We went from the prospect of “flash drought” to literal flash flooding not too far from us this week! We’ve had between 2½ and 3½ inches of rain in the last seven days. Some areas south of us have had double that.
I got back from a long softball weekend with our high school senior late Sunday evening. We were in Dayton, Ohio. We traveled east across U.S. 30 then south on I75. The 80-mph crop tour revealed that generally Ohio crops are behind those in Indiana with a good percentage of farmers just recently finishing up. However, I did see one field of pretty big soybeans as we were heading back out of the Dayton area. Initially, I thought the field was corn and had to do a double take. This weekend’s trip takes us north toward Lansing, Michigan.
Monday morning, I climbed into the sprayer and headed to some corn fields. I’m glad I did because that was the only chance to be in the fields this week. Waterhemp was pretty much the only weed out in the field. I sprayed several products, two of them specifically with different modes of action against waterhemp. We also added another layer of residual, hoping that will hold back weeds until crop canopy.
I wish I had sprayed longer, covered more acres, but I was flirting with rain coming into the area. As it was, I ended up with about five hours between starting down the rows and rainfall on products that are labeled as rainfast in four hours. By the time I was done, the first sprinkles threatened less than an hour after I drove out of the last field. I would have been happy with two hours, but I admit to sweating a little. Luckily, the fields are pretty clean.
I will certainly be behind next week with more corn and pretty much all the soybeans still left to spray. We’re quickly approaching 30 days post planting, which is a general rule for when we should be through the soybeans the first time. We also have about a quarter of the soybean fields left to roll. We roll them to allow for a better harvest. Beating rocks into the ground and flattening cornstalks means less repairs and a cleaner cut. Both of those add to the bottom line and allow for faster harvest. We also need to get going on our sidedress y-drop application. The corn was too small last week but it certainly is growing now!