Early Spring Planting

Planters have hit the field hard this week and it’s impressive how much seed can get in the ground over a one-week period. Soil temps and field conditions have allowed for a very good seedbed, and everyone is talking about how good field conditions are. Planting corn and soybeans this early is really setting us up for the highest yield potential.

As I’m writing this it’s trying to rain some but well below the half inch that has been talked about. We had many conversations with growers about the cold temperatures coming later this week, but I don’t think the weather slowed many corn planters down. Soil temps were above 70 degrees and with soil that warm the rain would need to be very cold to be worried about imbibitional chilling. Imbibitional chilling is when the seed takes in cold water for the first 24-48 hours. This can have a negative impact on germination and reduce final stands. I don’t think we will see too much of an issue here based on the small amount of rain we received and the overall warm temperatures when it rained.

Emergence might slow down as the high temperature later in the week is in the 50’s. I’d expect corn to take over 2 weeks to emerge but hoping to not repeat last years three weeks to emerge. There are some soybeans that have been in the ground since April 6^th and with the warm weather last week I expect to see them pop up very soon. Soybean emergence is going to slow down as that colder weather sits in but as long as beans were treated, I think it was a good idea to get them in the ground as well. As we evaluate this rain over the next day or so reach out if you are in need of anymore 2024 planting inputs.