It was a wonderful week to get caught up on fieldwork and planting in Michigan last week. The Michigan Ag Today forecast from Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin did call for some rain this past weekend, but not everyone got some. Southwest Michigan Pioneer agronomist Mike Swoish says he is worried about soil crusting for those that didn’t.
“Our dramatic tropical heat wave here all of a sudden actually has us caught up to or ahead of last year and normal for growing degree units, and for May 2022, we’re significantly ahead of May in 2020 and 2021 in terms of heat unit accumulation. So, the sun is baking these fields. Soil temperatures at 2 inches are 70+ in many areas of worked ground and we of course had the moisture and now haven’t.
Swoish says with that, there are a couple of things to think about.
“As long as we get a rain soon and our soybean population was high enough at planting, we should be okay. Same with corn. If we don’t get a rain though, then yeah, we’re gonna have some crusting issues for sure across the state. The other thing that I’m worried about a bit is were our soil applied herbicides applied at a time where we’re going to get any water to actually have them activated and have them taken up by growing weeds right now that are, of course, taking advantage of this heat as well and growing very quickly.”
Swoish says planting progress should absolutely be taking priority right now, but with the rapid advancement of growing degree units this past week, we might see wheat growing ahead of schedule. He urges farmers to be thinking about those critical fungicide applications that need to happen in the near future. Hear the full interview with Pioneer’s Mike Swoish below.
