Even though wheat acres are down quite a bit this year, I’ve seen a lot of drills running through fields over the past month. I’ve also heard the old adage, “dust it in, bust the bin” more times than I can count. While it was ok at first, it’s now starting to worry me. 

Harvest time is finally here and for most of us in the South, this will be the year to forget! Parts of Tennessee encountered the worst drought we’ve seen since 2012. On the other end of the spectrum, parts of Kentucky, southern Indiana, and southern Illinois caught more rain than they could handle for most of the year. The Missouri Bootheel couldn’t make up its mind if it wanted to be too dry or too wet! All of these crazy environmental conditions have led to some serious standability issues in our corn. Just about every corn field I’ve been in recently has shown signs of premature death and stalk rot. This is something we see every year, but some years are worse than others and may require a little more planning before harvest.

Stalk quality can be negatively affected by three factors: disease, nutrient deficiency, and environment. Fungal diseases like fusarium, anthracnose, and gibberella stalk rot cause decay of the internal pith tissues of the stalk. Nitrogen deficiency can lead to the ear cannibalizing the stalk to feed itself. Extended straight line winds in excess of 60 mph can cause any hybrid to lodge; especially those fields that have experienced stress from the other two factors. Harvest prioritization will be especially important this fall.

Throughout the month of August I had the privilege to work alongside Beck’s Practical Farm Research (PFR)^® staff, conducting agronomy research tours at Beck’s Field Shows at both our Henderson, KY and Effingham, IL locations as well as Becknology™ Days in Atlanta, IN. Beck’s PFR program embodies the essence of Beck’s values (teamwork, integrity, innovation, adaptability, commitment, and passion) like no other agronomy program with which I have been associated. From the beginning, Beck’s founders have demonstrated a passion for observing and measuring the components of successful crop production from which they adapt and innovate to improve production systems. The PFR program is the natural evolution of this process, and its research data is now something we as Missouri farmers can access and deploy in our corn, soybean, and wheat production systems.

Harvest is in full swing and now is the time for product evaluations. Many farmers I know do not walk their fields at length to evaluate corn and soybean variety performance on their farm during the summer, but during harvest, you’ve got the best seat in the house — right behind the header. Use this opportunity to jot some notes down as you go from field to field and variety to variety.

This is our one last chance to scout fields and evaluate the year before harvest begins. As you walk corn fields, be sure to evaluate disease levels and look to see which hybrids handled diseases better. Ask yourself if you are happy with your fungicide applications. Look at grain fill and pollination. Take a final assessment of weed control, record notes on what weeds are present and if they need to be targeted next year. In soybeans, be on the lookout for Palmer amaranth. It has been identified in southern Indiana and we do not want to run the combine through a patch of it and spread the seeds out.

The 2015 growing season has been one most of us would rather forget. Cool and wet followed by warm and wet followed by dry in a few isolated areas. Nitrogen loss and leaf disease have added to the problem as summer has progressed. As harvest approaches, we need to consider how we are going to handle this crop. Here are a few thoughts:

This early fall period gives farmers the opportunity to implement management practices that will benefit them during the 2016 crop season and beyond. Our agronomic area experienced extraordinary rainfall events this past season. The intensive rain events of 2015 have created surface compaction as well as stagnant soils with limited amounts of oxygen and micro life. Cover crops are an excellent means to help cure these issues.

What a year it has been. As we evaluate our crop in August, we have a great opportunity to take a hard look at yield potential and yield loss suffered this year. As you walk corn fields, pull ears and check for pollination problems. If you see some, think back to pollination time. Was it dry, wet, hot or cold? We lost a lot of nitrogen early. Are ears stunted?

It has been a challenging growing season and although you might feel like giving up, don’t! Here are few scouting tips that could add a few bushels to this year’s crop.