Hope for the best

Waking up this morning and seeing the ground with some puddles for once was refreshing. As usual rain reports are all over the board from .5 to 2 inches. The first thing a farmer does when he hears that is gets jealous if he did not get as much as the neighbor. My advice is to take the hand you are dealt with and move forward.

In the coming weeks we will have many decisions to make. Do I finish some of the fertilizer applications? Do I try and get a pre on? In some cases, the crop is already up. Step back and let’s see what option 2 is. There are many tools in our tool box.

Take every crop and judge it independently. On your wheat you might have multiple stages of wheat in the next few weeks. Time the application for the majority of the crop in the field. You may have 4 leaf wheat and one leaf wheat in the same field. What is the majority? Yes, we might ding up the little stuff but we cannot let the big stuff get so far ahead it hits jointing and takes away options as well.

In some crops such as canola you have the option of spraying from cotyledon all the way to pre-bloom, or even very early pod in the case of soybeans.

Canola prices are good and hopefully the market stays there. Now we have to deal with those stupid flea beetles which are already attacking the volunteer hosts. The treat on the seed can be wearing down, so watch for them so you don’t lose your stand of canola.

Try to get a pre-emerge application on soybeans, especially where the bad kochia is. Kochia is the best growing plant in a drought in my opinion. This is a weed that never seems to go away and the crazy weed has become more resistant to Roundup every day. Pre-emerge applications are critical to control kochia and many other weeds.

So now as we go ahead with the next step of this crop as mother nature has given it a fighting chance, let’s take the time to weigh out the next set of decisions. The drought is not over and this crop is far from in the bin. Everybody will have different thoughts about their next step and that is not wrong. One thing I have always said is farmers have lots of choices. It is not like McDonald’s hamburgers. McDonald’s wants their hamburgers to be cooked, treated and taste the same from New York to Minot to China. It’s nice to be a farmer and be independent and get to still make our own choices.

We get to make another round of decisions. We can help you weigh your options. We have a great staff with a lot of knowledge to help you sort it all out. Give us a call.

Galen