News

Getting past the challenges of 2015

Growers who have been hit the hardest by Mother Nature this year are already looking ahead to 2016.

Mike Toohill, Illinois-based agronomist with Diversified Services says one of the biggest concern for those growers is the condition of the soil.  “This ground is just hard from all these rains,” he says.  “Besides what we did to it last fall with harvest compaction and spring compaction, after a 2 inch rain I could go right across these fields and barely sink in because it’s hard.  We’ll have to manage any compaction for next year.”

Toohill says another issue is the washed out areas in fields that have nothing but weeds growing in them.  “Maybe some dead crop fallow syndrome and maybe some weed pressure is another chapter that has yet to be written on the soybeans,” he says. “It’s still unknown how many bushels the marestail or the water hemp take away this year.”

He tells Brownfield producers are going to be faced with some tough decisions at the end of the year.  “The bottom line is if these commodity prices stay where they are at and the crop ends up being pretty mediocre like I think it is going to be some pretty tough agronomic and economic times on the farm,” he says.  “I really feel for the growers if things turn out the way they look today.”

Toohill says a nice fall would help growers get crops out quickly and address some of the issues in fields.