Ferrie: Off to the Planting Races for Corn and Soybeans
If you’re in central Illinois, Ken Ferrie says agronomic conditions are favorable to start the planting process for corn and soybeans both this week.
For soybeans, specifically, you have a green light to plant early soybeans potentially on Tuesday afternoon and for sure on Wednesday. The one caveat is to plant only fully treated soybeans this early in the season, to protect them from seedling diseases, pests and other agronomic issues.
“These beans could be in the ground easily three weeks before emerging, so we need to protect them,” says Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist and owner of Crop-Tech Consulting, Heyworth, Ill.
“We do recommend that you start with your full-season beans first, and then go with your shorter season beans," he says. "As this planting season goes along, you want to increase your odds of getting the pre-Solstice flowering.”
If you’re not in central Illinois, Ferrie says to be sure to check your soil conditions, moisture and the local weather outlook before rolling into fields to plant.
As for what percentage of your soybean crop to plant early, consider how much risk you can stomach—the number of acres you’re willing to replant, if necessary.
“We could have a frost on May 14 (Mother’s Day) and have to do this all over again,” he says, referencing what he calls the Mother’s Day Massacre. “We’ve been through this before, so put on your big boy pants when you make that decision to plant.”
He adds that if you are planting into cover – at least 6 to 10 inches – you will have more protection available for the crop and are at less risk of losing some portion of it to frost.
Corn Planting Gets A Green Light, Too
For those of you in central Illinois (close to Bloomington) wanting to plant corn, Ferrie says he is willing to give the green light for Wednesday as well.
“Locally, it looks like we could get the corn planter started on Wednesday without seed-chilling issues, and we probably can continue to plant until about Saturday noon – if the weather forecast is correct,” he says.
There are two reasons he’s optimistic for Wednesday planting, specifically. First, the soil temperature and water in the soil will be warm enough corn cells will have some elasticity, which will reduce the potential for seed chilling. Second, if the weather forecast is correct, central Illinois farmers should be able to pick up between 50 and 55 GDUs this week -- a strong start on the total 120 to 150 GDUs needed for their corn crop to emerge.
However, based on the weather forecast, Ferrie says central Illinois farmers won’t get the next 60 GDUs until about May 1. “(That means) you're not likely to see any of the corn crop planted here this week until that first part of May,” he explains.
Beware Of Spike-Down Corn Plants
Ferrie says central-Illinois farmers will be able to avoid seed chilling but will still have trouble with spike-down corn emerging late, which was an issue there in 2022.
“There’s no way to prevent those spike-down plants from coming up late, so I wouldn’t go hog wild planting corn this week,” he cautions. “But it would be OK to get the corn planters running, to get them tuned up for the main planting event. Plus, we know some of you have some early corn contracts, so you want to put some corn in the ground.”
As a reminder, Ferrie says to plant corn based on the soil temperature and soil conditions and not by the calendar date. That strategy is even more critical if some of your seed sampled for saturated cold germination quality scored poorly. He advises against planting those seed lots.
“Start with your higher saturated scores when you're looking at your seed samples – those can best handle these early season weather conditions,” he says. “It's a situation where you don't want to put something with a poor score in the ground now and expect it to survive until early May.”
A Similar Take On Tillage
Farmers looking to do tillage this week should also let soil moisture and soil conditions guide decisions.
“For you guys that are using the soil finishers and field cultivators, dig down to about an inch below your tillage depth, and see if you can ball that soil up and then ribbon it between your thumb and your forefinger. If you can, it means if you go now it's going to be compaction problems that we'll be talking about later this season,” he cautions.
Disregard what your neighbors are doing in their fields this week, he adds.
“Just because your neighbor's running, keep in mind he may have more tile, or he may not understand what compaction can do to his ground and crop,” Ferrie cautions. “You guys need to be checking those heavier spots in the field, the heavier clay areas. If your neighbor's running a vertical harrow, that also doesn't mean that your ground is fit for the finisher. Go out and check it yourself. Make sure that you're not putting in a compaction layer.”
With that, Ferrie believes central Illinois farmers will be off to the planting races this week and getting some first-day jitters out of their way. “Hopefully this year will give you the biggest harvest of your farming career,” he says.
The Great Debate: What's the Ideal Row Spacing for Planting Soybeans?
Planters are Already Starting To Roll in These Areas
9 Steps to a Perfect Corn Stand
Hear Ferrie's complete Boots In The Field podcast about 2023 planting decisions for this week here:
