seedbed and seed-to-soil contact will be affected andwill generally reduce the efciency of the whole planting operation.
SPECIAL CARE FOR NO-TILLMany growers have gone to strip till or no-till systems, which mayrequire a little extra planter care before spring planting time. In no-tillelds growers need to be sure the planter has enough down pressure,especially in elds with heavy crop residue. In conventional plant-ing that’s not a big problem, but it can be in no-till elds, Brummerstresses.
Gauge wheels and press wheels need to be set to get seed depths a1.5-2.0 inches deep. If you plant it too shallow, root systems will notdevelop properly and will cause production problems throughout theyear. If you plant too deep, you can obviously have emergence andstand problems, he adds.
Having the planter set up properly is essential to getting correctplant spacing to take maximum advantage of sunlight, to improveyield and to help shade out weed and grass. “Even a one-inch
deviation, in corn for example, can cut yield by three bushels peracre,” Brummer says.
CALIBRATIONMaintenance can be a critical factor in getting seed in the right
place at the right time, but all the maintenance in the world won’tovercome poor calibration of the planter. Some well-proven things toremember about calibration are as follows:
•Forpneumaticplanters(airorvacuum),calculatetheseedweight for each seed by dividing the number of seeds per bagby the weight of the bag. For example, an 80,000 seed bagdivided by 50 lbs. equals 1,600 seeds per lb.
•Fromtheoperationsmanual,identifythecorrectpressure(air or vacuum) for the calculated seed weight. Identify the
correct seed disc (or drum) for the calculated seed weight.From the planter’s operations manual, identify the correcttransmission setting for your desired seeding rate.
•Calibrateactualseeddropwiththeplantertransmission settings and the planter monitor readouts. Do the calibrationat normal planting speeds and seeding rates under as close toeldconditionsaspossible.
During winter, planning meetings with Crop Quest agronomists isa good time to take a few minutes to develop a checklist of thingsto do to insure your planter is ne-tuned, well calibrated and readyto go in the spring.
J o h n He c h t Re c e i v e s Na t i o n a lAg r i c u l t u r e C o n s u l t i n g Awa r d
PLANTER EFFICIENCY KEY WITH
HIGH VALUE CROPS
ARIN BRUMMER
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Taking care of $6 a bushel corn and $14 a bushel soybeans will beessential to recoup the high cost of seed, fertilizer and other crop inputs.Whether it is spraying herbicides, insecticides or fungicides, timingis always a critical issue and having the sprayer ready to go is goodinsurance for making planting and the early growth period of grain gosmoothly.
Crop Quest Precision Ag Specialist Nathan Woydziak says mostgrowers already know what to do, but sometimes a written reminder canhelp jog their memory.
From a technical point of view there are several things that growersneed to remember to do to get their sprayers ready for action:
➢ Typical adjusting and cleaning of tips, lters, lines and tank➢Checking all uids and levels➢Consider replacing all tips at the beginning of the season. Generally
the cost is minimal and will assure getting off to a good start➢Adjusting for ow rate (some monitors may have calibration
wizards to help with this task)➢ If the sprayer is coming out of winter make sure to clean the tank.
You don’t want your winterization liquids to contaminate your rstspray load.
Though visual checking will help growers spot many problems withspray rigs, wiring problems are less likely to be seen and most likely tocause problems when spring planting time comes.
Woydziak says, “It’s a good idea to clean and check the wiring – alittle bit of prevention can help avoid messing with a loose connection
when it’s time to be in the eld. When it’s time to put expensiveseed in the ground, timing is much more critical at this point."
Crop Quest Agronomist John Hecht says prior to plant-ing season is a good time to check ALL the nozzles on yoursprayer. It takes time, but will pay off when you get going full
speed later this spring.If you nd any nozzle 5% above or below the aver-
age output of the sprayer, those nozzles should bereplaced, he adds.
A simple thing like a nozzle cleaning brush cansave growers a lot of frustration when the growing
season starts. “You can buy one of those toothbrush-like brushes for a few dollars and they do a good job. Many farmers take out a pocket knife and try toclean out a plugged nozzle, but just a slight alteration innozzle pressure from damage caused by the knife can make a big diffence on how you get the chemical properly applied on a crop,” Hecht
HIGH TECH REMINDERWhile checking off the potential trouble spots on a sprayer used to
simple, now that many growers are going with GPS guided equipmand high tech monitors, sometimes checking the new systems isn’t simple.
Woydziak says “If you haven’t already done so, make a backup cof the data on your monitor. This can be as simple as copying the inmation to a desktop or laptop.”
He adds that it is a good idea to check the amount of free space remaining on your monitor. At crunch time during planting season, it be critical to have enough space on your monitor to function proper
During down time this winter, Woydziak says it’s a good time to lat the latest rmware updates and download and install the new datawill help you when planting season begins.
There are a few basic things growers should check on their precisequipment, Woydziak says, these include:
➢ Update settings for overlap➢ Test GPS accuracy and settings➢ Test the auto steering abilities to make certain everything is
communicating properly➢ Ensure auto boom/swath control features are operational and
set appropriately
With prices high for virtually all grain crops going into the 2011 c
ping season, the time for decision-making is going to be short. The cof making the wrong decision is going to be high. With such a premon timeliness for producing high-quality and high-yielding crops, thbest time to make decisions about sprayers is now.
Visit with your Crop Quest agronomist if you need advice on spracleaning and calibration.
Nathan W
Winter is Best TimeFor Sprayer Tune-Up
John Hecht