Michigan corn planting is now at 86 percent complete and 66 percent of the crop is emerged in the new update from Monday, and 79 percent of soybeans are planted with 58 percent emerged.
In the latest crop update from MAT and Channel Seeds, John Craft, technical Agronomist covering southern Michigan says it has been a good two weeks for progress.
“Crop progress as a whole has really taken off in the last two weeks as we’ve gotten a break in the weather and we are now ahead of that 5-year average,” Craft told MAT. “I would have guessed we were a little further along than that, but I know there’s still a lot of corn out there to be planted yet as well as soybeans.”
Craft says many fields have had a nice start but there are some concerns.
“I think there is a corridor of central-southern Michigan that got maybe some of those high intensity rainfalls and have quite a bit more crusting than many other parts of the state. So, I’m a little nervous for those acres. Some replant is already going on, more on the soybeans than on the corn. Again, they just kind of got planted and then got pounded into the ground and have been there for two weeks and are struggling to come through it. Most of the other parts of the state look good.”
Pest pressure is moving in now, and he says it is more a problem in soybean fields than corn fields.
“Anywhere where maybe that crop had marginal planting conditions, it just is a little slower paced,” he explained. “Pests have really set in and no-till acres, high weed pressure from the warm winter definitely didn’t help, so we had more weed development acting as a cover in many cases which can just provide a home for some of these insects. Definitely seeing slug, grub damage, Asiatic garden beetles on some of those sandier soils, again where the crop just was slowed down and is struggling to outgrow that feeding damage. There are some reports of army worm and black cut worm throughout the state. I haven’t seen any as it seems to be more northern at this point, which is contrary to what I would think, but I’m hearing of it down in southern Michigan close to the Ohio border as well.”
His advice is to scout your fields and work with your agronomist for management options. Hear more in the full MAT and Channel Seeds update:
