crop scouting, corn emergence study, and more!
- nce again, much of my scouting this month has been spent looking at insect (mainly podworm) damage in soybean fields. I have had the opportunity to scout Dr. Bill Schapaugh’s plots once again this year. Unfortunately, his plots were absolutely inundated with podworms. When damage from podworms is high enough, the soybean plant actually doesn’t mature correctly. I am quite concerned that Dr. Schapaugh’s plots have severe enough loss that this may be the case this year. I will keep scouting these plots over the next few weeks.
On September 11-14, I attended the third session of the North Central Region Cropping Systems Academy at the Kellogg Biological Research Station near Kalamazoo, Michigan. Each of the sessions have a theme, and this particular one was on Sustainability, Climate, and Soil Health. The professional development I receive from these sessions is immense, and in addition to the content education, learning about other extension systems across the North Central Region is great as well.
I must contend, however, that this session reinforced some trepidations I have had from the first two sessions, mainly that Kansas doesn’t fit very well with the rest of the states in the region. Due to our diversity, different regions of the state probably fit in with different regions. For example, western Kansas probably fits better with the Western Region, but we in southeast Kansas fit better with the South Region. Thankfully, the information presented can be revised so that I can utilize it in our area.
The Corn Emergence Study that I have been working on in Parsons is nearing its completion, for this year at least. On August 29, I hand harvested the ears from the plots using a kitchen knife (which was quite dull, unfortunately). The ears were placed in brown paper bags and stored in my truck until September 22 when I hand shelled the ears and collected the grain from each ear. This process definitely increased my appreciation for modern combine technology. The process was extremely eye-opening and I hope to continue the project for another couple of years. In addition to the plots in Parsons, two other locations with Doug Shoup and David Hallauer running the same type of experiment in their respective locations (Lyndon and Meadowlark District).
On September 19, Jeri and I presented Crops and Crop Uses at the Montgomery County Water Festival to approximately 400 fourth graders from all over Montgomery County. My portion was the Crops Products and I greatly enjoy speaking with such young and impressionable minds. The kids were, for the most part, very well behaved and there were a handful with some substantial crops backgrounds. However, there were considerable more with a fairly obvious lack of farming experience. The Montgomery County Conservation District put on the event, which is planned to be held annually from this point forward.
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Pre-herbicides for wheat
Radio Programs
2017 Soybean Yield Contest
Financial Benchmarking
Higher Protein Wheat