About This Episode
Chris Barron phones Troy Deutmeyer after a cold snap left northeast Iowa with a four-inch soil temperature around 35 degrees at 7:00 in the morning and close to a half inch of frost in the ground. Detmeyer's rule is that corn and soybeans want their first drink of water to be warm. He used to say 50 degrees; genetics and seed treatments now let him accept 45, with 40 plus as the floor before anyone should be rolling.
The decision turns on how long planting takes and what the forecast says. If the forecast improves in five or six days and it only takes five or six days to plant, waiting costs nothing. If planting takes two weeks, get going, and put soybeans in first, because beans compensate for thin stands: 100,000 seeded and 90,000 established still works, while losing 30 to 40 percent of a corn stand means replant. Given equal conditions, start on heavier soils.
On timing, Detmeyer says corn planted through May 10 and even May 15 north of Interstate 80 has produced record crops with little yield loss, at the cost of a point or two of extra moisture in the fall. He is about three weeks away from considering maturity changes, so stay with the seed plan. For acres already planted, leave them alone a week to 10 days, then check for fleshy white roots and firm kernels.
“Corn and soybeans both really like to have their first drink of water be relatively warm.”
— Troy Deutmeyer
Key Takeaways
Soil at four inches read about 35 degrees with roughly a half inch of frost; corn and beans need warm water in the first 24 to 48 hours after planting.
50 degrees was the old target, 45 is workable with current genetics and seed treatments, and 40 plus is the minimum before going.
If planting takes two weeks, start with soybeans: a stand of 90,000 out of 100,000 seeded still works, while a 30 to 40 percent corn stand loss triggers replant.
Given equal conditions, start on heavier soils rather than sand, because light soils cool fast and can kill a sprouted seed overnight.
North of Interstate 80, corn planted through May 10 to May 15 has made record crops, so maturity switches are still about three weeks away.
Wait a week to 10 days before digging planted seed, then look for fleshy white roots and squeeze corn kernels to confirm they are still firm.
Full Transcript
Chris: Chris. Hey there. I'd like to welcome everybody on the Ag View Pitch. I'm actually giving Troy Detmeyer a phone call. Troy, how's it going today?
Troy
Detmeyer: I'm doing well, Chris. How about yourself?
Chris: Well, good, good. I just thought it would be important to do a quick follow-up call here. We've had a few guys kind of wondering, uh, to plant or not to plant was what I was going to title this one quick. And we're even have— we even have a little debate internally, I think. In our own operation. So kind of what I wanted to hit you up on today was just, just on several different things from soil moisture to temperature to forecast workload, all that kind of fun stuff. So, um, I guess I'd— yeah, so I guess I'll start there. Um, you know, I think most everybody kind of knows their soils, you know, if the moisture, soil moisture is in good shape, However, you put something on Facebook this morning. Talk a little bit about what you're seeing in temperatures in our neck of the woods. Sure.
Troy
Detmeyer: So in Northeast Iowa this morning at 7:00 AM, we had a 4-inch soil temperature of around 35 degrees. And actually, to be honest with you, there was probably almost a half inch of frost in the soil.
Chris: So when I—
Troy
Detmeyer: I thought for a second I was in a compacted area when I shoved this thermometer in. And actually, it was just the fact that there was some frost. So, you know, we're looking at some pretty cold conditions. And like you said, most guys understand if their soil's fit or not. But the main thing that we like to always talk about is corn and soybeans both really like to have their first drink of water be relatively warm. We used to always say 50 degrees. We might be able to fudge that down to 45 degrees now with the improvement in genetics and seed treatments. But we really need those soil temperatures for the first, for sure, 24, if not 48 hours. And I think that's probably the risk assessment guys need to make in looking at the long-term forecast and how many days does it take you to plant.
If your forecast looks good here in 5 or 6 days, for 5 or 6 days, it only takes you 5 or 6 days to plant. You can probably hold off. Now if you're someone that the forecast doesn't look good or it takes you a couple weeks to get everything in the ground, you know, you might think about getting going here, maybe in a day or two once we can at least for sure get into the 40s for 40-degree, 40-plus degree soil temps. And like I said, we really prefer 45 plus.
Chris: Is it more risky on say soybeans versus corn, or is there not really that much difference between the two? If a guy, if If you had some acres to plant and you could either plant soybeans or plant corn and it's going to be 45 degrees and a real slow warm-up, what would you do?
Troy
Detmeyer: You know, they can be impacted very similarly, Chris. The thing is, is we know that soybeans can fill in for poor stands. So I guess if I was someone and I was looking and saying, you know, I got 2+ weeks of planting to get done. I really need to get rolling. I would choose soybeans just from that standpoint where if we're seeding 100,000 and we only end up with 90,000, you know, we're going to be okay. You know, you lose 30 to 40% of your corn stand and you're looking at a replant situation. So if you absolutely need to be out, you know, you know, stick soybeans in the ground. And it's not because soybeans are better at stress emergence or inhibitional chilling. It's just the fact that they can fill in and compensate for thinner stands.
Chris: If a guy's going to plant a little bit, so to speak, to get quote unquote stuff working— in other words, when you go to the field, that's when you find out if you're ready to go. So for those guys that are going to be out there planting that that what they call getting stuff working field? Do you go to a field with more variable soils, one that's heavier soil, lighter soils? What would you go into if conditions— if soil conditions were all equal?
Troy
Detmeyer: Sure, if soil conditions were equal, I would actually, Chris, go into the heavier soils. And the reason for that is while they take a little bit more to warm up, they also take a lot more to cool off. And so we've seen in years where we're really flirting with this temperature situation, and then we do get some cold nights, a lot of times I see those light sandy areas are the ones that actually end up struggling the most with stand establishment. My guess is, for how cold the soils got here last night, those who planted soybeans possibly last week that had a nice sprout coming on them, if you will, and only planted them an inch deep, you know, they could have actually got killed off last night in the sand because the cold can penetrate much more quickly and deeper into those, those lighter soils.
So yeah, I would choose to go on a heavier piece of dirt if it's fit, just because it'll hold the heat better.
Chris: Yeah, I see the, the corn we planted, um, 2 weeks ago, or whatever it is now, when the soil temperatures were above 60, we've got a a nice sprout on the corn. The sprout's about the same length as the, as the kernel is, but it's down in there deep. I think a lot of the ones I dug were at probably 2.5 inches going off your, you know, making sure your planting depth is at that on corn at that 2.25 at a minimum, you know, and I think we probably go a touch deeper than that. So I think I'm glad we did that. All of those acres planted and everything look pretty good. But with that said, I do want to ask this question too. What do you tell the listeners here that are excited and feel like they need to be going because they're— they have, quote unquote, either haven't done anything yet or feel like they've got more than 5 or 6 days it's going to take them to plant?
Historically, what would you say? Again, you know, you're— we're talking Northeast Iowa, and the listeners here range from northern North Dakota to Texas and everywhere in between. But, but for a given region, you know, talk percentages, you know, how late can you go and not give up any yield, you know, theoretically?
Troy
Detmeyer: Sure. Well, you know, like you said, it's, it's going to depend, Chris, like you said, on the latitude that you're at, you know, and, and that varies as you, as you move north. But I know for us you know, even from Interstate 80 and north, you know, we can plant corn May 10th and not have really any yield loss, to be quite honest with you. Soybeans, you know, we're starting to see obviously the yield impacts of earlier planting there, but the last 3 to 4 years has taught us that, you know, this early planting on corn really isn't necessary if you're okay with maybe a point or two wetter grain come fall, you know, with the corn. We've produced, you know, record crops in some areas between, you know, north and south, the I-80 planting up through May 10th and even May 15th.
So I guess it goes to show that we don't really have to be in— even if you have 2 weeks of planting, we don't have to, you know, run around the clock right now and be worried about, you know, getting this thing in and losing yield potential because of the calendar. We still have, you know, almost 3 weeks. Of that left.
Chris: What do you tell people on maturities? I mean, sometimes people get concerned on maturity as well, where it's like, well, maybe I need to go to an earlier hybrid, or maybe I need to be, you know, do I plant a fuller season or later season variety on the soybean side? Talk to the maturity decision as well.
Troy
Detmeyer: It seems like we can maximize our soybean yields by planting the fullest season varieties early. And it seems like the earlier season, the earlier CRMs, or the earlier maturity on soybeans, seem to tolerate later planting maybe just a little bit better. Having said that, you know, we're still at least, like I said, in the I-80 and north category, you know, we're still at least 3 weeks away from thinking about making any, any maturity changes. So it you made a plan, you made a plan here for your upcoming year with your, hopefully your seed rep, and based it on choosing the right genetics for the right acre. And let's go ahead and stick with that plan here for, like I said, probably nearly 3 weeks yet before we even think about switching anything out.
Chris: What's the most important thing that people need to be looking at for those acres that were planted a couple weeks ago or whatever when it was warm? Are there anything that guys should be paying attention to or looking at?
Troy
Detmeyer: Well, my recommendation would be is don't look at them here for another week or 10 days. It's just going to drive you crazy, to be quite honest with you. You know, we get started rolling here, just go ahead and plant those acres that are unplanted yet, and then go back and look at those for potential replant, I guess. But the biggest thing, you know, as we're looking at that stuff trying to emerge is, you know, our our root, which our radical or seminal root system, should have that nice fleshy white color to it. And almost essentially the same thing for the mesocotyl and hypocotyl on the corn and soybeans. And then the other thing on the corn that someone can check to see if your corn seed still has viability left to it, and that is to give that corn seed a squeeze. And if it's solid yet, it's still in excellent shape. There's no seed rot or anything there yet.
So that would be the main things. To look for. And, you know, the stuff that I've looked at that was planted here, you know, week, 10 days ago, like you said, in the 65+ degree soil temps, looks great. You know, we've got a nice radical coming out, and, you know, some of them are even shooting a coleoptile there. So we're looking in good shape, the seed's firm. So yeah, if you have to look, that's what you look for. But my recommendation is give it another week to 10 days before you even bother going out. You can't do anything about it anyway. Let's say focus on getting the rest of crop in the ground or, yeah, you know, getting herbicides on, things like that.
Chris: Yeah, yeah, it's a good segue to my last question here is weed control. If guys need to get out there yet to do anything, are there any cautions on crop protection decisions or whatever with either stuff that's planted or not planted yet?
Troy
Detmeyer: You know, I don't really foresee too much on the crop protection side here, Chris, to be, to be concerned about if people are thinking about burning down their, their cover crop, let's just make sure that we've had a couple warm days and warm nights, you know, before we go ahead and hit that stuff with glyphosate. The more rapidly it's growing, the more it will intake that herbicide and translocate it to the root system, and we'll get a better kill. So that's the one thing I actually talked with a few alfalfa customers this morning who were thinking about either killing off some old alfalfa, or we're getting close to the fungicide timing on alfalfa here in Northeast Iowa.. And I said, you know, let's give this till maybe a little bit later in the week where we're getting into the 60s for highs, and we'll have a lot better efficacy on both those applications.
Chris: I guess last, last question: is there anything I haven't asked, anything that you're getting questions on from customers? I'm sure you're getting a bunch of questions here today, so anything I didn't ask?
Troy
Detmeyer: Not really. I think we covered most of it. There just, you know, there seems to be some confusion on, well, planting a couple weeks ago was okay, how come you're saying, you know, not to to, you know, maybe hold off here this week or even at least for a few days. And the difference comes from, you know, we're cold now and that first drink of water. I just want to reiterate that that first 24 to 48 hours you've put that seed into cold stuff, it gets it off to a pretty tough start. And what we've seen in the past is if you can get, you know, a day or two of 50-plus, and, you know, like you said, we had 60, 65 there a while back. Once that imbibes the water, the warm water, and then gets cold. We've seen in the past stuff can be, can be tough as nails. You throw it in and it's cold right off the bat, that's where we start running into issues.
Chris: So, mm-hmm, yeah, I think, I think what you're saying there is really important for all of us to kind of keep in mind. I was talking to a really good farmer in our area here just a little while ago on the phone, and he reminded me too, like, how fast we can plant things and, and how, you know, just a little patience and is worth a lot because like he was saying, you know, his— he's got memories of years past when you plant maybe a day or two sooner than you should and then you get to go out and patch in some spots here and there where you get emergence that wasn't quite like you needed it to be. And those low pockets that, you know, hold some water, or even those high spots like he talked about, if something gets froze off, it's not real fun to have to go back out and catch something in. So I think a little patience and making sure we're doing stuff right, it's really the key.
Troy
Detmeyer: Absolutely, you bet. And just everybody, everybody stay safe out there.
Chris: That's right. Hey, really appreciate it. I appreciate you taking the phone call, and we're going to get this out there here real soon.
Troy
Detmeyer: So thanks a lot, Troy.
Chris: Appreciate it. You bet. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll catch you again next time on the Ag View Pitch.