Spring has sprung…

With temperatures over the weekend in the 70's it is certainly feeling more and more like spring. Additionally, all of the small grains, cover crops and perennial forages have taken off. With a little more moisture today things are definitely ready to grow. Now is a great time to be top dressing your small grain fields as well as putting spring nitrogen on pastures and hay fields. Obviously you want to make sure you fields are fit for traffic and haven't gotten too wet lately.

This time of year is also a great time to take an estimate of weed pressure in your winter grain and perennial stands. Make sure you scout not only for weed pressure but types of weeds as well so you can make the best herbicide selection possible.

On another note you can see how my test plots are coming where we are looking into inter cropping rye and radish to allow corn planting in between the rye rows. This will hopefully allow early planting of corn into this live cover crop. If this works the theory is that some of our corn pests such as slugs may be more willing to feed on the rye undercover then venture into the sun to injure the corn. I'll keep you up to date on this as well as the other research I have a going on around the county.