Around Indiana much of the crop still needing to be planted finally got over the hump last week. The next hump is right in front of that crop though. Hotter and dryer weather has settled in and DuPont Pioneer Encirca Services lead TC Huffman says that is a cause for concern.
?Did we get things planted into moisture, are they going to germinate and come up, especially what we planted last week,? are among the concerns he said. ?And then how much stress is this heat going to put the crop on, especially in cases where it?s at that V3, V4, V5 stage on corn. It?s starting to switch from growing off of the seed to starting to grow onto the root system. It?s starting to take in nutrients and moisture from the soil, and how?s that going to transpire and how?s that going to affect the crop.?
If much more time passes soil moisture could be quite problematic.
?Soil moisture still seems to be ok underneath, but I am worried that we?re going to start getting dried out especially with the heavy winds we?ve had for a few days and the heat. We?re definitely going to start drying out in that top crust and that?s going to lead to some concerns especially as the corn plant starts to make that transition to the root system.?
The windy conditions are putting spray operations on hold across Indiana. Right now the winds are an impediment to on target applications.
?Driving around the state I?ve seen a lot of fields that were in need of some applications,? Huffman told HAT. ?There?s some weedy corn out there and some weedy soybean fields. The plants are going to keep getting bigger and the weeds are going to keep getting bigger, so we?re going to have to find some time to get in and get these fields cleaned up and make sure that our herbicides are working properly so weeds don?t become an additional stress later on competing with this crop for nutrients and moisture.?
Listen to the complete DuPont Pioneer agronomy update:TC Huffman 6-12 Agronomy Update
