Weather, IPM, Soil and more…

As spring is kicking off a lot is starting up in the Agronomy program too. I have installed a new weather station at the office and hopefully it will be up online soon to get real-time local data to you. This is especially important with the calculation of degree days for some of our IPM efforts. The station also tracts soil temperature and moisture at 3 inches and 1 foot as well as leaf wetness. I believe this will be a great asset to our local farmers as well as research efforts to have good, consistent, local data.
We have also started our IPM network that has 8 sites throughout the county trapping for cutworm moths and armyworm moths. So far we have had no activity in the traps, which is to be expected, but as we continue to warm we should start some catches. I'll keep you up to date on where the catches are and if we reach the economic threshold. I'll also be posting information on how to react to the levels of pressure I'm seeing.
As soils continue to warm we know planting season is near. Soil temperatures at the office are averaging about 51 degrees at 3 inches. What I have observed so far in the field has been anywhere from 49 to 52 degrees (the field temperatures were taken in the afternoon).
Overall everything seems to be coming together nicely for us. Hopefully we will stay away from extremely wet soil conditions so we can start this growing season of with a timely corn planting. This week looks like lots of sunny weather to catch up on alfalfa planting and get manure hauled if need be.

Will it ever end?

As snow blankets the area to some it may seem like a beautiful reminder of the season, for others it is one more hurdle dealt by this growing season. As corn and even some beans still stand around the county we may ask 'when will we close this harvest?' Undoubtedly this latest snow and rain event is one more blow to seeing any harvest in the near future. With the ground not yet frozen and now melting snow we can be certain we will not have soils fit for harvest for some time. Our soybeans are certainly the most critical if you still have some standing. In the field I was in this morning I didn't see many open pods, to my surprise, however decisions should be made soon on what the economics look like for harvesting, based on expected yield (leaving the field). Corn is not as critical and can wait. An interesting article from Wisconsin on late season harvest of corn will help you in your decisions of how long to wait to harvest corn. Wisconsin also has a helpful calculator for this same subject.

Regardless of what we want to do it seems like we may have to wait for frozen ground before any more field operations take place. Good luck to all who still are waiting to finish up your harvest.

Will it ever stop?

As we continue to see rain and gray sky's the question arises will this trend ever stop and allow us to get back to the fields? We are under the influence of a cold front moving across the mid west being fueled by an extreme trough in the jet stream. This trough is fueling this moist weather with gulf moisture. This slow moving trough looks like it may release by early next week. Hopefully that brings enough dry weather to get us back into the fields to finish up harvest.

First Major Frost

This morning the thermometer dropped to 28 at my house just before sunrise. This will be the first attempt at a hard frost (below 28 degrees for a few hours) but not successful at least at my house. It does appear we may have a general warming trend over the next few days as high pressure builds in and the trough in the jet stream moves over us. Overall I think we will see some damage on sensitive plants in areas but at this point it appears we have another week of growing season left.