Mother Nature impacts crop growth in various ways. Iowa farmers battled drought conditions, wind damages, and more this season. Let’s take a look at how crops are holding up against some of these common and unexpected obstacles.
Southwest Iowa experienced a ?mixed bag? of weather this year, shares John Long, Retail Product Agronomist with Brevant Seeds.
?We had the most plentiful rainfall (near Sidney), and now have a nice looking crop,? Long says. ?A little farther north, in Shelby and Guthrie County, they?re the epicenter of the drought. Then along Highway 30, in Carroll, Crawford, and Greene County, we saw the derecho come through and some nasty effects of that.?
Brevant Seeds’ portfolio seemed up for the challenge, and held its ground. AQUAMax traits overcame bleak conditions, according to Long.
?The AQUAMax trait has come in handy this year. It?s been timely for the stress we had. But also things that are going to deliver good test weights, late season plant health, and grain quality,” Long says.
“(There are) a lot of things we like in the line up,? Long says. ?A couple of those would be our Brevant 08C92, a 108-day hybrid with the AML traits. B08C92 is consistent, a yield leader across Iowa in 2019, gives growers an option for earlier harvest, and adaptable across soils. Then a new hybrid we’ve focused on is 12CO1, a 112-day we have as an AcreMax or QROME. B12CO1, is an AQUAMax product, gets our top ratings for stalk strength, root strength, drought, handles variable soils, and lots of population ranges.”
Long encourages farmers to keep an eye on crop development, as harvest nears. A late season dry spell may cause reason for concern.
“(When) you go out, walk fields, and break ears open, you’ll be surprised how far along your corn is,” Long says. “Some of the greenest corn is getting close to physiological maturity. Also as we’ve had this heat and late dry spell, (you’ll) probably need to start evaluating stalk strength. We’re probably going to have cannibalization in stalks to fill grain out, (which) is going to weaken stalks. We’re not going to mature rapidly, and that always causes concern about standability.
For product information and yield data, visit brevant.com.
