Input availability and dry weather cause concerns for farmers

XtremeAg's Matt Miles, Kevin Matthews, and Kelly Garrett are all impressed with their corn and bean stands so far, but hot and dry weather and input availability has them a little concerned about the rest of the season.

Matt Miles – McGehee, Arkansas

Matt is a fourth-generation farmer in southeast Arkansas who grows corn, soybeans, rice, and cotton.

Temperatures are on the rise and the ground is drying out. As I always say in the Delta, no matter how much rain we get, we are always two weeks from a drought. Our corn is a couple of days from tassel and our beans are approaching R2. We rolled out the poly pipe and our irrigation sensors started triggering applications. So now the hot and dirty work begins in the Delta.

Despite the multiple days of cloudy weather, our crops are showing strong promise. This past week has been all sunshine and warm temperatures, and our growth degree units (GDU) are accumulating quickly. We still think we are off to one of our best starts in a while, but we are getting a little concerned about the availability of some of the inputs we need, as it seems like everything is in short supply right now. The XtremeAg team is helping each other out when it comes to securing the inputs we need. Kelly Garrett is sending a truck from Iowa with fungicide and I'm sending a load of herbicides back to him on the return trip. It's so awesome to network with other farmers within XtremeAg to get results. Inputs are skyrocketing in our area, so we are hoping that higher yields and higher prices will help keep us in the black. Good luck to everyone, and continue to practice safety.

Kevin Matthews – East Bend, North Carolina

Kevin and his wife, Cindy, own and operate Matthews Family Farms of North Carolina, Inc., Precision Nutrient Management, Inc., and Deep Creek Grain, Inc. in East Bend and Yadkinville.

Planting is complete on full-season crops corn and soybean. Emergence was excellent, however, the extremely dry weather has affected growth due to lack of soil moisture. Fortunately, we've had some rain, and temperatures have cooled down a bit. The hot and dry weather has caused some early stress on the corn that we planted first, and we will likely see some reduced yields as a result.

Our wheat was certainly hurt by all the heat and dry weather by acting to speed up the maturity. We will need to harvest our wheat a little earlier as a result. We will then plant our double-crop soybeans directly behind the wheat combines.

Our goal is to have all postemerge applications made to corn and soybeans by June 10 and then begin dropping nitrogen on the corn. All this while we harvest wheat a little earlier than planned. June is a busy time for Southern farmers.

Our Valley Pivot and Netafim subsurface drip irrigation systems have all been serviced and flushed and some of them are running hard irrigating corn and soybeans. It's dry times like these that make you wish you had more irrigated acres.

The combines are going into the shop this week for service. We started running the ESTES XPR2 Concaves last year, and it is nice to not have to swap out those heavy small grain and round bars. Now we just snap a cover in and hit the wheat fields… a lot less work and a lot easier on the fingers.

Kelly Garrett – Arion, Iowa

A fifth-generation farmer, Kelly Garrett farms corn, soybeans, and winter wheat in western Iowa.

We wrapped up planting last week. We always seem to be done planting corn later than everyone else in our area, but this crop has a lot of yield potential and I prefer to let the soil warm up to a perfect range before we put that seed in. Last I checked, there is still no award for being the first to finish planting. Of course, it is never easy, as we were plagued with electrical problems on all of our planters throughout the season. But we got them all straightened out and put another planting season in the books at Garrett Land and Cattle.

I am very interested in watching how our soybean population trial is progressing. We planted per acre populations of 150K, 120K, 90K, 60K, and 34K. In walking the plots and observing the stands and plant health, the 150K to 120K population seems to be crowded and will probably result in a yield penalty. Yield will be the determining factor, but I have a strong feeling that the data from this trial will tell me I need to dial back my soybean populations significantly. Giving that soybean plant easy access to the nutrients it needs and then regulating growth with a PGR should deliver more pods per plant. We will see how these trials yield out.

Last year, our 50K/acre contest corn was blown down by the derecho. This year, we are working on a few corn spacing and population trials. In one of them, we are using a 15-inch spacing at 38K/acre population to support two ears on every stalk. Our overall goal is to push the yield higher. We will share more details on this trial with our XtremeAg.farm members.

We are also teaming up with Jason Schley of Next Level Ag to conduct several foliar trials on our soybeans with various products.

Wheat market prices are at a level that makes growers feel good about trying to raise every bushel they can. Our wheat looks better than it ever has. Another fungicide pass will be completed soon, and I am excited to see how our trials with AgXplore, Agroliquid, and TEVA will yield.

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