Ferrie: It's Only February, but Iowa Farmers are Considering Field Work and Anhydrous Applications

While drought conditions have eased up in many parts of the country, that’s not the case for Iowa. Nearly all of the state is experiencing some degree of dryness – especially the north-central part of the state and further east to the Illinois line. Much of that area is gripped by D2 and D3 drought conditions.

Iowa farmers in those areas are considering whether to do field work and apply anhydrous ammonia – even though the calendar is still set on February, according to Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal field agronomist and owner of Crop-Tech Consulting, Heyworth, Ill. 

He has fielded a variety of questions from farmers in the state during the past week. Here is a summary of what he shared with them during this week’s Boots In The Field podcast.

Have A Plan In Place

“With regard to anhydrous applications, make sure the soil is firm enough to hold the tractor and the tank without creating track issues. If so, I would say let her rip,” he says. 

However, before heading to the field and applying anhydrous, Ferrie advises growers to firm up what crop they’re going to plant.

“The main thing to be sure of is that you’re sticking with corn for this 2024 crop,” Ferrie says. “Growers have been kicking around the idea of going beans-on-beans, given these markets. Once you put your anhydrous on you're kind of locked into corn.” 

Additional questions Ferrie fielded this week addressed spring chisel plowing and, in some cases, chisel plowing fields where cattle have been grazing. 

“Here again, if it's dry enough to get good soil shatter, my advice would be to go ahead but with one caveat,” he says. “Level these fields in a matter of hours after the chisel. Now you might be able to chisel through the night and level during the day, but don't let the soil dry out and clod up on you.”

Ferrie is concerned there may be very few freezing-and-thawing days left this winter that could melt a clod, and you don't want to be planting into cloddy soils. 

“Level her up, and pray for rain to give you a sterile seedbed to plant into if that’s what you opt to do,” he advises. “I would stick with shallow chisels and not deep ripping. The deeper we work this the more risk we have if it doesn't rain.”

Some Iowa farmers are also considering whether to run their vertical tillage equipment now.

“Here again, you need to be dry enough that the tractor tracks are not going to be a problem. The same goes for row fresheners,” he says. “So, level these fields up, pray for rain and plant into that sterile seedbed.”

First Spring Pass Can Create A Compaction Layer

One farmer asked, “What about running my soil finisher and/or my high-speed disk on bean stubble?”

Ferrie says that decision is a bit trickier to make or recommend. 

“To start with, 80% of the compaction service calls I go on in the summer are caused by the first pass in the spring – yes, the one you're about to make,” he says. “When we run the one-pass program in bean stubble, your horizontal layer will put in a barrier that will prevent water from moving up and down through the soil. Come planting time in April and May, you could be out of water, unable to get it up through the layer, or you could be too wet because you can't get water down through that layer.”

His advice: “Keep those tools in the shed. Keep your powder dry, and wait until closer to planting when you're going to be able to control your water route.”

Ferrie adds that a soil finisher should stay a couple rounds ahead of your planter. 

“And if it's like last year, you're going to want to keep your high-speed disk in the same pass as the planter. Because our high-speed disk, again, is putting in a lot shallower layer, and that water leaves very quickly,” he says.

Don’t Follow Your Neighbors’ Lead

Ferrie says to remember to not make decisions about when to go to the field based on what your neighbor does.

“Your neighbor doesn't decide when your ground is fit. Just because the neighbors light up doesn't mean the soil is fit in your field. Your neighbors can have different soil types, different amounts of drainage, and they're not the ones that dictate what you do,” he says.

“If the neighbor is running a shallow vertical harrow, it may be dry enough for him to get started. But if you're going to run a soil finisher four-and-a-half or five-inches deep, the ground very well may not be fit,” he cautions. “You are the keeper of your own acres.

“It makes me a little nervous to give our Iowa guys a green light on some of these practices. I wonder how many Illinois farmers will jump the starting line. We need more time in most fields here locally, but our time will be coming, too, if this weather continues,” he adds.

Be Proactive With Topdressing Wheat

In central Illinois this week, many farmers are getting their wheat crop topdressed.

“Anybody who hasn't, I would use this window of opportunity to get that done. With these temperatures, the wheat will come out of dormancy very quickly. Some fields are dealing with tougher stands due to planting date and low-lying areas.

"If those tougher wheat stands are going to corn, in case of a winterkill, I would still go ahead and topdress them. If they're going to soybeans, I would hold up see how the wheat overwinters. If you keep it you may have to switch to urea instead of liquid to topdress it,” he adds.

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