Across Michigan the corn crop is 89 percent planted, and 82 percent of soybeans have been planted. In the 15 southern counties progress is a bit better and almost at the finish line.
“It’s been cold and when you look at 15 counties, there’s a little bit of everything across the whole bottom belt of Michigan, but all in all we are I would say 96% done with planting,” says Bart Marshall, Channel Seed Field Sales Representative in the new growing season update. He added, “these cool temperatures have caused a lot of slow emergence out there.”
Emergence is behind the 5-year average for both corn and beans. And the corn crop ratings are only 53 percent good to excellent, soybeans are at 54 percent.
“I would agree with that. The plants that are up that got planted early, before we got those three 85° days of warm sunny weather early in May, that corn is three and a half and four leaf tall. It looks good. It’s got great color, but there’s very, very few acres that I can put into that category. Those farmers that waited for better planting conditions and warmer soil types now have crops that have had a lot more cool stress early on in life.”
Marshall says farmers know where their hot and weak spots are in the fields, and the time is now to confirm where there may be problems this year and to get input on the best management plan.
“Get out and take a look at those low spots,” he told MAT. “Make sure you haven’t had any frost. We had some cool temperatures and a little bit of frost replant done here two days ago on some muck and some areas in Southern Michigan, so get out into your low ground and see what you’ve got for stands. Get out where you’ve had a history of a lot of insect pressure and take a look at those crops, and if you need help reach out to your seed people like Channel seed pros and others who should be on top of this with their agronomist taking a look at things with you and helping you through. Now is the time to fix problems,” he added. “We can do about anything with replants or with resprays.”
Bart Marshall says take advantage of all of the available options while the crop is small and before the window to fix problems starts to close. Hear more in the full MAT and Channel Seed growing season update:
