Drought Update 1

I just finished listening in on a Purdue conference call addressing the dry conditions we've been having over the last month. To offer a summary:

Corn: According to Bob Nielsen while corn has been hurt some, this isn't critical in most fields yet. He believes that with good rains beginning in the next few days and continuing through the growing season we could still achieve trend yields. As a general statement covering the whole state he thinks the critical period this year will be during pollination from late June through the third week in July, a week or so earlier than usual. In Clinton County I think we're looking at the first two weeks in July. The afternoon leaf rolling we're seeing right now, while a symptom of stress, doesn't indicate a critical yield loss at this time.

Soybeans: Soybean specialist Shaun Casteel says that beans are mostly in a holding pattern right now but should be able to compensate if rains come. We all know that beans can recover fairly well from drought stress, so long as it rains at some point. If plants are severely stressed they may even begin to flower very early but even with flowering beans, if rain comes they will drop those flowers and resumed vegetative growth. Obviously, if they get all the way to setting pods due to this things change. For double crop beans Shaun recommends holding off seeding after wheat in hopes of receiving some moisture but if for some reason you absolutely have to get in the field and it's still dry, you should look at raising your seeding rate to account for some emergence problems which are likely to occur.

Pests: Christian Krupke from the Purdue Entomology Department discussed spider mites in soybeans. Spider mites are a pest we usually don't worry much about as a healthy plant outgrows damage but they can devastate plants which are basically holding as they are now. So far there haven't been many reports of this (I haven't heard of any here) but if the dry weather continues it's hard to believe this won't be a problem before long. Look for bronzing of leaves, beginning at field borders and think about doing some scouting. He has posted a Youtube video which shows how to scout for mites.

Also, if you have Soybean Cyst Nematode issues, this sort of year really brings these out. There's nothing to be done about it for this growing season but if you identify areas where you may have a problem, you can make some decisions about addressing it for next year. Look for plants that aren't growing well (nothing's growing well right now but these would be even worse) and are turning yellow. Damaged areas in a field are typically oval or circular in shape.

Meeting on Changes to IDEM Confined Feeding Rules

Indiana Farm Bureau, Indiana Ag Commodity groups and Purdue Extension are organizing a series of meetings to update producers on the changes to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management's (IDEM) Confined Feeding Rule. The programs will be held on June 19 in Decatur County, June 26 in Wells County and June 28 at the Southern Indiana Purdue Ag Center (SIPAC) in Dubois County.

I will be hosting a live videoconference of the Tuesday, June 26 meeting from 1-4 p.m. at the Clinton County Extension Office, 1111 South Jackson Street in Frankfort. I don't have a lot of details at this time however I'm sure I'll have copies of program materials to hand out so I'd appreciate you letting me know if you're planning to attend. You can call our office at 765-659-6380 or 765-296-3511 or you can e-mail me.

The complete program agenda is listed below:

CFO and CAFO NPDES Compliance Education Meetings

Welcome – Greg Slipher

Fact sheets & Comparison document

Rule Development Process – Andy Tauer

·         Timeline

·         Ag workgroup, member input, submission of comments

·         Negotiated compromise where possible but some issues unable to change

o   Groundwater monitoring requirements

o   Phosphorus soil test limits

o   Restrictions on application to frozen or snow covered ground

CAFO NPDES Rule Requirements – Josh Trenary

·         Only actual discharges require an NPDES permit

o   Ongoing discharges, such as non-contact cooling water from dairies 

o   Operations with a history of accidental discharges may also be required to maintain their NPDES permit if they can’t show that the cause of the discharge has been remedied

·         Transition to CFO

·         General permits going away

·         Nutrient Management Plans requirements

o   Public notice and comment

o   Substantial changes

·         No application to frozen or snow covered ground unless allowed under permit

·         Steps must be taken to prevent contamination to stormwater

·         Digesters, etc

CFO Rule Requirements – Justin Schneider

·         Alternative design or compliance approach

·         Manure application will be based upon both phosphorus and nitrogen limits

o   Applications to fields over 200 ppm of P is prohibited for most large CAFOs and all newly constructed operations

o   Existing CFOs and large CAFOs constructed prior to February 13, 2003 have seven years to phase-in application restrictions to 200 ppm of P

o   Some allowances made for nitrogen loss estimates

·         Application to frozen or snow covered ground is restricted

o   Large CAFOs may not apply to frozen or snow covered ground

o   Emergency applications with prior approval allowed for CFOs

o   CFOs with one-hundred twenty days or less approved storage can seek approval to apply

·         Ground water monitoring may be required

·         Storm water management must be implemented – Josh Trenary

·         A professional engineer must certify the construction of all liquid manure storage structures – Mike Dunn

·         Construction standards and technical resources – Mike Dunn

·         How to use forms – Record keeping – Tamilee Nennich/Mike Dunn

Lawsuit Related Issues – Justin Schneider

·         Permit appeals

·         Nuisance suits

Outreach prior to decision to construct or expand – Greg Slipher

Q & A - Presenters

2012 Purdue Custom Rates Publication

Over the winter Purdue did a survey of Custom Farm Rates. That survey has been compiled and is available as a PDF at the link below.

2012 Indiana Custom Rates

Additional Dry Weather in Corn Information

Bob Nielsen put together an article yesterday on his Chat 'n Chew Cafe website with a bit more information on the impact of hot and dry weather on early corn. This adds a bit to my earlier post on dry weather and corn which looked at dryness in and of itself without considering heat impacts.

In essence, Bob is concerned about the impact of the dry weather and in particular some of the heat we've had on the root development of young corn. Not sure there's a lot that can be done unless you have irrigation.

One article I haven't seen is on the accumulative stress of quickly transitioning from periods with nights in the 40's to ones with days in the 90's. If I come across something on this I'll post it.

August Dates to Save

I have a couple of programs I've scheduled for August so I'll throw these in here as a "save the date" message. More details will follow as we get closer.

On Tuesday, August 14 I'll have a Pork Quality Assurance (PQA) Plus and Site Self-Assessment Training program. This will be held at the Clinton County Extension Office, 1111 South Jackson Street in Frankfort from 6:30-8:30 p.m. The first hour will cover PQA Plus, the second hour will be for the site self-assessment training and test. Keep in mind if you know of someone who will be going to college to work in a swine unit or if you have a youth member age 14 or older who markets 10 or more pigs, they will probably need PQA Plus certification.

I've scheduled two programs for Wednesday, August 29 at the Clinton County Fairgrounds. In the morning from 10:30 to Noon, Craig Dobbins from the Purdue Ag Economics Department will be on hand to discuss Indiana Land Values and Cash Rents, including information based on the 2012 Indiana Land Values and Cash Rents Survey results, which should be available by this meeting. From 1-3 p.m. we'll have a Private Applicator Recertification Program (PARP). I don't know the precise topic for this but Fred Whitford from Purdue Pesticide Programs will be the main presenter so I'm sure it will be good. I'm working on finding a lunch sponsor for this day so hopefully we'll have a meal for attendees. EDIT: Just received a call from The Farmers Bank and they will be sponsoring lunch for the day.

Impact of Dry Weather on Early Corn

Since the rain last night missed us for the most part, I think it's worth taking a look at how early season dryness impacts corn development. Some years ago (unfortunately this now translates to a few decades ago) when I worked in Nebraska folks didn't worry much about the early season dryness and there was plenty of 7-ft corn which made pretty good yields (this being relative as 150 bu was pretty good). In any case, they generally didn't turn the irrigation on until June, whatever the weather.

Chad Lee and John Grove from the University of Kentucky posted an interesting article a couple of weeks ago on this. In essence, until V6, so long as the plants don't actually burn up, there's little impact from early season dryness. From that point on it starts to become a problem.

Aspects not covered in this article include things like outgrowing potential cutworm damage. Fortunately, while it seems like it would be an ideal year for cutworm damage, I haven't heard of any problems in Clinton County.

Purdue Farm Management Tour

The 2012 Purdue Farm Management Tour will be held on June 20-21 in Marshall County. This is fairly close to us this year and I'd encourage you to think about going if you can work it out. I've been a couple of times (I'm teaching GIS at a summer youth camp then and can't go this year) and it's a great way to find out what other people are doing and do some brain-picking.

You can find additional information at the Purdue Farm Management Tour page. Right now you'll mainly find the program flyer there but a detailed agenda, farm descriptions, etc., will be available soon.