Our Area of Waterloo was hit pretty hard by drought in the month of July, which had an effect on corn especially corn on light sandy soils. The pictures below depict what you might see on the sandy soil, a shorter plant with poorly pollinated cobs. The reason for the poorly pollinated cobs is due to the timing of the drought. From July 1st to 20th (beginning of tasseling) we received 3.2 mm, corn uses approximately 4mm/day!! it doesn’t take to a math genius to calculate the deficits of water in the moth of July. Due to the lack of moisture corn went into survival mode! Leaves starter to curl growth slowed down and unfortunately the timing of silk emergence and pollen shed where not in sink, and if they did manage to sink closely pollen viability severely decrease in Hot temperatures.
That Being said there are still some excellent corn fields out there, these fields where either on better (heavier) soils or you where in an area that received timely rains. Below is a picture of P8906HR outside of Elora!!! yield Potential is still in the 150+ bu/ac range!!!
The picture below is of P0125HR (silage variety) taken outside of West Montrose, another area that received some timely rains.
New Variety: P9760HR This variety has seemed to take the drought quite well, and is anticipated to be one of our new HIGH YIELDING varieties for this area! This field is planted just outside of Bloomingdale.
Soybeans seemed to handle the drought a little better then corn, and with these timely rains in August I personally predict to have an average to slightly above average yield (once again depending on where you are and how much rain you have received). August Rains make beans and we have had our fair share of August rains! The drought did bring on some Potash deficiency symptoms. K20(Potash) is a nutrient that enters the plant by mass flow so water is needed to get the nutrient into the plant, and sufficient water is also needed to have K20 removed from the soil colloid and put in the soil solution. Below are some pictures of Potash deficiency symptoms.
With the rains we have received in August you may see some on the new leaves on soybean plants green up (as seen below), leaves with deficiency symptoms will not green up!!! If your field shows a potash deficiency make sure to soil sample this fall to ensure your fields is not deficient in nutrients. Fall application of fertilizer is a good time to apply nutrients like P & K since they move slowly in the soil profile, this will ensure better nutrient usage in the 2012 growing season.
Amsey Martin (Below) is holding a soybean plant (91M01) that has 100 pods on it!! If every single one of the plants in the field had 100 pods at 160,000 plants per acres they theoretical yield potential would be (((100 pods x160,000 ppa x2.5 seeds/pod)/2,900 seeds per pound))/60lb/bu = 230 bu/ac!!!) 230 bu/ac!!! AWESOME!! now all of the plants in the field do not look like this…but wouldn’t it be neat to find out how we could!!! The potential is there! This field has the potential to be in the 60 bu/ac range but we still have a 3-4 weeks to go, and the whole field does not look like this so it will be interesting to see what this field averages at harvest time!
This picture is also taken from Amsey’s field to show the poding on other plants and that it was not just 1 plant not surrounded by any other plants.
Below is a picture of late planted 90Y21’s a new 2575 CHU RR Soybean. I like the branching and the amount of pods present on this plant considering the late planting date!
90Y70’s are a new 2700 CHU RR Soybean that are also looking really good! This picture (below) was taken at our plot this week!! Should be interesting to see how they yield this fall!!
