Planting season is within view. Many farmers have put corn in the ground as many as 40 times, but the corn plant has changed and the planters have as well.
Planting corn is a rite of spring for Iowa farmers.
Planters are being reworked and adjusted for the few weeks when millions of acres will be covered almost non stop.
Jason Schnell, from GROWMARK is a Western Region Field Sales Agronomist. He works with Agriland, and covers Southeast Iowa.
Schnell shares some recommendations for the spring of 2017. “I think the first thing we talk about is knowing the seeds that were purchased. For example, high yield environment, what type of products would do better in a drought, wet bottoms, and heavy disease pressure.”
Schnell stressed the importance of knowing your product. “Another important thing is knowing the stock quality the hybrid has. We need to make sure the hybrid we’ve chosen will be standing in the fall.”
Temperature and the time of year plays an intricate part in the planting process. “The calendar is a very important thing, which determines soil temperatures. We could have soil temperatures first part of April getting up to that 50 degrees, but we need to look at what’s coming in the week after the next seven days, Schnell explained.”
“The first 24-36 hours are important of the water absorption that comes into that seed, which starts the beginning of life. Sometimes we need to look further than what it is right now. Of course soil conditions are very important.”
When planting it is better to go deeper. “The recommended planting depth is 1.5 to 2 inches. I’m not afraid to go a little bit deeper than that. I would rather go above two than under an inch and a half. It’s very important that we have that seed planted deep enough where the roots will develop like they should,” Schnell said.
