Harvest-Time Observations

So far harvest has gotten off to a good start. We have had dry weather and growers seem to be getting their crops out at a good pace. I am guessing by this time next week most of the beans will be done their will be a lot of corn harvested. I spent some time in combines last week and have noticed a few things. Mostly, the fields that had two pass chemicals in corn are still very clean compared to some fields that only had one pass chemical. The beans that had a second residual are also cleaner than the fields that only had one pass of residual. One corn field I was in was split in half with a fungicide trial. The corn that had fungicide applied at tassel was standing better and was easier to combine. It also had a 9.08-bushel yield advantage over the non-treated side. Another trend that I noticed was that the newer hybrids are doing very well this year. The older hybrids are still yielding very well but it seems the newer hybrids are out gaining them by 8 to 15 bushels. All of this shows that it really comes down to the finer details when trying to grow a big crop. Skipping one or two small steps to save some money has shown to really cost some bushels this year. Once this harvest wraps up speak with your SFG agronomist on taking steps for next year’s harvest.