For many individuals, weather is a major question or concern this spring. I will reflect that last year (2013), I was planting corn on April 30 and soybeans on May 1 at our Agronology 10 Research Center. This year, I am waiting for the soil to dry out to begin planting.
Some people have commented that they were considering shallower planting with our cool to cold weather. I explained why I wanted them to maintain the 2 inch planting depth for corn and 1 inch planting depth for soybean.
Question
Have we lost some N this spring?
Answer
With the cold weather and lack of massive rainfall this April, little or no N has been lost.
Again, this year I have been supplied soybean seeds with 85% warm germination or less. There has been no offer of a price reduction for this lower germination seed.
Last year, with some 80% germ seed compared to 90% germ seed, I found about 3000 fewer plants per acre in our early stand counts.
I am wondering what has happened to our quality control on seed corn production which allows the farmer to receive 80,000 kernel counts to weigh from the low to middle 60 lbs. per bag.
Yes, I do remember when a bag of starter fertilizer—in the old days—went from 80 lbs. per bag to 50 lbs. per bag.
