Whether monitoring fields from the ground or from up above, you’re bound to find a handful of problem areas that have you stumped. A plant analysis can be a useful diagnostic tool. And in many regions, the window to gather samples is open.
Shrinking daylight hours can make those harvest or tillage days seem even longer, if not a little bit harder. Upgrading your equipment to LED lighting can help ease some of the strain and stress of the season while helping you stay productive longer.
“We’re trying to be the most efficient we can be with what we have,” says Jason Strode. Jason and his father, Richard, farm about 5,200 acres of corn and soybean crops near Owensboro, Kentucky, where they’ve begun focusing on nitrogen management and have looked harder at providing nitrogen to the crop when it needs it.
If walking your fields this summer feels a bit like riding a roller coaster — even on your most level ground — make sure you walk some fields planted by a 2000 series Early Riser® planter. The consistency fencerow-to-fencerow is likely to sooth your queasiness.
We haven’t even lit Independence Day’s first firecracker. So, it’s understandable if putting your combine through its paces isn’t high on your to-do list. But between caring for your crops and preparing for the county fair, and between putting up hay and attending your kids’ ballgames, harvest time can sneak up on us.
This spring’s weather challenges provided an excellent reminder about just how tight production windows can become. With the season fresh in our memories, it’s not too soon to think about how important fall tillage is to our cropping cycle and about how weather can squeeze that opportunity, too.
Whether you’re still working around the weather to get those last fields planted or your crops are emerged and well on their way, an effective field scouting plan will give your crops the best opportunity to reach their full yield potential.
For nearly 40 years, Case IH Earth Metal® disk blades and Earth Metal sweeps have helped our entire lineup of tillage equipment perform better and more efficiently with less downtime. As you plan your tillage strategies, consider the advantages Earth Metal can bring to your operation.
With today’s margins, any hiccup, large or small, impacts your returns. Still, when it comes down to it, harvest is the true measure of success and a big determining factor of future successes. Kevin Hruska, who farms over 44,000 acres near Gerald, Saskatchewan, will tell you his high-efficiency harvest starts with the Axial-Flow® combine.
To be sure, efficiency is neither a new nor unusual goal in farming. But it’s reassuring to know that when conditions dictate, we’ve got the tools and the drive to accomplish even more in a tighter time frame. That’s precisely the scenario that’s played out across the western Corn Belt this spring.