Patience is a virtue. It’s also required if you’re a farmer waiting for the right soil conditions to get out and get seed in the ground! Mother Nature might bring some overnight temperatures back into the 30s this weekend while farmers are stuck looking at their fields instead of planting them.
“If we make it through this weekend and we get lows that don’t dip into the 30s anymore, get some sunshine, I think we’re in the realm of planting here in the next 10 days, two weeks for sure,” says Pioneer agronomist Mike Swoish.
Swoish, the Southwest Michigan for Pioneer, runs through part of the checklist to be completed prior to planting.
“Start weed free. We want to have a plan there… Make sure you’re not working the ground too wet because we want to have a nice, clean, weed-free seed bed to start with. So, once you get that done and the planter is checked over– making sure the planter is effectively doing its jobs which are basically to open a furrow, meter the seed, place the seed, cover the seed, firm the seed bed- once all those things are correct and the weather forecast looks good, then we’re ready to go.”
Once you do get rolling, Swoish urges you to get out check behind the planter to ensure everything is working properly.
“Multiple times. Not just one time. Field conditions change. Soil types change. We need to make sure we’re checking often to be sure we’re getting the same uniform depth and spacing and seed-to-soil contact and we’re not having sidewall compaction.”
Pioneer agronomist Mike Swoish has more tips in the full MAT interview below. Get in touch with your Pioneer representatives at pioneer.com/findmyrep.
