44 Story Idea? Email Paul.Nolan@Farms.com Better Farming | April 2024 crops: the lynch fileS PLANT 2024: TAKEAWAYS FOR THE SEASON Think ‘disposable underwear’ when you see exceptional product claims. By Patrick Lynch It’s early April and the start of planting season. By now you might’ve attended many meetings and have so much information that you are feeling a bit overwhelmed. I too attended meetings, joined seminars, and listened to podcasts and recorded talks. Here are my big takeaways for this year’s planting season. Nitrogen. One of the best presentations I sat in on was by Dr. Adrian Correndo from the University of Guelph. He has spent a lot of time researching nitrogen on corn in the United States, Ontario, and Quebec, and his insights have helped me a lot. He says it’s difficult to identify an economic optimum nitrogen rate (EONR) and that we should instead think of ranges, not an absolute number. In reviewing hundreds of nitrogen research trials, he says there is almost as much variation across reps in a trial as across locations. About 70 per cent of the corn yield is determined by weather, according to Correndo, while soils account for about five to 10 per cent, and management for the remainder. We know that side-dressing nitrogen is a way to get higher yields without increasing nitrogen rates. While his summary indicates that there is a benefit to split applying nitrogen only 10 per cent of the time, I believe if you wait to side-dress nitrogen, you will have a better idea as to yield potential and then you can decide on your final rate of nitrogen. You really should be side-dressing light soils because of leaching. Weed control in soybeans continues to be a big concern to me. When you plan your soybean weed control program, you have to have a herbicide to control fleabane, and if you are in a county with waterhemp, your program must include waterhemp control. Last year, there were too many weedy soybean fields. One of the topics at Southwest Agricultural Conference was the importance of getting crops to cover the ground as quickly as possible. In the Yield Enhancements Network wheat discussions, it was said that wheat planted early did better than wheat planted later. That was because the ground was covered by wheat leaves earlier and were able to intercept more sunlight. It was also recommended in the soybean presentations to plant soyPlan for the 2024 planting season based on your experiences over the last few years, not just in 2023. Emily Croft photo
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