An In-depth Discussion about Successful Minnesota Corn and Soybean Planting in 2024
Good day, and welcome to the University of Minnesota Extension podcast, University of Minnesota crop cast. I'm your host Dave Nicolai along with my co host, doctor Seth Nave. Seth is University of Minnesota Extension Soybean Specialist here at the Saint Paul campus. I'm a University of Minnesota Extension Educator in Field Crops and Seth, we are here to the 1st April when we're making this recording for this week. We've invited in, the the special guest that I think a lot of people are thinking about in terms of anticipation of the crop that he works with, and that's doctor Jeff Colter.
Speaker 1:Jeff is extension corn specialist here at the University of Minnesota. Jeff, welcome.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:And we asked, Jeff to come by as well as you, Seth, and we wanna talk about what farmers are gonna be starting to think about especially this week and that is planting. Corn and soybeans, we wanna preface this with that our crop insurance dates are rolling around here for farmers or thinking about those dates. In a lot of southern Minnesota, it's April 11th, for field corn. April 21st, a little bit later on soybeans. But besides those, particular dates on the calendar, I guess, Seth, there are a lot of things to think about and to plan for.
Speaker 1:So maybe we want to start off with yourself in terms of that and then we can segue back and forth
Speaker 2:or either
Speaker 3:one. Yeah. Let's just step back a little bit and look at where we're at today. I think we had a really nice, attitude of judgment or psychological adjustment with the snow and the rain, last week. So I think we were in really a strange position, psychologically, relative to the calendar and thinking about crops and things had been so warm.
Speaker 3:We were so advanced. Everything was just so messed up. I think people just had a hard time getting their head around this idea that it was still middle of March, But it seemed like it was the end of April and really itchy to get out there. And I think I think we had what we needed to get was that, again, an attitude adjustment by a bunch of rain and some snow. Cooled things off a little bit.
Speaker 3:Let farmers kind of settle back into the regular line of thinking and and get things kinda reset. And I think we're there now. So we've had some cool temperatures and things are starting to warm up and I think now we're we're I think it's a good time to really start thinking about planting now.
Speaker 1:Well, it certainly was a reality check. You're right. I think a lot of folks thought that, you know, we were all going to be into the field and and fast planting here in the end of March but of course, you know, typically as it does happen here in Minnesota, we can get those late season moisture patterns coming in from the from the gulf and from the west and sure enough we had it again, in in terms of that. But, the snow is melting, right now so I I think we've churned the calendar, Seth. So I think it's it's gonna be pretty close.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think, you know, I don't wanna steal too much of the thunder from our guests here, but I think we've got good soil moisture now. So I think things in some ways, it was almost ideal when we had pretty much thawed out soil, lost most of the frost, and we got some rain and and snow. Pretty heavy water content, I think. We had, I think, about 3 inches of water content at my house.
Speaker 3:I know I was in kind of the heavy band, but even that kind of 2 to 3 inch range, really, really helped a lot of farmers, and I think there's some rain in the forecast. So, I think you mentioned something about the the drought monitor earlier, and it really reduced over this past week. So I think, in general, I think we're we're in really good shape.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I know the drought map came out this past week on Thursday and we dropped down from our our moderate drought level of over 73% down to the low forties for a lot of the states so that's at least a 30% drop. Doesn't mean that we don't have dry conditions, you know, farther down in the soil but certainly that allow people to be more optimistic. And and and with that, at this point in time, I guess, Jeff, if you think about optimism, are are we sitting pretty good here? We're at the 1st April.
Speaker 1:Certainly, we are, we're not late, that's for sure, in terms of, corn planting. We've got some time here.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I think we're in a great situation, you know. We were concerned it was dry it would be dry at planting. We were talking about things that we could do to conserve moisture and possibly planting a little deeper. And now with the snow, it looks like and rain, it looks like we're kinda back on track.
Speaker 2:We're kind of at where we should be. We're normal to average, maybe slightly ahead of average in terms of, how the spring is progressing. I think it could be optimal conditions for planting, you know. We were dry, we picked up some moisture, I think it should be just about right.
Speaker 1:What are some of the soil types and soil conditions that that you've liked to see? You know, you've been here obviously long enough and in the Minnesota climate here in terms of having those optimal conditions, not not obviously out there having, you know, too wet, too cloudy, too heavy, too dry, and and so forth. What's what's that perfect situation or what's getting close to anyhow that that you would prefer?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, kind of a a rule of, you know, a general guideline is basically, dig some soil about an inch below the depth of your tillage and if try to form a ball with it. And if it crumbles, then it's good to go. If it's still sticky and forms a ball or ribbon, you know, then it's you still need to wait a little bit.
Speaker 1:The, some of this, spring, I suppose, in some places, they they've had an opportunity to apply in hydrocemonia. I know that they've done out quite a bit in some of the areas in Southeast Minnesota. So there'll still be some options in in in terms of that. But, if we do get the rain, I know one thing that can develop in some of these southern Minnesota soils is, you know, getting some cloudy conditions and so forth. But that's problematic too, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I think the key is just, you know, wait until soil conditions are fit. You know, a lot of times a lot of the field looks good but then you got these side hill seep areas or these little low areas where it's cloddy and that's just a problem. You know, when we end up tilling the soil and creating clods, then we plant in that. We end up having like seed to clod contact rather than seed soil contact, and then we get air pockets in there between the clods, and then the moisture doesn't imbibe quickly and efficiently into the seeds and then we got variable emergence and just kind of a a magnet you know, an array of problems that, you know, continues off of that, including, you know, compaction below the depth of tillage, which can be a problem if it's dry, especially for nodal root development.
Speaker 2:So, you know, those are some things to think about.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I I think about the psychology behind, and and also the risk management around planting that farmers face in Minnesota. It's kind of an interesting question because it isn't really about what the calendar date is and what the soil conditions are. I think farmers have to balance a lot of things, including what the planting window is gonna be like and what the what the what the risk of being held out is going to be. I think farmers are constantly balancing all these questions about there's very few very few farmers can plant their corn or soybeans under ideal conditions in a significant way.
Speaker 3:They're basically trying to get ahead of of when things are perfect so that they can plant through perfect conditions and avoid getting rained out and held out of the field. And I think that's maybe that's an important thing to remember this year is that when we're ahead of schedule, that farmers aren't necessarily planting to increase yields at this time. Maybe they should think about this early start as a way to give them a little bit more flexibility that they have a little bit more room to operate. Maybe they don't have to push in some ways, maybe they don't have to push planting quite as hard because there's a longer there's a potential longer window for for operating and and planting machinery operating days later into the into the spring here. So I don't know.
Speaker 3:I'm just kinda throwing out some general thoughts on this. I don't know how how you feel about it, but I I tend to think about these things in kind of kind of strange ways. And so I just wonder if that rings rings for you at all, Jeff.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Absolutely. You know, from a corn standpoint, we're always excited to get out there and, you know, be one of the first people to get our corn planted. But when we look at the actual data from, planting date trials and stuff, there's really little yield advantage to getting the crop planted extra early. The main advantage is just by not being late.
Speaker 2:So if you get a head start, then less risk of being late on the backside of, you know, the, remaining part of your acres. But I think we need to balance it and, keep an eye on the 7 day forecast and, you know, see what's coming and kinda manage around that.
Speaker 3:So what what do the planting date figures I mean, kind of if you imagine those in your in your mind's eye, Jeff, what does the corn planting date? If you can think about maybe not even the real data, but what you think imagine planting date response would be in Minnesota. Where would the peak be, and how flat is that? You mentioned that it's you just don't wanna be late, but where what's, you know, what's the ideal date if you had to pick a a date for southern Minnesota? Is there
Speaker 2:Yeah. A date? Probably around April 24 to May 6, give or take. But, you know, anywhere between about April 20 to May 10 should produce yields that are within a couple percent of the maximum. So,
Speaker 3:and that's that's really close to soybeans. So I think if I do the same kind of thing in my mind, I think based on Bruce Potter's data and at Lamberton, he has the best set of long term data on soybean. If we think about that, it's we really have the thing peaks right around the 1st week of May, and I think the reason why we have a little bit of a peak there is that is that there is an opportunity for having low yields when we plant super early, because there's a little bit of additional risk with planting early. And of course, we have a penalty when we plant late. So what we end up with was very early planting, you can have a chance of having the highest yields, pretty good chance of having your highest yields with a very early planting.
Speaker 3:But you also have a chance of having pretty low yields, and so you have a greater spread in that data with planting early. And so, we don't I don't really think that we there's a lot of advantage to planting, too much too much ahead of of May 1. I think it's I think there's an opportunity to get some some good yields if we have the right weather at the end of the year and the right setup. But it just it just it just feels to me like, our old traditional agronomy wisdom still holds that corn probably has a has a few days advantage over over soybean for the optimal planting day. Maybe a few days to maybe even a week.
Speaker 1:You know I was, had a chance this morning, Jeff to look at our University of Minnesota Extension website and you have a very good page on there on on corn production and maybe to echo what Seth was saying, I think a lot of the data indicates if I remember this correctly and correct me if I'm wrong, but, you know, even if that whole time period between April 6th to April 21st, even by the bushels, by the end of the year, there wasn't a lot of difference in a a a huge yield bump and so forth, and that was consistent if you went really early versus even if you're in that 20 21st. So, you know, if people are planning early, maybe it's it's from where from a logistical thing and they gotta cover the acres or impending rain and so forth. But I think a lot of the data that Seth is referring to that we you have indicated that, you know, you're not going to get a a significant bump by being here early April versus mid April.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Like, basically, from, you know, thinking about planting early, it's like I don't think about getting extra yield. I just think about having less acres planted on the later side.
Speaker 2:Right. That's the main advantage. And, you know, hopefully, that early planting is done under good soil conditions, which it often is. You know, if you're going in early, it's likely it's gonna be better soil conditions on those fields.
Speaker 3:So in soybean, we see, we see a pretty good, the well, I I should to back up, the only real advantage I see with early planting in soybeans so when we're kind of in this late April period, when the only time we get a good response from that is when we actually have the weather at the end of the year that really supports high yield. So if we don't if we're gonna have a droughty year or if we've got a poor yielding field in general, those don't seem to respond to early planting at all. And I think that makes some sense. But what I also have seen in our data is that we also have to pair that early planting with a long season maturity a long maturity soybean. So something that's a little bit longer than normally adapted for that range.
Speaker 3:And I think that's to take advantage of that good conditions late in the year. So you're you're setting up a soybean for the ability to do you suggest farmers plant a little bit So in corn, do you do you suggest farmers plant a little bit longer, hybrid when they when they are out there their first planting? Is it is there any is there any maturity, interactions that you'd recommend?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Generally, we've seen that, you know, if you're gonna be planting early, it makes sense to be planting your longest maturity hybrids first, from a risk management standpoint. You know, so that they dry down a little better. We've been seeing a little bit of a yield benefit to slightly longer maturity hybrids and I think over the past 15 years or so farmers have been slowly creeping forward on, you know, the length of the maturities that have been planted. So, you know, yeah, it makes sense to start out with your longest maturity hybrids first.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think, probably, it's all all this is probably the physiological part of the corn and soybean is probably all the same thing. We're we're pushing maturities. We're pushing populations. We're pushing dates of planting, partly due to the environment changing a little bit, but also increased production practices and and other things.
Speaker 3:And it's all kinda going together. It's helping support those, some of those higher yields.
Speaker 1:You know, one question that we get every year, and I think, you know, you can we can talk about it, but it it necessarily isn't probably the big driver here is soil temperature. And, you know, we're trending to be in the next week into the into the sixties for air temperature. But I don't know, Jeff and maybe Seth too, what are your what are your thoughts about, what soil temperature? Is that, a major consideration? Something in the background?
Speaker 1:Relatively minor with, you know, with with today's hybrids and seed vigor. Any comments on on that? Do we need to take that into account?
Speaker 2:Well, for corn, germination isn't gonna really start until soil temperature is 50 degrees, but we don't need to wait for 50 degrees before we start planting. The key for her corn is, you know, thinking about what that soil temperature is going to be during the next, 2 days after planting and we don't want it to drop into the lower 40s or below within 2 days after planting. So, you know, if we're in the mid to upper 40s, you know, I think it's good to go, especially if the forecast looks like it's not going to drop lower, soon after planting.
Speaker 1:You're talking about at the 2 inch in soil temperature or Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Soil temperature 2 inch 2 inch depth.
Speaker 3:Yeah. In soybean, I take a completely different view of the the world than most people. Like like most things, I think, around here, I take a kind of a different angle on it. And I I look at it this way as that, basically, soybean requires about 70 heat units to emerge. And so when we're thinking about this very early planting, farmers don't wait till the till the frost free date to plant.
Speaker 3:They plan ahead of that. And what we've really determined is that plant farmers are actually walking back about 70 heat units, and planting at that time so that the the soybeans come out at the time when they're pretty much outside of the the intense, risk frost risk day, at least 90% free of frost by those dates. And then so that's that's somewhere, towards the towards the beginning of May, I think, is what we're at in southern Minnesota for for those 90% days. So farmers are kinda backing up, and that's basically what we've decided is that farmers can really plant soybeans about whenever they want if they're willing to let them sit around in the soil. The soybeans were gonna as soon as they accumulate that 70 or so heat units, then they'll come out of the ground, and then that's when we're really concerned about frost.
Speaker 3:Now that we're kind of outside of this, I think we're outside of this really deep freeze potential where we could have some freezes really, really deep in the soil. I think we're a little bit free of that. So I I think of it that way. As the farmers really could plant because soybean tends to be a a cheaper crop to replant, farmers could could get out there and plant it early, but they just have to be willing to let those things sit around for 3 weeks before they pop out of the soil.
Speaker 1:You know, we're we've we've talked a lot about southern Minnesota here and central Minnesota, but any comments for our listeners that perhaps would be thinking about things in in Red River Valley, you know, or more, you know, Northern Minnesota. In terms of that, would you help what kind of adjustments would you make, if you were farming in those areas?
Speaker 2:Well, I would back the planting dates up by or move them forward by a week, you know. So, you know, instead of thinking about starting, you know, April 20th, you know, you might wanna wait till it's, you know, maybe April 27th or something like that. But at the same time, there it's a lot of factors to consider. You know, the soil types up there, a lot of them are very fine textured and if they get wet, you know, you can be waiting around a long time before you get back in. So it's it's kinda hard to make a a broad, you know, generalization.
Speaker 2:I mean, the other thing that's a little challenging up there is, you know, once it gets to be about May 24 or so, you kinda wanna be done with your planting of your corn. Otherwise, you start to run-in high risk of not meeting maturity before the fall before the frost in the fall. So, a lot of things to consider. I would back the planning date or, you know, move the planning dates ahead a little bit, but, you know, it's all relevant and
Speaker 3:Yeah. And Jeff Jeff and I have to kinda get in line bit behind wheat and sugar beets here too. So so the good part about corn and soybean management in the north is that we they're making all the tough choices on pushing those other crops in first, and that's those things are coming first. And once they get once they get their, weed and their sugar beets in, then they can think about corn and and soybeans. And then they can kinda tick down the list.
Speaker 3:And so they know they know those fields and when they can get in those. But I agree with Jeff is that there's there's a the planting dates the actual Northern Minnesota doesn't end up having much of an effective delay in planting in a lot of years. And I think it's because, simply because of, you know, supporting what Jeff said is that there's a push to get in there and get all those acres covered.
Speaker 1:Certainly, there can be frost with in northern Minnesota, obviously, and they do get the the light frost in in in terms of in in May. But all things being equal, I mean, it's it's obviously not gonna grow in the bag. So I think that's your reference point here too.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think, my feeling is when I talk to farmers, that farmers in the north are generally more sensitive to frost than farmers in southern Minnesota. I think it's I think they're even though they do, end up getting delayed a little bit, I think they've gotten nipped more. And I think it's simply just because they're they're farming in an environment where they really pinch by the by the the between spring and and the winter, you know, between winter and on both sides of their seasons. They really have to be aggressive and get in there and get those crops planted.
Speaker 3:And I think there is more they do tend to have more frost, issues, as we get up into the valley.
Speaker 1:I wanted to segue something else is even though they might have their seat obviously all all in hand, they can still make adjustments, Jeff, with the with the planter and that is, you know, given maybe we're in early and so forth. But let's talk about a little bit about population. You've been involved with a number of studies and and and previous to that, other people here as well at the University of Minnesota. There's been some rules of thumb, you know, in terms of adjusting plant population for yield, etcetera. Let's talk a little bit about about that, Jeff, in in terms of what people might be hearing or or thinking and and what can they do yet to to to fine tune, their their planning situation?
Speaker 2:Yeah. You know, so for corn, kind of a general guideline is around 30 4 to 36000 seeds per acre should optimize yield, but interestingly enough, I've been part of some on farm trials where we've been doing variable rate planting and, you know, sometimes in high yield fields in Southern Minnesota, even like 33,000 seeds per acre can maximize yield and profit, especially. So, you know, some things like that to consider. We've done the last couple years, we've done some trials in continuous corn at Lamberton and Waseca under a wide range of yield environments comparing 34,000 and 38,000 seeds per acre. And in all cases, there was no difference between 3,400,38,000 seeds per acre for yield in continuous corn.
Speaker 2:So that was a little interesting. You know, I had anticipated that, you know, under intense management and higher yields, good conditions that, you know, we would get a benefit to the 38,000 but so far we haven't seen it. So that that's a little bit of what I've seen recently. You know, a lot of people, well most people have the variable rate planting capacity. Whether or not they're using it is another question.
Speaker 2:So sometimes people are wondering, okay, where do I start? Or, you know, how much do I flex the populations in the field? You know, corn can adjust a little bit due to not enough plants or too many plants. Some kind of general guidelines are for every 10 bushel per acre difference in yield level within the field, the optimum planting rate is going to vary, is gonna increase by about 700 to a 1000 seeds per acre. So that means that if you got one zone in the field where the maximum yield is just gonna be around 200 bushels an acre and then you got another zone that's yield's gonna be about 210 there, maximum yield based on historic yield maps, Then in that higher yielding zone, it should need about 700 to a 1000 more seeds per acre.
Speaker 2:Kind of a general guideline. I don't anticipate any benefit really to planting more than 38,000 seeds per acre. One could probably go as low as, maybe the low thirties. One in lower yielding areas of the field. One needs to be a little careful or be thinking about, you know, the risk of planting too few seeds per acre, you know.
Speaker 2:That's something else to think about because if you if you have a lower yielding zone in the field and you back up back down too far in the population, and then what happens if you get sufficient rainfall that year and you end up having good yielding conditions? Well, then that low yielding zone in the field, you've already kinda set it up for low yields because you don't have enough plants there. So that's something to be a little bit, cautious about as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I I do something similar with, you know, thinking about, variable rating. I think farmers even farmers that aren't variable rating need to think about their fields as being variable and then how to treat that entire field. If they're gonna do a flat seeding rate, I think you brought up I think this is part of your point is that if you've got a field that has has higher yielding environments within it, then increasing the population, you could potentially capture a few extra bushels in those higher yielding areas within seed. You've got extra seed you're dropping.
Speaker 3:And so, you know, I think splitting the difference and understanding the proportions of fields that have high versus low yielding areas in them. Even if farmers aren't necessarily variable rating themselves, I think it helps them think about and probably, most farmers have, I think, come to these kind of median numbers anyway through through trial and error, and I think they have pretty good handle on what works for them. But it's it's I think it's another way to think about, establishing yield is think about those areas within within a field even if you're plant planting a flat population.
Speaker 1:Well, that being said, Seth, if you think about, getting out there early and even on on a from a soybean standpoint and a full season variety, any any general parameters, low and higher numbers that you would throw out for, you know, southern and and and central Minnesota to keep in mind in in terms of that without obviously being excessive, you know, in terms of running into other considerations, you know, not just the cost of the seed of soybean seed, but, where where are things kinda settling out for a lot of growers right now?
Speaker 3:Well, it's a huge range. You know, I it goes back to the what I was talking about with variability within Mhmm. Yields. I think some farmers that wanna make sure that every acre has enough soybeans within the whole field in southern Minnesota, they're planting a 150. Farmers that are willing to have a few acres that might be a little bit short of seed.
Speaker 3:And in soybean, it's the other way. It's the low yielding areas that need a little extra population. And so, those areas, they, they might be just they might miss out on a couple bushels if if they're being too conservative on their seeding rates. So we've I've done some rough numbers. And it's basically if if you look at what farmers are doing, they can plant anywhere between about a125, a 175,000 on a flat seeding rate and probably at least pay for their seed.
Speaker 3:Those that are planting higher seeding rates have a little bit more consistent yields throughout the field. Those that are low on that save a little bit of money on the front side in in terms of seed costs. And so the economic curve is almost entirely flat. So it's been one of the frustrations in my life, as I thought my job as a soybean agronomist was to go out and tell everybody what perfect plant population to plant and find out that there probably is no really good one number. And farmers can probably do plant a wide range of of of populations.
Speaker 3:The only the only caveats to remember, I think, that are really important is white mold areas we need to reduce, seeding rates on, and those are generally tend to be higher yielding anyway. The farmers definitely should be thinking about that. And so farmers that have white mold spots in fields, especially, should consider a variable rating or reducing populations overall because that can really hurt our yields. And then on the other side of this is iron deficiency chlorosis. We just need higher populations in those in those fields.
Speaker 3:So those are the only two things that really interact. Otherwise, it's basically yield driven. And, unfortunately, we don't know. We did some work on variable rating soybean, and we don't we don't really know what areas of fields are gonna yield better than than others. Obviously, some of the sandy knolls are gonna be lower yielding year after year, and we need to plant those at higher seeding rates.
Speaker 3:But, a lot of the other zones within soybean fields differ year over year. And so if we can't predict where those high and low yield areas are gonna be in a given year based on rainfall patterns and temperatures, we can't we can't really create good, prescriptions for yield map or for for planting maps.
Speaker 1:So, Jeff, we're we're still early obviously here in in terms of, you know, relative maturity. Hybrids, you know, farmers typically plant a range of things that gives them more opportunity, staying with that? But, you know, keeping in mind, you know, there might be some some options and some things to consider, in in terms of of, quote, having a a range of of relative maturities out there. Any any thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, having a range of relative maturities helps spread risk a little bit. You know, the thing for corn is the critical period is that, you know, probably 12 days before tasseling to about 2 weeks after tasseling and, you know, by having a range of maturities and a range of planting dates, that's going to kind of spread when that, you know, peak pollination time occurs. So if we have hot, you know, dry, windy conditions that, you know, all your acres aren't exposed to those same conditions at the same time. So it's kinda helps, you know, not put all your eggs in the same basket.
Speaker 1:Well, certainly for a lot of the you know, we can stay we and what we're not obviously concerned about then we when we if we have to come back and talk about this again, it would be, you know, if we're into that late May, early June to make some, you know, changes in terms of of, what they have already on on the warehouse floor.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. I think, there's no reason to be too concerned at this point. And, you know, if we have to think about switching maturities, we can kinda, you know, address that later. But I'm optimistic that this year, we won't have to run into that too much.
Speaker 3:I do wanna address this, this question that has been hanging out for the last couple years about planting corn versus soybean, and I wanna give you again another kinda twisted view of the world through my eyes. And that's that's this idea of, again, risk management around these two crops. I I'm not a proponent of planting soybeans before corn from a yield perspective and a flat economic perspective. I think corn should respond better to early planting than soybeans. So I don't I don't understand the drive for early planting.
Speaker 3:If corn is gonna respond to a little bit earlier planting than soybean, there's just absolutely no reason why you would plant soybean first. But I do think that there's an opportunity in soybean through risk management and that it is a little bit lower economic risk to plant early. Soybeans, as I mentioned earlier, can hang out in the soil for 3, 4 weeks and without any real huge problems in in many cases. If a farmer needs to replant a field of corn or soybeans, I think they'd much rather plant replant the field of soybeans. Maybe there's some situations where you've got some where we were talking about working days earlier.
Speaker 3:Maybe you've got a marginal conditions. Maybe a farmer wants to get going a little bit early, and maybe soybean is the answer for them for a field or 2 to put in some soybeans before corn. But I think it's all working around this question about working days and risk management and getting out there in the field and getting something done. And I think if farmers really are so itchy that they gotta do something, maybe they can maybe they wanna try a few soybeans early, and and plant those and and see how they do. I think there's just a a lower lower risk for them in the end.
Speaker 1:You know, a lot of farmers might have a option of having more than one planter, you know, often larger operations and dedicate one to the other. I think that's that's what we've seen to some extent. Isn't it, Seth?
Speaker 3:Yeah. We are I'm talking to more and more farmers if they do have the land and labor and and equipment availability that they can split their operations and plant corn and soybeans at the same time. But, you know, there's so many more things than just a planter and a guy to run it. We need you know, this it's questions about getting preys down and and, and those kinds of operations too that that come along with planting. So, I think when it works for folks, it it's a great idea.
Speaker 3:I love the idea of planting corn and soybeans at the same time on farms, but I think the number of farmers that are able to do that is is very small. I think it's it's a nice system when it works, but, I just don't I don't know that it's practical for most farmers today.
Speaker 1:Well, your point is well taken on pre emergent herbicides and certainly that's a that's a big component of our recommendations here at the university is to diversify that and have that ability and then in that timing so you're not overly dependent on, you know, just post with that. And, you know, on the flip side, we we wanna make sure what we have we control throughout their growing season. Well, Jeff, we're kind of filling up the time here a little bit on our on our podcast. Are there some other things that you wanted to touch on, anything else to mention that we probably didn't, that we want to make sure that people keep in mind?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I think this is a year where our margins are kinda tight. So people are thinking about what can I do to reduce costs and what are some inputs where I could pull back on a little bit to try to save a little money? You know, getting a lot of questions on that. You know, there's some things that we can do, but at the same time, we wanna be careful not to, you know, reduce pull back too much so that we set ourselves up for low yield or poor success. You know, I guess there's things like soil fertility.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's important to have good soil fertility and, you know, we don't want to skimp too much on that but, you know, we can, if times are tight, we can think a little bit about what we're doing and, you know, sometimes, like, thinking about, well, for p and k, maybe thinking about university guidelines rather than rather than, you know, the maintenance or applying based on, crop removal. Crop removal. Yeah. At least for 1 or 2 years might save a little money. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Other things like nitrogen, you know, if we're using split applications, it makes sense to think that you might be able to reduce the n rate a little bit. You know, maybe thinking about what n rate are you applying and how does that align with the university guidelines, You know, thinking about those kinds of things. If your crop is showing no nitrogen deficiency by the end of the year, it's even in the lowered leaves, that's a good indication that the total in rate was probably a little more than, what was economically optimal. So there's things that we can do to, you know, kind of reduce the inputs a little bit without sacrificing yield and may actually produce more profit, but, you know, it kind of depends on, you know, how much do you how much effort do you want to put into it and, that kind of thing but in many cases it could be quite profitable.
Speaker 1:I think you alluded to that when we talked about population and and, there's no in a lot of cases, probably not a big driver to go overly high in in that population and keeping that within reason. I think that's what a lot of the data is showing us.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I've been surprised by that. I was always kind of under the mind frame that, you know, we push the population higher, we should get higher yield, especially in high yield environments, and that just hasn't really been the case. There's been very few instances where I've seen that we get a significant yield boost for anything above 34 to 36000 seats per acre. So, not saying that it doesn't exist, but I think, you know, and especially over 38,000, I don't think it's very likely at all that you're gonna see much of a yield boost and probably not an economic boost.
Speaker 1:Seth, we're gonna give you the last word here, today.
Speaker 3:Well, I'd just like to tie this back to our questions about planting date and aggressiveness out there. Jeff brings up a really good point about, you know, the tight margins. And I think farmers, for the most part, they're gonna act similarly with their inputs and then how aggressive they are in inputs and how what their planting dates are. But we definitely don't wanna see at this juncture here where farmers are super conservative on on all their inputs and don't that are really concerned about their economic outlay on the on the crop. And then they're they rush to plant a crop, and they mud it in early because they want to, you know, hit a home run on the on the yield side from early planting.
Speaker 3:And I think that's something we just wanna caution against because, you know, if things are really tight, I think we just need to make sure we're hitting, you know, singles and doubles out there and and just get the crop planted in a in a good timely way and make sure to nurture it, and and not be in a situation where we're gonna have to replant and put all the extra diesel and all the extra all the extra seed costs involved with replanting a crop. And then with with replanting often comes a planting, penalty on that too. So, we just want to avoid those.
Speaker 1:Well, there's certainly an opportunity for folks if they want to learn more about this. You both have a lot of good information on University of Minnesota web pages and if you just go in and search in University of Minnesota Extension under field crops for both corn and soybeans, it's detailed out and so forth. There's a section I know on Jeff on planting and and Seth on planting on both. So some things to look up. Obviously, there's a lot of data and so forth that we didn't get a time to to talk about here today, but I would, you know, welcome to go and and look there because we spend a lot of time and effort and try to keep that information out there.
Speaker 1:And also, the University of Minnesota Extension, we we publish a number of, of of crop information throughout the throughout the year. We'll have other other pop podcasts and and field notes and so forth coming up here. And so you'll have a good opportunity to do that as well. So I wanna thank both of you, Jeff, especially for being our our guest here, today to kick off the spring on on April 1st here in this in this particular week. So we appreciate, doctor Jeff Colter coming by, University of Minnesota corn specialist, and, his information as well.
Speaker 1:And, Seth, thanks. Obviously, you're here anyhow, so we appreciate that. So this has been Dave Nicolai with the University of Minnesota crop cast podcast and Seth, we is our extension soybean specialist. We look forward to visiting with you folks here, quite a bit more here during the month of April. So thanks again.
