Hi Everyone,
As I sit writing this and watching the snow still falling in northern Indiana and stories from all of you about continued cold and wet conditions, I’m beginning to come to the realization that we are once again going to be having another very late planting season. That being said, I am extremely thankful that I have ZERO nitrogen applied to our fields yet, and all of our seeds are still safely tucked away in the hangar with the planes. This past week, I watched as neighbors mudded in anhydrous in a desperate attempt to stay on calendar. Once again, I am happy to be using our AirScout Hindsight system, and the season hasn’t even begun yet.
Just as a review, we will be applying a base nitrogen application rate of about 75 pounds at planting time, followed by another 75 pounds after we know we have it out of the ground. After that, it’s all up to the imagery, and we will adjust from there according to the potential of each individual zone in the field. Although we may have a little more work to do later in the season than my neighbor mentioned above, it’s a trade I am happy to make!
Cold/wet (Purple/Blue) areas showing drainage and compaction problems.
For those of you that met our March 15th deadline, you should all have at least one set of images already. If you need help building planting prescriptions from these images, please let me know. Be on the lookout for those cold/wet areas in your fields, as they reveal drainage and infiltration problems. When finally getting ready to head to the field with your planter, double check these cold/wet areas. If they are suitable, the rest of the field is probably better. If they are not, you can at least calculate the risk versus reward of pushing a bad situation. At the very least, it may give you enough insight to skip certain areas of the field, so you can come back at a later date.
For those of you that have not signed up yet, we will be opening up our flight routes for new fields on May 1st and rebuilding the routes accordingly. If you are needing imagery, or would like to give us a try this season, I strongly recommend you enroll your fields immediately so you don’t miss any more flights. I cannot stress enough the importance of these early season pictures in understanding your fields. You can get in touch with us here to enroll. The story of 2019 has already begun, and without the imagery, you will once again be looking at your yield maps in the fall and wondering “what happened.” In the meantime, best wishes on a prosperous growing season and some warm and dry weather to get us all started!
Brian