5
Jul
2017
Nitrogen (N) application timing and placement is important to farmers in Missouri who face nitrogen loss from denitrification and leaching.
In this latest agronomy upate, I am joined by our summer intern, Amy Johnson, and PFR Partner, Adam Casner, as we discuss the PFR Partners study taking place near Carrollton, MO
Categories: Agronomy, Missouri
Tags: Beck's Blog, Beck's Hybrids, intern, Agronomy Update, David Hughes, Missouri, PFR Proven, Nitrogen Application
26
Jun
A recent storm with baseball sized hail hit parts of northern Missouri that caused damage to a lot of corn and soybean fields in the area.
Check out this video to learn more about assessing fields for hail damage and what to keep an eye out for should a storm hit your area!
Tags:
12
We experienced quite the planting season this year with heavy rainfall events occurring in much of our marketing area, resulting in significant replant of corn and soybean acres. Though the decision-making process and additional work seemed difficult at times, your efforts were not lost. Most replant stands that I have evaluated are looking very good and progressing nicely toward the genetic and yield potential of each hybrid and variety. With that said, I wanted to share with you some observations I have made in respect to the sulfur (S) nutrition in many of the fields I have observed.
Categories: Agronomy, Missouri, Field News
Here in Missouri we have welcomed the month of June with open arms! With daily highs in the triple digits, it’s finally feeling more and more like summer. As planting season winds down, we finally have an opportunity to protect the crop we have worked so hard to get in the ground. I wanted to take this opportunity to relay some information on the pests I’ve been seeing out in the field so that you’ll be prepared if you come across them.
14
Mar
We are midway through March and have experienced some above average temperatures that have left many of us feeling as though our corn planters should be running. We have actually heard a few reports of corn being planted around the state, but I believe it is in your best interest to be patient and postpone your planting operations for just a little bit longer.
Tags: Practical Farm Research, Beck's Agronomy, Missouri Agronomy, PFR, Planting Date, Alex Long, Crop Insurance, Soil Temperatures, Forecast
13
Feb
This time of year, I anxiously await two things – planting season and baseball. “Watch the ball hit the bat” rings out from dads as they cheer their sons on in batting cages all over the country. In farming, it is just as important to see the seed hit the soil. Nothing is more important or more exciting than getting that perfect stand at planting. After all, you can’t score if you don’t get on base.
10
Kansas State Plant Pathologist Erick De DeWolf has put out, in my opinion, the most accurate winter wheat fungicide efficacy ratings. You can review it here. In it, he summarizes performance ratings and also provides insight we can utilize as we make plans for fungicide applications on our wheat this year.
In addition to these ratings, I wanted to share with you a few thoughts I had looking back on the 2016 season.
Tags: Agronomy, agronomist, Missouri Agronomy, David Hughes, Winter Wheat, Stripe rust, leaf rust, Septoria leaf blotch, Ag Chat, wheat fungicide efficacy ratings, fungicide on wheat, Powdery Mildew (PM), Fusarium head blight (wheat scab)
3
I’ve recently had the opportunity to scout a few wheat fields and I wanted to share with you a few updates.
Tags: Agronomy, Agronomy Update, Wheat, Missouri Agronomy, David Hughes, tiller counts, AgChat, Winter Kill
9
Jan
Happy New Year from your Beck’s Missouri agronomy team! Alex, Clint, Norm, Matt and I look forward to the opportunity to help you succeed in 2017. With timely information, research, field diagnosis and experience, our goal is to help you make this year the most profitable it can be. Growing row crops in a low market environment can be challenging and requires us to sharpen and apply our management skills.
Tags: Agronomy, Beck's Agronomy, Missouri Agronomy, David Hughes, weed control, soil tests, herbicides, SEED TREATMENT, ESCALATE, weed resistance, Herbicide applications. Dicamba, starter fertlizer, escalate SDS
Oct
2016
The time spent in the combine is perfect for scouting winter annual weeds while monitoring your harvest operations. A winter annual weed is just like it sounds… an annual weed with a life cycle that begins in the fall and may go dormant during the winter before maturing and dying in the spring. With this type of life cycle, winter annual weeds were less of a concern in past years because they weren’t considered to be competitive with a growing summer crop, and conventional tillage practices took care of them before planting.
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy Update, Marestail, Missouri Agronomy, Beck's Agronomist, David Hughes, tillage, Winter Weeds, Winter Annual Weeds, chickweed, henbit, Carolina foxtail, Virginia pepperweed, purselane, sheperdspurse, field pennycress, fall herbicide program, weed resistance management, winter annual crop, cover crop
19
Aug
This is an exciting time of year as many of our kids head back to school and those of us walking fields anticipate solid corn and soybean yields following a year of adequate rainfall and soil moisture. At times rainfall was excessive, dew periods were long, and there were “perfectly timed” drops in air and soil temperatures at critical the stages of crop development that caused a “not so exciting” thing to look at in our soybean fields.
22
We received high storm winds with rainfall Monday night in much of Northern Missouri and there are a lot of acres with corn blown over or down (root lodging). I have not heard of any significant greensnap which is good.
Here are a few key points to remember...
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, agronomist, Missouri Agronomy, Beck's Agronomist, David Hughes, Root Lodging, greensnap
May
Over the past week I have been called to numerous fields to evaluate emerging soybeans that are weak, injured by feeding or herbicides, or were impacted by seedling disease, primarily Pythium (root rot/damping off). I wanted to take a minute to discuss PPO-herbicide injury.
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, agronomist, Missouri Agronomy, Beck's Agronomist, David Hughes, Replant, PPO Herbicide injury
May can be a busy month. Most of us are planting soybeans, post-spraying corn, spraying burndown ahead of beans, and/or checking on maturing wheat. We have a lot happening all at the same time. With that in mind, I thought I’d share some of the things I keep an eye on and field scout for during this busy month. My intent with this article is not to give you a “how-to” for each of these, but rather to let you know what you should be looking for and thinking about from a crop diagnostic perspective.
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, Nitrogen Loss, Scouting, agronomist, Missouri Agronomy, Beck's Agronomist, David Hughes, Missouri agornomy, insect pressure, stand assessment, root growth, burndown, herbicide injury
15
As we get closer to planting, many farmers develop, or consider developing, variable seeding rate prescriptions for their fields. Experience levels vary and, as might be expected, accuracy in prescribing the correct seeding rate in a given field location for any given year varies as well. I thought this would be a good time to share some of my experience as well as my findings from a variable rate corn seeding project I conducted this past growing season.
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, agronomist, Missouri Agronomy, Beck's Agronomist, David Hughes, Missouri agornomy, MISSOURI CORN, SEEDING RATE, MANAGEMENT ZONES
2015
Despite its deceivingly short height, wheat has reproductively matured well over the last few weeks. I have not seen any leaf diseases to be concerned about, but if you are thinking about fungicides, make sure to first determine if you are concerned about leaf diseases or head scab (Fusarium Head Blight.)
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, agronomist, Beck's Agronomist, indiana agronomy, Indiana wheat, Steve Gauck Agronomy, fungicides in wheat
Planting is well underway in Missouri. It is always exciting to be part of the prospect for an abundant harvest this fall. I’d like to share the following field observations from my early season field scouting.
Tags: Beck's Blog, AgTalk, Agronomy, Agronomy Update, agronomist, Missouri Agronomy, Beck's Agronomist, corn emergence, David Hughes, Missouri corn, Missouri agornomy
16
Apr
Hello, I’m David Hughes, your new Beck’s agronomist in Missouri. I wanted to take the time to introduce myself to the Beck’s family of employees, dealers and customers, and especially to Missouri farmers whom I now have opportunity to serve as a Beck’s agronomist. I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of a company that shares my passion and love of God, family, our country, and farming.
Tags: Beck's Blog, Agronomy, Beck's Agronomy, Agronomy Update, Missouri Agronomist, Missouri Agronomy, Beck's Agronomist, Drought of 2012