April Fools has come and gone and it’s time to begin thinking about “spring”. Your lawn needs your attention now! It is ready for its spring application of nitrogen, potassium and sulfur. Generally, a nitrogen application of .75 lbs. N/1000 sq. ft. (33.7 lbs. N/A) will get your lawn off to a good start. …
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Last year in 2012, I had two bits of information on the seed tags which caused me some concern. The first bit of information dealt with the weight of the 80,000 kernel count bags. My weights varied from 37.5 lbs/80,000 k to 60 lbs/80,000 k. I questioned whether this difference in kernel weight would affect…
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Drs. Fred Below and Jason Haegele at the University of Illinois have reported on their “six secrets for soybean success” in 2012:
Weather: The most critical factor because it controls the outcome of all other components
Soil Fertility: Balanced fertility applications are a must – the crop’s nutritional needs must be met. …
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Planting corn in Texas is 15% complete compared to 9% normally. This is a general indicator of how mild conditions have been this winter in the south.
Dr. Clayton Hollier, LSU plant pathologist, is concerned with the amount of locations, eight parishes along the Louisiana coast, with rust found on kudzu and also…
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In my soybean research at the Agronology 10 Research Center, we are producing two more bushels of soybeans per acre with a 1.3 lbs./ Mn (manganese) application. This manganese is applied in our fall, dribble band fertilizer application. We are netting approximately 19.50/A with $12.00 soybeans over the last four years with this treatment. …
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Planning for a drought should include management inputs that generally maximize your corn yield. You should plant early, when soils are fit; plant your normal seeding rate; fertilize for a good to excellent crop yield; plant your most productive fields to corn; utilize crop rotation on the remaining acres; hope for timely rains; and…
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Bill Halfman and et al. reported at the 2013 Wisconsin Crop Mgt. Conference that fungicides and insecticides are making a difference in alfalfa.
Headline® @ 9 fl. oz/A reduced defoliation and infected leaf area in 12 of 14 observations when compared to the untreated check in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The greatest…
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I have heard that some of the seed sizes for corn could be large again this year. If you receive those larger seed corn sizes, is your planter going to properly meter and plant those seeds or will adjustments to the planter need to be made?
University of Illinois conducted a four year crop rotation study with 12 site years of data showing the following results:
Soybean growth after 2nd year corn was 6% better than a corn-soybean rotation.
2nd year corn after soybeans yielded 7% less than the first year corn after soybeans.
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The three principal nutrient uptake pathways as reported by Barber (1995) are generally described as:
1. Root Interception – roots grow in a nutrient location
2. Mass Flow – nutrient moves with the soil water to the plant
3. Diffusion – nutrient movement is from higher to lower concentrations
…
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