While research shows that the last 10 days of April is on average the best time to plant corn in Illinois, expectations of below-normal temperatures in most of Illinois during the last week of April has some wondering if it makes sense to plant now or to wait until temperatures warm up.
Averaged over the past 22 years, Illinois corn producers have planted 16% of the crop by April 20. NASS reported that 15% of the crop was planted by April 19 this year,…
Most corn producers have planned their spring N program for 2015, and many have already started to implement their program. Such plans might include fall ammonia application, early spring application of ammonia or another form of N, or plans to apply all of the N at or after planting. In recent years there has been a trend towards more applications per crop, and it’s not unusual today to have N applied three or four times on the same field.…
A lot of anhydrous ammonia is going on this spring, and in many fields the hope is to plant as soon as practicable after NH3 application. This brings up the question about potential for NH3 damage to seeds and seedlings.
Seed and seedling damage from spring-applied NH3 is relatively rare in Illinois, but it can be quite damaging, and we want to minimize the chances of it happening. Such damage is rare is because NH3 converts readily in soil to the ammonium form (NH4+) which is held on soil exchange sites and is not damaging to plant tissue.…
Soybean farmers who take a ten-minute online survey will help University of Illinois crop scientists and Extension educators to better understand how decisions are made in their farms regarding soybean management and inputs and to tailor programs and projects to improve yields and profitability.
Villamil requests that soybean farmers take the survey by April 10.
The survey is a collaborative effort between the Department of Crop Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois,…
Along with the continuing emphasis on getting soybean planted early – in late April to early May – comes the question of soybean maturity rating, and whether early planting benefits fuller- or shorter-season varieties the most.
Planting date
Figure 1 was updated with the 2014 data from our planting date trials in central and northern Illinois. The change compared to the response I showed a year ago is mostly from the large response to delayed planting at Urbana in 2014.…
In April 2014 I wrote on the topic on N fertilizer on soybeans, reporting that our research at the University of Illinois has rarely shown a benefit in yield to applying N fertilizer during the middle part of the season. But it seems that some people, perhaps reacting to testimonials of high yields after using N fertilizer in the high-yield conditions of 2014 remain convinced that adding N fertilizer “makes high yields higher.”
Of course, most producers who got high yields –…
Join us on Thursday, March 26th, 2015 for the Spring Cover Crop Field Day at the University of Illinois Extension Ewing Demonstration Center. Registration will start at 8:30 a.m. and the program will begin at 9:00 a.m., rain or shine. The Ewing Demonstration Center is located at 16132 N. Ewing Rd; Ewing, IL 62836, on the north edge of the village of Ewing, north of the Ewing Grade School on north Ewing Road. Watch for signs.…
University of Illinois Extension and the Fayette County SWCD are hosting a Cover Crop Field Day on Thursday, November 13, 2014 from 9:00 – 11:00 a.m. The field day will be held at the U of I Brownstown Agronomy Research Center, 1588 IL 185, Brownstown, IL (Directions here).
The field day will include tours of the current cover crop research trials being conducted at the Center. Extension educators and NRCS field staff will be on hand to discuss cover crop species selection,…
Join us on Thursday, November 6th, 2014 for the the Ewing Demonstration Center Fall Cover Crop Field Day. Registration and refreshments will start at 8:30 a.m. and the program will start at 9:00 a.m., rain or shine. The Ewing Demonstration Center is located at 16132 N. Ewing Rd; Ewing IL 62836, on the north edge of the village of Ewing, north of the Ewing Grade School on north Ewing Road. Watch for signs.
Cover crops have many benefits to the soil,…
In June with wheat harvest underway, I asked people to send in grain samples so that under an NREC-funded project we could measure P and K levels to try to sharpen up our nutrient removal numbers.
We got a few wheat samples. We also, thanks to the Illinois Soybean Association, found a way to get a good number of soybean samples to measure P and K after they are tested for protein and oil.
Our real need now is to get corn grain samples from the 2014 harvest.…