This week’s planting report comes from Dave Brennan, Case IH Crop Production Specialist for Nebraska, Colorado and western Kansas. He grew up on a diversified farm in northwest Iowa, raising corn, soybeans and livestock. Joining Case IH right after college, Brennan has served in a variety of roles with the company, including Parts & Service Quality Supervisor at the Grand Island combine manufacturing facility, Field Service Rep, Manager of Field Service Operations, Parts & Service Rep, and Precision Farming Product Specialist, before assuming his current post.
Read his report below and let us know if you’ve used the Early Riser® 5 series planter and what you think about planting with it. We want to hear from you!
Farmers in my territory have been getting a lot of planting done in a short amount of time. At the beginning of last week, 41 percent had completed corn planting. By the end of last week, it jumped to 80 percent. Many producers also have been planting soybeans – 40 percent are in the ground.
Planting is going well for most growers. The bulk fill feature on the Case IH Early Riser planters really helps with getting so much planting done, in addition to the planter’s speed and accuracy.
Many producers are using the Precision Disk™ 500/500T air drills to plant soybeans because they cover a lot of acres and easily handle heavy, thick residue.
The Case IH Precision Disk 500 easily handles heavy corn residue.
We didn’t get much moisture over the winter, so a lot of corn residue has yet to break down. The fall, winter and spring also have been very windy, so residue is not evenly spread across the fields – it’s piled up here and there. Some farmers who have been farming for more than 50 years have told me they’ve never had to deal with residue like this, so it’s resulting in producers having to adapt their farming practices. Some growers have been managing it using vertical tillage tools, such as the Case IH True-Tandem™ 330 Turbo. Many farmers have been very impressed with the 330 Turbo’s performance.
Planting progress came to a halt this past weekend when the weather threw a big kink in things. Some areas got a lot of rain, at least 4 inches’ worth. The panhandle of Nebraska and parts of Colorado got 5 inches of snow. Temperatures reached lows in the 20s in that area too, which, of course, is not good for emerged corn.
After temperatures warm up, I anticipate that producers using the Early Riser planter will see even emergence, because the planter places seed in the ground at a uniform depth and soil pressure around the seed, which also should help protect it through this cold snap.
