Cover crops offer a variety of benefits from reducing erosion to adding nutrients to your soil. When I start a conversation with a farmer about cover crops, my first question is always, “what are your goals for the cover crop?” Cover crops are used for many different reasons so it’s important to know why you need them before you plant. A pre-determined goal will help you decide which cover crop or cover crop mixture you should plant on your farm. 

1. Variety Selection. Select varieties that are best suited for your operation’s needs, whether that’s based on maturity for harvest timing and soybean double-cropping, straw and/or grain yield, management level, or a combination of these needs. In addition, maturity and harvest timing may be important for timely manure management, summer drainage tile projects, or timely cover-crop seeding. Utilize data from universities, third-party testing services, seed companies, and local performance-based product recommendations from your Beck’s representative to help select the best varieties available. University of Illinois research from 2013 and 2014 shows a 20 percent difference in grain yield just by selecting top-performing wheat varieties.

Some of our most southern areas have already begun harvesting corn and the rest should be starting this month. Something to keep in mind when harvesting is how you will manage the corn residue.

Early fall is mostly pre-harvest time in my area. We can evaluate the past growing season and consider possible changes to our operations. One of the most commonly discussed programs this summer has been
the LibertyLink® system for 2017.

As the growing season comes to an end, it’s always a good idea to review weather records and the various practices that you experimented with on your farms. Once again, weather events created challenges throughout the 2016 growing season that were beyond our control.

As harvest progresses, it’s important to take time to look at what the corn crop has to tell us. Walk your fields and evaluate hybrids for disease, stalk quality, and nutrient deficiencies. Not only will a last minute scouting session help us evaluate the farming and management practices implemented this past year, but it will also help us plan for harvest work. Now is also the time to explore options for residue management and fertilizer decisions.

I get excited when farmers innovate and develop simple solutions to production challenges that provide immediate return on investment. John Miller from Catlin, IL has done just that with his Nitrogen Sealing Systems. 

As corn begins to dry down for harvest, we need to be on the lookout for corn ear rots. Numerous fungi exist that can cause ear rots, all of which are influenced by specific weather and environmental conditions. Cool, wet conditions at silking would tend to favor the development of Gibberella ear rot, while Aspergilus will tend to be an issue when conditions are hot and dry. 

Conditions throughout many parts of Wisconsin and northern Illinois have been favorable for the development of corn ear molds. Ear molds are of particular concern because of the adverse effects they can have on grain storage. They also result in the development of mycotoxins, which can have detrimental effects on feed value and animal health. 

While August starts the downhill slope of the growing season, a lot is still happening out in the fields. Kernels and pods are filling out and we watch the sky for those ever-important August rains. We may often feel that there is little that we can do to impact the crop at this point in the season. However, there is much we can learn now by walking fields and asking ourselves which fields look the best and the worst.