Farmers turn down populations due to dry planting conditions

TEMPLE RHODES – CENTREVILLE, MARYLAND

Temple Rhodes is a fifth-generation farmer in Centreville, Maryland. Chestnut Manor Farms includes a no-till farming operation of 3000-acres of soybeans, 1500-acres of corn and 1500-acres of wheat. His family operation revolves around commodity crops as well as a full-scale hunting business.

We're desperately waiting for it to rain. The ground conditions are so dry right now, not something we are used to around here in April. The last time we had a measurable rainfall was the first week of April. We are two to three weeks ahead of schedule and about 50% done planting corn and soybeans. The temperatures have been unbelievably warm and dry, so I have just been wrapping up putting my anhydrous on the rest of our ground and prepping other parts for planting. We have our planters running on dry ground only right now. We are waiting for the conditions to be perfect before starting on the irrigated ground.

This is the driest planting season I have ever seen. I made the decision to turn down populations on corn as a result of the dry weather. That is not normal for me because I am normally very optimistic and don't turn down my populations. I normally plant 33,000 but I'm down to 28,000 to 29,000 in our non-irrigated areas. We will see if it is the right decision.

In the past 10 years, the earliest we have planted soybeans was the first of April. Typically, it would normally take around 26 days for our soybeans to emerge due to the cool and wet weather that is normal for this time of year. This year, however, it is out of the ground in four to five days. You always like to see a crop emerge quickly, but we are going to have a real problem if we get a cold snap that hurts the young beans. We will wait and see.

CHAD HENDERSON – MADISON, ALABAMA

Chad Henderson is part of a fifth-generation farming operation in Madison, Alabama. Henderson Farms operates over 8,000 acres of dryland and irrigated corn, dryland soybeans, wheat, and dryland and irrigated double-crop soybeans. When not farming, Chad can be found carrying on another proud family tradition as a drag racer for Henderson Racing.

I am caught up with all of my higher ground planting. I have about 1900 acres of corn planted right now and will have about 2200 acres planted in a few days. We started planting soybeans earlier in the last week and have about 350 to 400 acres of soybeans in the ground.

We are still waiting on our lower ground by the river bottoms as it is a little wet. We have a rotation that we plan for, but that can always change at the last minute on our lower ground. If the conditions don't favor planting corn, then we will switch that ground to soybeans if it starts getting too late in the planting season.

Every planting season is a challenge, but so far this planting season has been favorable. We have had a couple of showers, but no real bad weather. The corn has been coming up nicely. We should have about 500 acres out of the ground already. I am very happy with the stands so far because they have been coming up in about eight days. We had one window of a really hard rainfall, but it only lasted about 15 minutes. So far it does not look like we will have to replant any areas, but that could all change very quickly.

We have 2400 acres of wheat that are coming in really nicely. We have been spraying our flag leaf application and are about a week away from spraying head scab. The head scab application will be our final application on wheat before we harvest. I am looking forward to my first Field Day with XtremeAg on May 11. I am nervous, but I know it is sure to be a good one.

LEE LUBBERS – GREGORY, SOUTH DAKOTA

Lee Lubbers of Gregory, South Dakota, grew up in the farming tradition, and remembers using leftover scholarship money as the down payment for his first tractor and rent for 200 acres. Today, he farms more than 17,000 acres of dryland soybeans, corn, and wheat. Lubbers says one of the most important things to him is to always be learning and challenging himself to build an operation and a legacy that the next generation can be proud of.

Spring has sprung, but winter has been hanging on. About 10 days ago our temperature went up into the 90s for two to three days. Then, the quickly plummeted into colder than normal ranges. Unfortunately, due to these cold weather changes we have not been able to plant. Normally a halt on planting is caused by the wetness, but right now it is due to the cold weather. The temperature got so low that on April 21 it snowed lightly most of the day.

We finished hauling in our soybean starter fertilizer for the seeders and just received our AgroLiquid starter for the corn. We are currently picking up the corn and soybean pre-emerge chemistry. Unfortunately, all of these things are later than normal in the season because of the prolonged cold weather from winter into spring.

In lighter news, we are out with the old and in with the new and have our own office complex at the farm. We were renting a place for our offices in town for almost 14 years, but decided to build our own. I took everything down and started moving our things out before we got into the planting season. By July, our new facility should be done or very close to it. After the wheat harvest, probably around August, we plan to be completely moved into our new offices. We are looking forward to the warmer days rolling hard in the fields. Stay safe everyone.

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