About This Episode
The 500th episode opens with Shay Foulk on why the podcast started in 2019: the same questions kept arriving by phone, and a podcast was the way to answer them at scale. From there it runs as a normal agronomy conversation. Recorded on the second day of May 2023, Chris Barron brings Troy Deutmeyer of Pioneer back on after replant questions started coming out of Illinois and Indiana, where wet and cold soils followed the early planting window.
In northeast Iowa, corn in the ground for nearly three weeks still showed fleshy white roots and firm, viable seed, largely because soils stayed dry rather than saturated. The warning for stand counts is that plants which have leafed out below the soil surface should not be counted, even if they eventually push through, because they will not produce anything. With a 35,000 target and counts near 25,000 or 26,000, being more than 6,000 or 7,000 off is worth a serious replant look.
Before tearing up a stand, call the seed rep about kernel flex. Modern hybrids keep adding kernel depth after dent when late-season conditions cooperate, so a uniform stand running 5,000 to 6,000 under target can still yield near maximum. On the planter, extremely dry tilled soil can crumble the sidewall before the seed reaches the bottom of the trench, causing varying depth and slow germination. The fix is more down pressure. Fall strips were planting firm and ideal while spring strips had dried out.
“So if you're getting close to that level where you're thinking you might have to do some replanting, be sure not to include the leafed-out plants.”
— Troy Deutmeyer
Key Takeaways
Check viability by digging: fleshy white roots and firm seed on corn mean there is still push left.
Plants that leafed out underground should not be counted as viable in a stand count, even if they surface later.
With a 35,000 target and counts at 25,000 to 26,000, being more than 6,000 or 7,000 off target justifies a serious replant conversation.
Kernel flex can rescue a thin stand: uniform emergence 5,000 to 6,000 under target can still hit near maximum yield, so ask which hybrids flex.
Extremely dry tilled soil crumbles the sidewall before the seed drops, so increase down pressure to hold the trench and keep depth consistent.
Fall strips planted firm and ideal in early May while spring strips had gone too dry, a reminder that down pressure has to change field to field.
Full Transcript
Shay: Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Ag View Pitch. This is Shay Foulk with a quick intro here. Today's episode is not anything out of the ordinary from our regular content, but it is our 500th episode, and Chris and I wanted to take a minute just to reflect on this a little bit. And I thought what I would start with here is we started this podcast to provide Value and Perspective. In 2019, Chris said, hey, you know, we get a lot of these phone calls, we get a lot of the same questions over and over. What's the best way for us to reach out and touch a lot of people and deliver the content and good information that they're looking for? We thought, well, podcast would be a great way to do it. So not knowing a lot or exactly what we were doing, we just said let's get into it. And here we are, 500 episodes later. It seems like it's gone pretty darn quick.
But as you look back, what I would encourage all of you to do is go back and listen to some of your favorite episodes. A lot of the popular ones were the dad's wisdom or the personal pieces, or maybe it's just something that we talked about in relation to farm management or transition planning that you found useful. Whatever it is, we just want to thank you for taking time out of your day, time out of your week to listen. And we hope that we can continue to provide that value and perspective for the next 500 episodes. If you like what you hear on the Ag View Pitch, if you would enjoy, if you have enjoyed following along with us, please help us grow the audience and the people that we enjoy working with and talking to every day.
Share this with someone, share it with a farm operation or friends or family that you think would get value out of this or maybe need to hear some of the messaging that is provided here. So 500 episodes, we're excited. We're looking next, looking forward to the next 500 episodes. And thank you so much for listening to another episode of the Ag View Pitch.
Chris: Welcome everybody to another brief episode of the Ag View Pitch. I've had a few requests for another conversation here with Troy Detmeyer with Pioneer. Troy, how's it going today?
Shay: I'm doing well, how are you today, Chris?
Chris: Pretty good, pretty good. So we're recording this on the second day of May. There was a lot of corn planted and actually more soybeans planted here a couple weeks ago when we had that heat. I've heard some some rumblings in the Illinois area and in the Indiana area of some replant, and I've had a request to get you back on and to ask some questions on replant emergence and some of that kind of stuff. But before we go there, I was curious, in your part of the world, northeast Iowa, what are you seeing there? Are you seeing any issues at all, or is everything looking okay?
Shay: Well, Chris, so far the The planted, the stuff that's been in the ground, I guess, for almost 3 weeks now, for the most part, that either I or my counterparts have looked at seems to be doing very well. We still have fleshy white roots, which is kind of what you need to be looking for. And, you know, your coleoptile, um, or even like your hypocotyl on your soybeans when they're getting ready to push through, you know, they are still very solid and have good color to them. And then the seed also on the corn is nice and firm yet. That's something that we look for to see if that seed is still viable and still has push left. So I would say nearly everything that I have looked at as well as my counterparts here in the state of Iowa is looking pretty darn good. We kind of expect to be able to start doing stand assessments about this time next week.
We'll get some heat finally coming here later this week and then maybe even some rainfall this weekend or late weekend. I think by this time next week, we'll be able to start evaluating stands. I think so far things look encouraging, and I think the main reason for that, at least in our locale, is the fact that we've been relatively dry. We have caught maybe some rainfall on that early planted stuff, but the soils were far from saturated, and that can kind of be a big tipping point when we think about how long stuff can stay viable in the soil before it emerges.
Chris: Yeah, and I think that's what's going on in some of those areas where I've been getting some requests for another conversation with you, just because they did have a fair amount of wetness, and, and, you know, that's in some cases saturated soils. And, and when, you know, when you add wet to cold, it just complicates things, obviously. What, what are you hearing? Another question I had is I think some guys were finding some of the stuff starting to leaf out underground. Talk a little bit about that or what guys need to be watching for there.
Shay: Sure. If you're out doing stand counts and you're seeing some gaps and you're digging underneath the soil and all of a sudden you see that leafed-out plant, even though it might still be alive and might still possibly push through, if you are close to a replant situation as far as a stand count goes, those plants that have leafed out underneath the soil surface should be counted— or not counted, I should say— as a viable plant. Even though they might come above and end up surviving, they're not going to produce anything. So if you're getting close to that level where you're thinking you might have to do some replanting, be sure not to include the leafed-out plants.
Chris: Mm-hmm. You said something about gaps. That's what gets really frustrating and difficult, right? Because you're doing those stand counts, you're looking at uneven emergence, and sometimes you got to wait. You obviously need to be pretty patient too. You don't want to get in too big of a rush, but at the same point in time, where do you draw the line in terms of stand count? Let's just assume that it's an even stand to start with. This first part of the question is an even stand. And let's, you know, let's say that the target, you know, population was 35,000 and you're finding 25,000 or 26,000. Where do you draw the line, you know, based on the calendar and the final stand?
Shay: Yeah, at this point in the growing season, you know, we're still actually very early. You know, last year most people hadn't turned a wheel yet. So if you're already evaluating a stand and, you know, we're probably more than 6,000 or 7,000 off of our target, you know, we should probably seriously look at replant. But the one thing that I do encourage everybody to visit with their seed rep and visit on, you know, the flex that's in that hybrid. We have been seeing, especially here at Pioneer, we've been seeing we do have extreme kernel flex anymore and we can still achieve really, really good yields, near maximum yields, you know, in the upper 20s. So be sure to factor that into your decision as well, and no matter what brand you're getting your seed from, just be sure to talk to your sales rep or the agronomist and see how much that one flexes.
And that can have a difference in a replant and a non-replant as well, especially if what's up is very even. That's one of our main driving components of high yields, and if we have very uniform emergence but we're off 5,000 or 6,000 on stand, we can still have a really, really good crop there. So please keep that in mind and contact your local agronomist or sales rep.
Chris: Sounds good. You talked about the kernel flex. We always just talk about ear flex. That's kind of two different things, right?
Shay: Yeah, so ear flex is kind of the ability of the plant to see that, hey, I don't have a lot of neighbors here, and so I'm going to either put on more rows around or I'm going to put on more rows in length. And a lot of times it ends up being rows around, but the length can also come into that factor. What we've been seeing here, kind of, we started noticing this 6 or 7 years ago, Chris, is if the growing conditions are favorable late in the growing season, that that kernel continues to add depth, you know, even after it dents. So it seemed like, you know, 10 years ago, once a kernel reached about the dent stage, it didn't grow in size much after that. It would just maybe change, you know, how dense it would pack that kernel. But today's genetics, or a lot of them anyway, have the ability to keep adding kernel depth.
And like I said, your local sales rep or agronomist will know which hybrids those are and which ones can really, really still yield under lower, lower populations.
Chris: Mm-hmm. Sounds good. Well, kind of the last thing as we wrap up here, you know, planters are rolling. A lot of guys are, you know, there was a lot that went in early there. There's a lot to go in yet, a lot of things running. Anything you're seeing that I haven't asked about, or anything that guys should be watching out for here in the next week or so as they're trying to get the rest of the stuff in the ground here next couple of weeks?
Shay: Sure, Wyatt. Yeah, at least I know here in a good chunk of the state of Iowa, things are getting really dry, especially on tilled soil with the wind and low humidity that we're having. And I guess I encourage guys to check the sidewalls as they're planting, especially corn. Because what can happen is if you have tilled soil that's extremely dry, actually that sidewall will crumble before the seed hits the bottom of the trench. Therefore, not only will you have dry soil around that seed in some instances, so it will slow or hinder the germination process because it won't imbibe water as quickly. The other thing is you'll have varying planting depth.
So actually what we see when we're running into conditions like we are here today— I just came from a plot where, you know, we actually increased the down pressure significantly in order to maintain that sidewall long enough to allow that seed to drop down to the bottom of the trench. So that's something that's happening here locally, and I'm sure with all your listeners across the country, there's a bunch of different, you know, situations. But at least for your listeners here in Iowa, maybe northern Illinois and Wisconsin, that might be something to really keep an eye on as we move throughout this week and the conditions get extremely dry.
Chris: Yeah, and that's where we had talked about on a prior discussion, the variability from one field to the next. I was just in the tilled field And with the same exact concern that tilled soil is, you know, and spring strips versus fall strips. The fall strips are perfect to plant in right now because the condition, you know, the soil is just firm and perfect to plant in. And that those spring strips have gotten really dry. And like you said, I think that down pressure management is really key, whether it's dry, wet, or in different soil conditions or whatever, is managing that down pressure is really a key thing. So.
Shay: Yeah, exactly. A lot of times, you know, we think, you know, wet soils, we really worry about having too much and backing it off. And it's a blessing to be able to have a situation where we're having to increase the down pressure to keep the sidewall because it's so dry. That generally means we're planting into phenomenal conditions. And, you know, Grandpa always said plant in the dust and your bends will bust. We definitely have that situation going on right now.
Chris: Yeah, well, and I think they got the opposite, those listening in Ohio and And, you know, Indiana, I think that they're ready for the faucet to get turned off. And I think just the message for those guys is probably, you know, even though it is wet, it is still early and they can get in the field here in the next week. You still got 100% yield potential for a while here yet anyway.
Shay: Absolutely. Yeah, there's a lot of planting season left to get a really good crop here. So we'll just have to wait and see what Mother Nature gives us.
Chris: That's right. So hey, again, Troy, as usual, really appreciate you on short notice here, giving you a quick call and cornering you. But these, you know, getting some texts and obviously people appreciated your information out there. And again, we'll let you get back at it. And thanks again. All right. Stay safe out there, folks. Take care. Yeah, will do. And thanks, Troy. And thanks, everybody, for listening. We'll catch you again next time on the iView Pitch.