After a very wet spring, crops now desperately need rain

No rain is in sight and record high temperatures pose a threat to XtremeAg farmers’ crops.

Kevin Matthews - East Bend, North Carolina

Kevin Matthews and his wife, Cindy, are fourth-generation farmers in East Bend and Yadkinville, North Carolina. Matthews Family Farms, Deep Creek Grain, and Precision Nutrient Management farm corn, soybeans, wheat, and barley.

Wheat and barley are all done. The acres planted back with soybeans are in need of rain, or the stand will be poor. As a state, North Carolina is in extremely rough shape due to an early period of extreme wetness followed by drought and extreme heat over the last two weeks! From the Piedmont to the coast, crop conditions are roughest. We are already hearing about crop insurance adjusters zeroing out corn in some areas. For us, a rain would help a lot. Many of the stress-reducing practices are showing results, although we do have a few fields where there isn't enough moisture to make the fertilizer available to the plants.

We are spraying full swing early in the morning and late at night. The lighting system on our Hagie using ExactApply is a lifesaver at night. Although we are parking during the heat of the day in order to get the best return on Terramar, Veltyma, Sweet Success, Shield, Finishline, BioK, and BoronMax Fulltec. We are using these products with the goal of mitigating stress by reducing the ethylene rise in the corn plants. This is a pre-tassel application, with hopes of helping build and maintain a good ear on those plants. We are still dropping nitrogen on corn as well while being mindful of the weather and crop potential.

Irrigation is definitely working us hard. River waters are low, but so far, our river screens have enough depth to keep the pumps running. It's times like this you wish you had more irrigation—until a unit decides it doesn’t want to work, which isn’t often, but all equipment needs some TLC occasionally. I just don’t have the patience for many breakdowns.

Matt Miles - McGehee, Arkansas

Matt Miles is a fourth-generation farmer in southeast Arkansas. Miles farms 3,500 acres of corn, 3,500 acres of soybeans, 1,500 acres of cotton, and 1,500 acres of rice.

This past week I got to have my first ever XtremeAg field day. I was very happy with the outcome and the number of members I was able to meet. It was a day filled with learning, networking, and an appreciation for the agricultural community. 

My employees at Miles Farm were a huge help and really helped set up an amazing event. Between organizing the member dinner Wednesday and the field day itself on Thursday, I was very proud of how hard they worked to put it together for XtremeAg. 

The field plots looked great, I couldn’t be happier with the presentation each sponsor had for the soybeans and corn. We were able to display how each product worked and the attendees were able to see the outcome of the products. Education is very important to me, it’s what XtremeAg is all about, so I’m glad we were able to share with the fellow farming community new techniques to apply to their own practices. All in all, it was a great week and I am excited to be able to have another field day at some point in the future. Thank you to everyone who attended.

Temple Rhodes - Centreville, Maryland

Temple Rhodes is a fifth-generation farmer in Centreville, Maryland. Chestnut Manor Farms operates 3,000 acres of soybeans, 1,500 acres of corn, and 1,500 acres of wheat. His family also runs a hunting operation.

Wheat season is over in the area. Yields were off around 10% to 15% on an average. VOM levels in grain are elevated from normal years and test weights were slightly down. Flour mills are still full from last year’s crop and at the moment the wheat in storage will probably remain there with extremely low prices to boot. Very doubtful we will see much wheat planted for the 2025 season unless something major changes. 

The corn is either in tassel or days from tassel with no rain in sight for most part in the east. A lot of corn is pretty much done. The heat and the drought have done the damage. With the new reports on corn driving down prices agriculture in the east seems very bleak. 

The soybean crop seems to be the only thing holding its own. We are rolling into the reproduction stages and so far, so good. We could really use a good rain to push them through, though.

In times like these, we are glad that we decided to spoon-feed the crop and spoon-feed the inputs with this direction the weather pattern took.

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