Pivotal Issues Blog

By: Tom J Bechman Nearly 25 years ago, Dave Nanda estimated that corn could yield more than 500 bushels per acre. It wasn’t just a wild guess. He based his estimate partly on how many raw ingredients corn plants could capture per acre for photosynthesis. Over the past couple of years, farmers in national corn yield […]

By: Meaghan Anderson Before the combine gets stashed away for winter, an end-of-season clean-out is a way to check the combine over for necessary maintenance and remove material that could act as food or bedding for pests, like mice or raccoons. These animals can cause damage by chewing wires or nesting in the engine. Cleaning out […]

By: Gil Gullickson For the most part, there’s good news about corn rootworm in 2019. Wyffels Hybrids had an extensive rootworm-trapping network this last summer for adult rootworm beetles in order to assess next year’s larval (root damaging) populations. “We have not seen a huge spike in numbers,” says Mitch Heisler, marketing manager for Wyffels Hybrids. […]

By: Gene Johnston How much nitrogen does your corn crop need each year? That question is one of your toughest, you’ve said in surveys. Newell Kitchen, a soil scientist with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Missouri, is sympathetic to your quandary. The sources of plant-available nitrogen in the soil, coupled with the year-to-year variability of weather, […]

By: Enlist Weed Control System David Underwood grows cotton, corn and soybeans on his farm in central North Carolina. He takes a proactive approach to weed control, carefully monitoring each field and trying technologies to limit the impact weeds can have on yield. Each year, Underwood plants more than 1,000 acres of cotton. He plants several […]

By: Sara Brown   Researchers at the University of Minnesota are looking at new ways to use hog manure for fertilizer. In a recent podcast, University of Minnesota Extension specialist Melissa Wilson talks about one of her research initiatives to compare the use of liquid hog manure in sidedressing applications. “One of the big things I […]

By: WallacesFarmer Farming in Wright County in north-central Iowa, Tim Smith wants to be part of the solution. In 2011, he began adding practices that kept soil in place and held nutrients to improve soil health and water quality. Smith says he’s thankful for the assistance and guidance he receives from his local Natural Resources Conservation […]

By: Willie Vogt The science of crop modeling keeps advancing. Company software engineers are expanding their knowledge of the interaction among seed, soil, weather and growing conditions to better match crop to location. The latest news on that front comes from The Climate Corporation, a subsidiary of Bayer. The company is advancing its predictive seed selection […]

By: Dave Nanda Despite use of foliar fungicide applications by several farmers, I’ve seen lots of disease pressure in many cornfields this year. Along with gray leaf spot, I’ve seen northern corn leaf blight. Weather was favorable for these disease organisms, which affect yield and test weight. Disease lesions reduce the photosynthetic area of leaves, and […]

By: Industry Voice by Lemken USA Corn residue in particular must be sized and evenly mixed to incorporate organic material into the soil. This accelerates decomposition and reincorporates valuable nutrients that promote healthy plants the following year. Fall tillage also helps the ground warm faster in the spring, saving farmers valuable time in cold, wet planting […]