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Tractors are getting tuned up, planters are getting calibrated, and as soon as the weather is fit, farmers will be planting.
Before a seed goes into the ground, Steve Wilken, Golden Harvest agronomy manager for the East, says priorities need to be shaped.
“Let’s spend time to make sure we got the right seed for the right acre, our fertility and herbicide programs are up to speed—fully understanding some of the chemistries are a little harder to get this year,” he says. “We should have plans and backup plans in place in case something we really want ultimately doesn’t show.”
The Golden Harvest agronomy team has been studying how specific products respond to management practices.
“We understand that every single corn hybrid or soybean variety has a response curve to anything we do—that really hits home for growers who might farm a certain way,” he says. “How to mix and match hybrids and genetics to the way growers farm, that really helps us elevate the performance of our hybrids and the growers experience a different level. That’s very unique across the marketplace.”
With fertilizer prices and shortages to start the season, Wilken says it is still imperative to provide the rootzone with the proper nutrition and the proper time.
“We can raise really good corn or soybean crops without using more fertilizer as long as we give it at the right place at the right time—the four Rs of nutrient management,” he says. “We continually see a lot of growers who can actually cut back on N, P, K, you name it, and really maintain if not grow yield. But it all goes back to putting the nutrients in the rootzone and feeding the plant when the plant needs it—that’s the key thing.”
For more agronomic information, visit goldenharvestseeds.com or visit their YouTube channel.