matt.teply's blog

            Corn harvest in the Plains West Region is at about 70% completed with some areas in Kansas 100% completed.  The fall weather has been nearly perfect and allowed for harvest to move quickly.  I would expect to be nearly 100% harvested within the next 2 weeks if the weather continues to cooperate.  Yields for the most part have been down from years past and lower than expected.  The drought in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado has drastically cut yields.  Nebraska’s crop is much better but

Plains West Crop Report 8-1-2011 Heat continues to persist across the entire region. Corn has been pollinating and some of the later planted corn is just starting to pollinate. The heat stress that is persisting has caused some severe pollination issues in isolated areas. Most of the irrigated corn that had entered into pollination with a good 3 foot soil moisture profile has pollinated fine and is looking tremendous. Severe drought continues in the Southern Kansas,SE Colorado, and down into Texas. Many pivots are unable to keep up with water needs.

 

The last few years I have heard the same thing over and over from growers. "Every year is different and you never know what to expect." Well, this is definitley a year like no other. Extreme drought has embraced much of southern Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and souhtern Colorado. While absolutley horrid cold weather has set in on much of the rest of the region. There has basically been no sign of a real spring. A major winter storm worked it's way across Nebraska on April 14th and 15th and left 10 to 18 inches of snow and drifts as high as 6 to 7 feet.

This past growing season LG Seeds conducted an in house testing program to see how well Poncho®/VOTiVO®, by Bayer, worked in holding back corn nematode pressure in corn.

This time last year we were looking at about 20% of the crop harvested, at best; top it off with most grain moistures still above 20%. This year we have less than 5% of the crop left to harvest and most combines are cleaned up and back in the shed. Most of the region experienced beautiful fall conditions up to this point with the exception of less then average precipitation. With most of the area drier than normal, quality winter wheat stands are hard to find. Lots of fall tillage and fertilizer applications are going at a good pace trying to beat the frost.