The wild weather of 2019 created challenging conditions, which caused many to implement unconventional practices on some farms. Heavy downpours on tight Midwestern clay soils delayed planting in much of our marketing area, and the shorter planting windows left farmers wondering, “Should I switch my corn hybrids to shorter-season maturities?” This question prompted our Practical Farm Research (PFR)® team at Beck’s to organize a delayed planting hybrid response study. 

Dear friends and family,

Merry Christmas from the Beck’s PFR team! Boy, has 2019 been one to remember. Our team has had an incredible season, even if it did get off to a rainy start. We pulled together, shuffled some plans and got the job done while also learning a lot about ourselves and how we can help farmers succeed. We are including a few of the highlights here, but we look forward to hosting you at a PFR Insight Meeting next month to tell you the whole story.

Has weed control in soybeans become simple again? In the 2020 growing season, farmers will have more effective soybean post-emergence platforms to select from than ever before. Are the days of having problematic weeds such as waterhemp, marestail, and giant ragweed sticking above the canopy over?

As hard as it was, a challenging year like 2019 can still yield applicable insights. The important thing to do is carefully weigh all the factors that can impact your results and examine the data in light of those factors. This past spring, I asked an intern to work a plot and as he began to work the ground I found myself thinking “that may be the worst decision I have made in my 35-year ag career”. 

This season will also impact how we think about future decisions as it relates to soil tests and soil testing. I asked my friend Jamie Bultemeier, an agronomist with A&L Great Lakes Laboratories, to share his thoughts on the impact of 2019.

Like many farm kids, he was driving tractors before he even started kindergarten. With deep roots in the farming industry and both of his grandpas farming before him, Tom Frank knew he wanted to continue their legacy.

The 2019 calendar year is coming to an end and the adverse effects to soils resulting from this crop season will loom for years to come. Heavy rain in the spring meant fields were planted in less than ideal conditions. This was followed by a series of production practices being conducted in less than ideal conditions — leading to soil compaction and surface ruts. The immediate thought is to run out and deep rip to remove compaction and fill ruts, but careful thought should be given to the process to provide benefit to the next crop year, but also avoid lasting issues for years to come.

After enduring the spring of 2019, it will not take much convincing for many of you that precipitation extremes have become the new normal. It’s been said that if you want things to be different, just wait until next year. While this will likely be true, the trend of punishing rain events occurring more frequently is undeniable.

Harvest time is a busy time, but FARMserver® is here to help keep you stay on top of your data game! Beck’s just recently announced a new feature to FARMserver that will be available for the 2019 harvest season; automated yield reports.

In this electrifying video, our team in El Paso tested the Weed Zapper at the CIL Organic Field Day to see if it would be a useful component in an organic weed control program.

The decision I made to take a leap of faith and change my major opened so many doors for me, and I never knew how passionate I would come to be towards the world of agriculture. It took me a long time to find my place and be okay with not being a kid who grew up in agriculture at a majority ag college, but I would say stepping out of my comfort zone would be the best decision I made throughout my entire college career.