and the use of overlapping residual
herbicide applications early in
the spring cropping season. Fall
herbicide applications targeting winter
annuals does allow us more herbicide
application timing flexibility in the
spring and not facing some tough burn
down situations.
The overlapping herbicide residual
programs have been heavily promoted
during the off season for good reason.
Our best Palmer amaranth and
waterhemp control occurs prior to
those weeds emerging. Once they have
emerged, control becomes difficult at
best and many of the post herbicide
products will leave us with some visible
crop response especially when dealing
with soybeans.
Irrigation or water management
is fast approaching. Part of that
management involves our newest
generation of soil moisture probes
which are called the ProfilerPlus
models. We highly recommend having
a soil texture analysis completed on
first year ground. Knowing that bit of
information allows the soil moisture
readings, reported in centibars, to
be converted to percentages of field
capacity. Our graphs will also display
soil moisture depletion as well as plant
available water in the soil profile.
Probe installations are currently
underway with many of the units up
and running by the end of the first
full week of June. With the iPhone
app, access to moisture data is fast and
convenient.
Aerial imagery is another tool we
access to help monitor and manage
crops. Field images are already
coming in with visual information
such as hybrid differences noticeable
at this early date. One of the more
common abnormalities lays with
water distribution problems. This
aerial technology can spot these
irregularities soon enough to rectify
the problem before yields are
impacted.
This technology coupled with
remote water management greatly
improves our crop management
decisions especially where we offer
limited crop service scouting.
Eastern nebraska
In the last few weeks, we have had
some areas hit with storm damage,
both wind and hail. But despite
these challenges, we are encouraged
by the start of the season.
We continue to fight to stay
ahead of those challenging weeds
in both corn and beans, and we
anticipate most post spraying
should be completed in the next
two weeks. We have also worked
through the side dress nitrogen
recommendations in a number of
fields.
Our aerial imagery is in full swing
across thousands of acres in eastern
Nebraska. We are also eager to have
a large number of fields monitored
with the ProfilerPlus system.
Installations of these soil moisture
systems should be completed in the
same time frame as post spraying.
We are also happy to have four
full summer interns and one part
The Cover Crop Summer 2018
23
time intern on board with us
this summer. We appreciate the
help they provide us during the
summer and also enjoy our role in
teaching and mentoring these young
professionals.
Iowa
Iowa has been a true case of
variables this spring and summer
(even though it hasn’t officially
started). We had the coldest April
on record, then almost the hottest
May ever recorded back to the dust
bowl years. Rainfall has fallen right
in line with the variability theme
with anywhere from under an inch
to as much as 10” this past month.
Most of our trade territory has
been fortunate to be in the middle
somewhere for moisture at least and
we keep just getting by on what we
have.
We are now in full scouting mode
with all the seed corn in the ground
and all of our regular crops well on
their way to success. We always have
room for more acres to look after as
well.
Our Iowa group has been finishing
up on post plant grid sampling
and are at the point where we can
handle the next project if you have
something in mind. We have also
been working on several in season
nitrate/nitrogen sampling projects
across the state for our retailers. Let
any of our team know if you need
some help with anything, we’ll see
what we can do! Have a good rest of
the growing season and be safe!