(Lakefield, Mn.)– The recent rains and warmer weather have combined to create ideal conditions for the emerging corn and soybean crops. Jim Nesseth of Extended Ag Services in Lakefield says while there are some isolated areas with uneven emergence, for the most part things are looking real good…
“Overall, you know, we’ve got a little bit of uneveness but I think we’re going to be basically in pretty good shape. And stands seem to be relatively good. A lot of 32 to 34,000 is what we’ve got in some of our stand counts so far. Some of the fields have struggled a little bit, you know, we’re in the high 20’s and low 30’s, but if you have a later variety number where we’ve got some flex in some of the hybrids, you know, we feel like we’re in pretty good shape.”
Nesseth says he is somewhat concerned with the forecast for much cooler temperatures, adding it could cause some issues for those applying post emergence herbicide…
“We like to have the corn and soybeans actively growing along with the weeds. That’s where we seem to get the best control and have the least potential risk for crop injury. Sometimes, you know, in the past where we’ve had some applications, you know, of herbicides with colder temperatures we can sometimes, you know, slow that metabolism down in that plant so it’s not able to really break that herbicide down. We can sometimes have some crop injury with that. It doesn’t happen all the time but I think if we don’t have a lot of weed pressure and you know, the crop isn’t too big, we certainly don’t have to worry, you know, about plant height restrictions at this time but it’s just kind of nice to wait until those temperatures warm up before we really, you know, hit the, spray the applications, you know, for weed control.”
Nesseth says the rain that’s also in the forecast would be a good thing. He says getting rainfall on a regular basis through the growing season is going to be crucial.
