Agronomic insights: Keys to a successful planting season

Chris: Hey everybody, before we dive into today's episode of The Aggie Pitch, I want to invite you to check out our exclusive podcast, 19 Minutes. For just $30 a month, you'll have access to high-level business insights and new episodes that are released on the 9th, the 19th, and the 29th of each month. Topics include finance, cost of production, team health, taxes, collaboration, and much more. With 77 episodes already available, signing up gives you immediate access to all past and future content. Click on the link in the show notes and subscribe and start boosting your bottom line today. Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ag View Pitch. Today we're going to have a super important conversation. As we record this in the springtime, we're in that early April timeframe, and it is time for planters to be rolling.

I know there's already some rolling in the areas that we work with in the south and where they're missing the 16-inch rains and stuff that it sounds like they're getting down in those pockets. But we're lucky enough to have with us Troy Deitemeyer today. How's it going today, Troy?

Troy

Deutmeyer: I'm doing well, Chris. How are you, sir?

Chris: I'm doing good. I'm doing good. So you're an agronomist with Pioneer. Actually, in full disclosure, you're in our area. You're our agronomist for our operation and do a great job. We had you on last year and we've had you on several times last year, just kind of talking as the crop is growing and things to be watching. I've had some people asking again, you know, are you going to get Troy back on and talk about some things? And so I kind of want to hit on today is just some of the key principles from an agronomic standpoint during planting season, maybe in front of planting season for a lot of guys listening to this yet, and maybe they're getting into it, you know, just everything from soil to equipment settings to herbicides, crop protection, and then just things that we need to be monitoring.

So we'll kind of hit on all that stuff today and I kind of want to start out with soil conditions because, you know, this, this podcast goes all over the U.S. and Canada and other countries for that matter. And so, you know, but soil is something that's a kind of a consistent thing for all of us. Talk a little bit about, you know, at planting time and when you're getting there, you know, soil temperatures, fertility, all those kind of things. What are the key principles and things we need to be looking at from agronomic standpoint with the soil?

Troy

Deutmeyer: Yeah, I guess one of the big things is always, you know, our soil conditions fit and for tillage or for planting. And I guess one of the things I guess I've noticed, Chris, here, at least in our area, and talking with some of my other counterparts in Illinois and Iowa, is the past couple years we've gotten these very rapid warm-ups with windy, low humidity days. And so what happens is, is that top maybe inch of the soil or so dries off really quickly and we start running equipment across and we see dust flying and we think we're in good shape. And actually when we get 2, 3, 4, 5 inches down, things are, are not in very good shape. And we've seen a lot of compaction layers have gotten put in, you know, when the dust is just absolutely rolling.

And the kind of forecast coming up, at least for us here on the west side of the Mississippi— I know your listeners to the east here are unfortunately getting pounded. Yeah, they're getting pounded with rain. But on the west side of the Mississippi, we got a really good forecast coming with, you know, 65, 70 degrees, windy, low humidity. And so I can see a repeat of this happening again. So let's just be sure that not only is the top inch or so fit, but below that. And actually, for anybody out there, there's kind of a neat, uh, video that I know I've been using, and some other customers have been doing this for several years now. But actually have a leaf blower in the truck. And when you get done with that tillage pass or even, even that planting pass, you can use that leaf blower to kind of blow away the soil and evaluate things like your tillage floor.

You know, are you cloddy underneath? And if you would just Google, I think it's Iowa State, uh, leaf blower soil conditions. If you Google that, it'll come up and they've got a nice video there. And it kind of shows, they kind of use a vertical till kind of disc kind of type piece of equipment to kind of show what a really bad tillage floor can look like and maybe what some good ones can look like as well. So I'd encourage everybody to try that. But that's the big thing is let's just make sure that the conditions are fit down to the bottom of our tillage depth or bottom of our planting. Depth. And that's, that's kind of the biggest thing I guess I see for soil conditions, Chris, is, is the top can be deceiving.

Chris: Talk about temperature for a minute too. Um, you know, I think obviously we've got guys listening to this that are half done, guys that are done in Texas and some areas already. But, you know, talk a little bit about what guys need to be thinking about in terms of temperature, because as we move north, there's a lot of people that are still 2 weeks away from planting.— talk a little bit about kind of what your expectations are for some of the different crops as we're planting.

Troy

Deutmeyer: So, you know, it used to be the golden rule used to be 50 degrees. And to be honest with you, you know, with the seed treatments and advancements in genetics, as well as how well the new equipment can place the seed in the ground, you know, as soon as we get mid-40s, I'm perfectly fine with guys going ahead and pull the trigger as long as it's fit or past the crop insurance date. So looking like the weather that we're going to have here over the next, you know, 10 days, once we hit the crop insurance dates, the soil temps are going to be low to mid-40s at least.

As long as soil conditions are fit for corn or soybeans, I guess I'm, I'm okay with that, that, that 50-degree rule, I think, you know, we can kind of put that one in the history books, you know, we definitely can tolerate some, some colder weather, or colder soil temperatures, especially before forecast is showing us that, you know, things are going to be, things are going to be warming up. And we actually planted a part of a plot here on February 28th. And on Friday, I checked that. And, you know, the soybeans had a nice radical coming, had a little bit of a sprout, the corn hadn't done anything yet, but it was still, the seed was firm and whatnot. So we're obviously not recommending people to get that extreme.

But I guess the point of us doing that plot the past couple years is just to test the seed treatments, and they've proven that, you know, we can, we can put that stuff in, you know, like I said, mid-40s and have no worries as long as the conditions are good.

Chris: Awesome. Yeah, that's, that's really interesting to know, and I think it gives people a little bit of a peace of mind because sometimes there's a lot of frustration. But, you know, one of the things that we see with soil conditions though sometimes too is looking at that forecast with, you know, heavy rains coming, depending on the type of tillage you do— no-till, strip-till, tilled ground— is there anything, any watch-outs there, you know, planting on the early end on what that weather forecast may or may not look like that you would say watch this or watch that?

Troy

Deutmeyer: Yeah, about the only thing that I would probably give a big heads up is, you know, if we're kind of pushing that 45-degree soil temperatures I was just talking about and then we're supposed to have even colder weather, you know, that's probably where I'd say, you know, we probably need to park the planter 24 hours before that cold rain or snow comes. That's if we're flirting with those really cold conditions. One of the things that we've also learned over the past few years is if we do have, you know, 55, maybe even 60-degree soil temperatures and they do have a colder rain predicted, again with the seed treatments and whatnot, we, you know, we used to say you had to stop 24 hours ahead of time.

And if the soil temps are already 55 plus, and we got that cold forecast coming, we tell people just keep on planting until you get rained out because, you know, it's going to take a day or so for that temperature to really drop drastically. And by then the seeds imbibe most of the water it needs to start the germination process and should be okay. So that's kind of another change, I guess, as far as the recommendations and as far as planting ahead of a cold rain or even a snow. Last year we had a great example of that. We had super, super great planting conditions. I think 60, maybe 65-degree soil temperatures and ended up getting a lot of my area got like 4 inches of snow on that one Sunday afternoon. And guys had planted, you know, right up through Saturday night and, and those, those stands all ended up being fine. Yeah.

And as far as, you know, the big heavy rains,, and the crusting, I guess, you know, you just got to do with, you know, what your sleep factor is at night, if you can tolerate it, if you know, if you can tolerate it or not. And another great example is last year, I'm sure you remember this, Chris, they were, we had a, you know, 5, 6 inches of rain predicted. And so people quit planting, and we ended up getting like 3/4 of an inch out of the whole system. So, you know, it's one of the, it's one of those deals, you know, you got to trust the weatherman, I guess.. But, uh, um, I, I really, other than the cold soils, um, planting, you know, maybe give yourself a little bit of time before that, that rain or snow happens. But if, if we're warm and fit conditions, it just keep the planter rolling.

Chris: Yeah, that's good, good advice and, and good perspective. And I think a lot of experience helps too. So that's why we appreciate the, you know, you get to see a lot of stuff that gives you some really good perspective you can share. So Anything else on soil before we jump into equipment? Anything else I didn't ask or sort of brought up?

Troy

Deutmeyer: Nope, it's just, uh, if you read my updates, is if the soils fit, number one. Number two is if the soils fit, and then number three is if the soils fit.

Chris: So yeah, exactly. Okay, all right, equipment. Um, let's talk a little bit about equipment preparation. I mean, some guys are already running, that doesn't mean everything's prepared accurately, right? I mean, sometimes we, we We set things in the yard and we get out in the field and you got to tweak it. And then, you know, a lot of times there's constant tweaking that needs to go on from field to field and different things too. So talk about some of the settings and conditions and things that you've observed that maybe people would benefit from listening to this.

Troy

Deutmeyer: Sure. The one thing I guess is check every row unit for depth. And, you know, there's some kind of neat tools you can use out there now with some of the blocks, or you can even just use 2x4s, but, you know, set those things up and check every row. And I had a customer do that here in the shop on a brand new planter. He had a 24-row planter and there was only 9 rows that were set the same. You know, some of them were even off about a full half inch as far as, you know, where the T-handle needed to get set. So that's always something that I tell guys to start with, maybe if they can, before the The season started, I do see a lot of disc openers that don't have the proper, you know, distance where they're touching, and a lot of them actually even have gaps.

And so what that can do is, you know, you can get some residue pinned in there, residue can get in the furrow, and then, you know, especially if we end up with dry conditions, we can end up with, you know, dry soil getting down into the bottom of that seed trench, and that can impact the germination from one seed to the next and obviously impact the uniformity of emergence. So that's something to keep an eye on, not only before you start, but, you know, maybe as you get halfway through the season, be sure to do a check of those disc openers to make sure they've got the proper contact distance. And then the other thing that we also— that I also see when I'm digging is the gauge wheels aren't tight up against the disc openers. And there again, we can have, you know, dry soil from the surface drop down into the bottom of that seed trench. And it, and it differs from seed to seed.

And then again, we don't, don't have that uniform emergence. So those are probably some of the more common maintenance items that I see kind of lacking, lacking with guys. And then just maybe too much or not enough down pressure. And that's just getting out of the cab and, and checking. And if you can, you know, lock up your closing wheels on a couple rows. And plant for a ways and leave that seed trench open with, you know, the closers not down. And essentially what should happen is that seed slot should stay open and you shouldn't have any of that, the soil from the top part of that furrow falling into the bottom. And but then you also should be able to take your, you know, pliers or screwdriver or something and just kind of tap the sidewall and then it should crumble. So that's kind of a way to gauge whether or not you have enough or not enough down pressure.

So those are probably some of the bigger consistent things, I guess, that I see as I go around and put in plots and ride with customers, that some of the things that could use maybe a little bit more attention.

Chris: Talk a little bit about, you know, we've got a lot of high-speed planters out there now. Is there anything different on the high-speed planters or the Precision that, you know, the new— I mean, there's a lot of high-speed stuff being assembled and then guys are speeding up where they can. I mean, our world, you get over 7 miles an hour, we got enough rocks, you're going to break everything. So you still keep it at 10 or whatever, but I know there's people really hammering down.

Troy

Deutmeyer: Talk—

Chris: is there anything there, watch out, people need to be concerned about?

Troy

Deutmeyer: Yeah, it's a great point, Chris. And one of the things, especially in some heavier soils, as you drive faster, we know that in order to keep our ground contact and our seed depth the down pressure has to increase, which again can maybe create some sidewall compaction. And one thing we have noticed, especially in some higher clay content soils, is we don't get the bottom of the seed trench 100% closed and you'll have some air pockets in there. And the tricky part there, instead of digging straight down with your screwdriver or pliers, because if you just dig down, what you're going to do is you're going to crumble the soil and it's going to make it look like you've got that closed all the way to the bottom. But take a spade or a shovel, and— or Precision Planting actually has a really nice digging tool.

If you guys don't have one or two of those in your cab or in the truck, I would highly recommend it. It's, it's just a great tool to pick around with. But essentially, take your spade or that tool and go straight down and then pull back. And what that's going to do, it's going to be able to give you a cross-section to look into that whole trench. And you'll be able to see if you're getting things closed down to the bottom. And a lot of times that air pocket that we see from the high-speed planters is sitting right there, and you can darn near stick your pinky finger right down the bottom of the, of the seed trench and not hit any soil. So that's probably one of the biggest things that we see with the, with the high speeds is not getting the bottom of the seed trench closed. Now sometimes just adding some down pressure in your closing system can alleviate that.

But sometimes, especially if it's a little bit tacky, you're just going to have to probably slow down so you don't have to have as much down pressure to maintain your ground contact.

Chris: So talk a little bit about row cleaners too. I know that's something that everybody has a lot of differences with. And is there anything like with the row cleaners? I mean, sometimes, I mean, we go back and forth our own operation on that, you know, where do you set it as it, you know, Are you moving a little soil? Are you not? It depends a little bit. Are you in strip till, tilled, no-till, whatever? But is there anything there with row cleaners that you observe that people need to be aware of or cautious of?

Troy

Deutmeyer: You know, the main thing there is try to move as little soil as possible. And, you know, obviously if you're in a no-till situation, you know, you probably have to be a little bit more aggressive and you're going to end up moving some soil. And that's okay. The thing that I just always tell guys is the next concern comes is if you maybe have your herbicide sitting out there and it hasn't been rained in yet, hasn't been incorporated with some rainfall, then if we end up moving too much soil, we're actually moving that herbicide to the side as well. And so you'll see weeds, you know, pretty darn thick right there inside the row. But that's probably the biggest thing. And then we know if we start— sorry about that. If we start moving too much soil, then we start getting that inverted ridge till, I guess is what I call it.

And then also we start getting some heavy rains and it just follows it right down the row and washes stuff out. So that's probably the big thing to watch out with, with the row cleaners. But With a lot of them being adjusted from the cab now, you can do, you know, a lot better job of making those changes.

Chris: Right, right. Um, I want to back up a little bit on settings. You know, we didn't really hit on the tillage prior to the planter, whether it's field cultivator, strip-tilled, spring, fall. I mean, we ended up having to do some strip-tilling in the spring just because of, um, how dry it was last fall. And, and we've got a number of people in that boat, but it's You know, is there anything that, that, you know, settings on— we'll hit field cultivators and VT first and then anything on strip-till that you see in the, in the springtime of things that people need to be cognizant of or careful with?

Troy

Deutmeyer: Um, you know, probably not a, a lot there. Just the biggest thing is what we kind of talked about earlier is making sure that things are dry down to your Tillage depth is probably the biggest thing, Chris. And there's so many different types of implements out there. Probably the ones that give me the biggest concern in the spring are what we call— some people call vertical tills, but they're essentially disc. And then a lot of the newer high-speed disc, they can create some really significant compaction layers. So that's again where I encourage guys to use that leaf blower and see just see what it's looking like down there.

I've been on a lot— well, I've been on a consistently growing number of service calls in the fall where guys are disappointed in their yields, where they used a high-speed disc or a vertical till machine that's almost essentially a disc in the spring when conditions were a little bit tacky that they thought things were fine on top and it just created a really big compaction layer. Density layer there about 3, 4 inches down. The other thing with some of those tools, now that they kind of have those concave blades on them, you know, they are inverting some, some soil as well as the residue. And I really encourage people just to take a look to see where you are putting all that residue. For example, if you're running a high-speed disc at, you know, 3, 4 inches deep, we're putting a lot of residue right down there at about the 2-inch level.

And and that's right where we're trying to put our seed. And I've seen some concerns that way with, you know, just a lot of residue in the seed trench just causing uneven emergence.

Chris: Okay, yeah, it just seems like, you know, there's sometimes with the tillage or the stuff we're doing in the spring, sometimes we can do more damage than good if we're not paying attention to some kind of key things, for sure.

Troy

Deutmeyer: Yeah, And one thing that I've had several— this is something to put down in the notebook for this fall for guys. But I've had a few more customers trying, basically, they get all their tillage done in the fall, and then they just come in and plant. And I know some agronomists call it planting into a stale seedbed. And I just hate that term stale, you know, but essentially, that it avoids them doing any tillage in the spring. So they might run their primary tillage pass in the fall, and then a few days later, actually run the field cultivator or something across it. And then it just sits there, and then all they do is they just come back in and plant. And then we don't have to worry about creating those compaction layers that we've kind of been talking about here. So something to think about, maybe try in a field or two.

Chris: Yeah, well, and it's kind of like the fall strips too. I mean, that a lot of guys do. I mean, those fall strips are sitting there, you're just ready to go plant. And right, nice thing is, is it's— you're planting in purely soil. Yeah. Those zones, which is nice. It eliminates, especially in the corn on corn, it eliminates that pinching and stuff. One last quick thing. There's a lot of spring anhydrous that's going on this year in a lot of areas that we, where we have clients with. They've most of them probably done in a lot of cases, but is there anything there to be cognizant of too? You know, kind of the same thing you just said. I mean, you're out in the field and you can, you know, you're carrying some weight across the field with that equipment. You know, anything there that to watch or to monitor later to see if we did something right or wrong?

Troy

Deutmeyer: Uh, you know, there we're kind of— it's almost more like a true vertical till where we're just kind of making a slot, so we're not creating that horizontal, uh, pan. Now the weight from the equipment, you know, where the tractor and the tanks are running, can obviously cause some compaction, which will probably be inevitable, but the toolbars are getting pretty wide now, so like the amount of area, area that you're compacting versus the, you know, you're working with is getting a little bit more minimal every year. Uh, you know, the one thing is just, is stuff sealing. And depending on your moisture, there's some guys running last week, they said it was perfect. You know, some guys as we got further east where they picked up more rain, it was maybe a little bit wet.

And I just always tell guys, um, go out and genuflect, you know, and that's basically get down on your knees take a whiff and then, you know, go all the way down to the soil and take a whiff after you've made the application. If you're smelling, smelling gas, you know, you know, either you got to go deeper or it's too wet, it's not sealing properly. Um, well, those are kind of—

Chris: you can't see it doesn't mean you're not losing it, right?

Troy

Deutmeyer: Just because you're not puffing does not mean you're not losing it. And where I've gotten extremely concerned is some of these high-speed Coulter bars where we're only going 4 or 5 inches deep to start with, we get our 3-inch expansion zone. Boy, that doesn't leave a lot of room for air. And I actually had some calls from some people last fall on some acreages that said, man, they left with the tank an hour ago and I still can't go outside and do yard work. Yeah. So made a mental note where those—

Chris: Probably lost a little there then.

Troy

Deutmeyer: Yeah. So, you know, I mean, that's an extreme case, but it just goes to show that just because it's not, it's not puffing or showing smoke, that it's sealing. And then the next question I've been getting, because there is so much to do here, you know, and we're going to be— looks like we're going to be at the insurance, crop insurance plant date for corn, April 10th, before we probably get back into the field around here with the moisture, is, you know, how long do I have to wait before we get back in? And a lot of that comes down to, to depth. You know, if you're using a knife bar and going 8, 9 inches deep and it it's sealing well, you can almost darn near plant the next day if you want to. And I tell guys, if you have the technology on your equipment, go ahead and put it on with the row and then just move over at least 3 or 4 inches.

And you could be planting the same day if you did that. So you don't have to— we've kind of been stuck in the rut over the years of putting it on at an angle., and actually putting it on with the row and then just moving over 3, 4 inches has worked very well for guys, or more if you want to, depending on your sleep factor. But, you know, if you're thinking about putting gas on and you want to be planting in a day or two, that'd be a way to be able to do that and not have to lose any sleep from seedling burn.

Chris: Yeah, and that's a key thing with the technology we have now with the sub-inch accuracy. There's no reason— I mean, that's how you get the value out of that investment too, is being able to utilize it in the proper way. I guess if we got those things covered, two other quick things I guess I want to hit on crop protection for a minute. Just, you know, like I tell Sloan, my son, it's like, I just want dead weeds. So don't skimp on price and don't skip on volume of water and don't skimp on rates. Do You know, go with the label, do it right, don't be skimping. Talk to me about what are the key things that we need to be paying attention to here as we do our crop protection and make sure we have dead weeds.

Troy

Deutmeyer: Yeah, so you hit on the main things there. Let's use full rates and the days of, the days of partial rates for soil residuals are gone. I mean, we are running the well really dry on effective modes of action right now. And if we continue to use half rates, we're in trouble. And I, I listened to the University of Illinois Extension agronomist this past winter, and they've got areas where the Group 15s, you know, like your, your Duals, your Outlooks, things like that, are starting to fail on waterhemp. So man, we lose the Group 15s, we are in a world of hurt in both our corn and soybeans. So just be sure to get them, on at full rates. We kind of talked about, you know, if you have them on but you don't— didn't have any rainfall, let's be really cognizant where we have those row cleaner sets. We're not moving that soil and that herbicide into the, to the middle of the row.

I have seen guys over the past couple years, there's been an increase of incorporation of our pre-emergent herbicides where guys are doing tillage. And the one thing there is, I'll just remind guys, if you're going to incorporate that, let's be sure not to be going you know, too deep with that field cultivator or Soil Finisher, you end up diluting that herbicide out. And, you know, most of our waterhemp seeds are germinating in the top inch to 3/4 of an inch. And if we dilute our herbicide, you know, through a 2-inch profile, you know, we're going to be pretty darn disappointed in the, in the weed control that we get out of that pre-emerge herbicide. So the other thing too that I can see happening with at least the forecast that we have around here, or the forecast west of the Mississippi is we could get the planters rolling.

And when the planters start rolling, they don't stop until either we get a rain delay or the crop is finished. And a lot of our soybean preseeds need to be on, you know, before those soybeans crack. And if all of a sudden we start getting 65, 70-degree weather, you know, those soybeans can be up in less than a week. And also now, We, you know, our Group 14 herbicides we can't use, and they're the best ones for waterhemp control, gives great weed control. So it might sound crazy, but there's been a few guys the last couple years when things get rolling, you know, park the planter for a day or two to make sure that the sprayer can, can keep up if the same guy's running the sprayer and the, and the planter.

Chris: For sure. Yeah, and, and herbicide side of the equation, I obviously look at all the stuff from the economic perspective and try to be cognizant of the agronomy, where I think the agronomists look at it from an agronomy standpoint, try to be cognizant of the economics. And, um, when I look at herbicide, um, control, it always amazes me how, as farmers— and as one, I can say this because I'm not just picking on farmers— but we tend to really get picky on the crop protection and trying to save $3 or $4 or $5 an acre. And when you look at it, you're maybe saving $0.03 or $0.04 a bushel. I mean, literally, it's like a nothing burger. And just make damn sure the weeds are dead. Use, you know, I mean, do you see anything wrong with that?

Troy

Deutmeyer: I mean, it just—

Chris: no economic standpoint. I can never understand why we're trying to say— and I get it, if, you know, if you're farming 10,000 acres or 5,000 or even 500 you're looking at what you're writing the check for, and well, geez, I got to write the check for an extra $10,000. If I, if I cut back this, I just saved $10,000. But no, you just cost yourself $20,000 on yield, and you only saved yourself 3 cents a bushel, and you're gonna screw your marketing up more than that. So it's, you know, it's kind of my soapbox, I guess. But on the crop—

Troy

Deutmeyer: I agree, agree 100%, Chris. And, you know, like, our soil residual products are by far the best bang for the buck, and the best time to kill a weed is before it emerges. And so I agree 100%, trying to save a nickel here can cost you a dollar in the end. And then all of a sudden, if you have escapes, your weed seed bank now explodes and you might have to be making 3 trips in the future to keep stuff in check rather than 2. So yeah, it's money well, well invested.

Chris: Yeah, for sure.

Troy

Deutmeyer: For sure. One thing that I'll just add real quick, and this is for post-emerge applications, but for some of your listeners, you know, they might only be a few weeks away from that or a month away, and, and everybody's going to end up doing a post application. But one of the things that we have had a big focus on here the past couple years is the, your water condition when you make your post applications. And by that I mean the pH of your water as well as the hardness. And if you haven't done a water test, I highly encourage you guys to get that done now. And that way you'll have it for when post-emerge season comes. And the pH that we're looking for to basically do the best job of driving that solution into the plant is in that 5.5 to 6 range. And a lot of the water that we have here in northeast Iowa is in the 7.5 to maybe low 8s. And so we have to use pH conditioners.

And then we also have a lot of hard water. So if you get a hard water test back, you need to look at your calcium, magnesium, and iron. And what those— that'll do is that'll tie up a lot of your— our chemistry in our post-emerge herbicide applications. So things like your AMS can help tie up those calcium, magnesium ions. So then that way when you pour the active ingredients into the tank, they don't get tied up by those. And a great example is I had a couple, um, of my Pioneer reps that do a lot with crop protection last year. They went from 2 pounds of AMS per acre to 3, and pretty much every one of those customers said they couldn't believe what that did for their weed control. They said they were killing weeds that they probably shouldn't have or hadn't in the past.

And again, that was just because we were being a little more cognizant of what that water solution looked like before we were dumping the chemistry in. So just some something to think about there and get water tests sent in now if you haven't, to kind of see where you're at.

Chris: That's, that's awesome. That's great. That's, that's something that impacts the bottom line. Kind of what we're trying to do here, right, too, is, you know, we're talking the agronomy, but I'm— my goal here is how do we, you know, make sure we capitalize on some economic benefit for the bottom line.

Troy

Deutmeyer: Yeah, and a lot of that stuff, you know, you're adding it for, you know, 30 to maybe 50 cents an acre.

Chris: Right, right. Yeah, no, that's awesome. So, which isn't even a penny a bushel, by the way, it's like half a penny a bushel. Um, so the last thing I want to hit on, um, is monitoring your results. Okay, so I just go back to like Shay, military people, you know, it's like, you know, they, they go to battle and they, they, they do their mission and then they come back and they do the after-action review, right? They look at what they did, what worked, what didn't, and all that. What I want to ask you about is particularly one kind of key thing, and if there's other stuff, bring it up. But, you know, with, with planting being probably one of the most important or the most important operation that we do all, all year long. Right, is, is, you know, what's our stand result look like? What's the seeding depth look like? Because you can monitor that after you've planted too, right?

You can go back because you, you monitor it while you're doing it, but can you— you can go back and take all 12, 24 rows, whatever, 16, whatever, and look at all of them and say, okay, what was my seeding depth? Have you talked through that? And then also, um, the seed prep. So like, are you starting to see, you know, when the crop gets up a little bit, are you starting to see the root zone hit some compaction or something in certain areas or whatever, and was there something you could have done? So I'm going to shut up for a minute and let you tackle those monitoring— what things should we be monitoring?

Troy

Deutmeyer: So, so I guess one of the first things obviously to monitor, and if, and if you have the, um, a little bit of man hours available to go out and do what we call a flag test— and there's a lot of people been talking about that for a lot of years, but it's extremely important and it can It can really, you can really learn a lot. Essentially what you do is every 12 or 24 hours go out and see, you know, in a 1/1000th of an acre, you know, which flag, which plants came up, or take a stake and mark on it, you know, we're at day 1, day 2, day 3, and stick them in the ground. And then you can see the uniformity or maybe the non-uniformity of your emergence. And if you listen to any of the high yield guys, whether it's in corn or soybeans, you know, we're the more uniform we can get that to emerge, the higher our yield potential, the better return you get on that seed investment.

And so a lot of times what people do is they'll say, well, geez, all my stuff came up within maybe 2 days. And in our latitude, 2 days is actually pretty good depending on weather. The guys from down south will say 12 hours, but they're working with 70-degree soil temperatures. We're working with maybe 50, 55. So you got to keep it more in a GDU perspective rather than days, I guess. But The other thing is keep going back to that then over the next few weeks, because what you might see is everything did come up within a day or two, and then all of a sudden, maybe by the time we get to 3-4 leaf corn, we've got some that are starting to lag behind. And then that's where you take your, your shovel and you dig down in and you see, okay, is it residue in my furrow? Is it a compaction layer? Is it, you know, sidewall compaction that's doing this, that's inhibiting the root growth?

And then those are things to make note of and how we can change them for the next season. Obviously we can't change what that planter pass did for this year, but it's things that we can do to take a look at. And then the other thing, like you said, Chris, is I recommend guys go ahead and dig up 4 or 5 plants across every row of their planter. And again, to kind of make sure that every row is planting where they should be. And sometimes for whatever reason, they might have some disc openers that wore out faster, you know, in the pinch rows, you know, right there by the duals and things like that. And those maybe need to get replaced ahead of the other ones. So those are primarily the big things.

And then once we start getting, you know, probably chest-tall corn, that's a great time to dig and see what your root system looks like and see if you have, you know, sidewall compaction limitations as well as a plow pan. So those would be the big things that I would recommend guys take a look at, kind of as we move through the growing season after we get the planter pass done.

Chris: I wanted to ask you too about, you know, when you're doing that monitoring and you're looking at the crop prospects and if everything looks really good and you're thinking, okay, this could be a big crop, you want to build on it. Conversely, if something happens, it looks like shit and, you know, really bad situation, you're probably going to build on it. But what that carries me to is the conversation or the question around enhancements as the crop is improving, namely biologicals. Is there anything there that you say, you know, maybe we should be doing this on this one or two fields that looks really good, let's capitalize on that? Do you feel like the investment is worth it in a lot of cases, or at least monitoring it or measuring certain opportunities?

I just want to kind of get your two cents on that as well, because I think guys are trying to cut on costs, but on the same token the fastest way to lower your cost of production is increased yield, but you also can't buy everything, right, enhance yield. So you got to kind of differentiate. Is there anything from that standpoint that you think, at least from a, from a measuring perspective, for the producer to at least kind of be looking in their own operation what, what might be something to look at?

Troy

Deutmeyer: Sure, yeah, and that's where it kind of— the science is maybe a little bit lacking and maybe it's a little bit more art, and we have a lot of things to, to learn there. And I guess Maybe some of the things that I would probably put up, I guess, that differentiates how you would look at that is, you know, if, if you have a field that's maybe owned and, you know, you've been doing a pretty good job of building fertility and you had a pretty good plan coming in those fields. Yeah, you know, maybe we can try some extra foliar feed or give it an extra squirt of nitrogen or something a little bit later on., but those fields, you know, they've been taken care of so well in the past that your chances of getting a return on your investment, you know, probably go down.

Um, not to say you shouldn't try, you know, foliar feeding or an extra fungicide pass or, you know, some humics or fulvics or something like that, but it's maybe those fields that, you know, are lacking to start with, um, as far as a, you know, pH, P, and K level. You know, we know that rented land, we're not going to treat that the same. We're not going to pour the fertilizer on. And one of the things we've seen there, Chris, is if our, you know, P and K levels maybe aren't quite up to snuff, we're not near as efficient with our nitrogen. We might need 1.1 to 1.2 units of nitrogen per bushel, whereas when the fertility is really good, you know, we got guys down in that 0.7, 0.8 range. So that's where I would tell guys, you know, those fields not quite as good as base fertility, but we got a great stand. Things look like they're off to a really good start.

Those would be probably ones that I'd be thinking about. Maybe we add an extra, you know, 30, 40 units of nitrogen, another 3 to 5 pounds of sulfur on a side dress application, maybe some boron, and to kind of help bring them up to the, up to the next level. And then there's also some tissue testing that can get done. Um, we kind of have what we call the yield pyramid. We have a booklet for kind of every region of the United States. You can go and talk to your local Pioneer sales rep or agronomist. We kind of have, uh, what I would call kind of your minimum tissue test, uh, sufficiency levels within that booklet. And, you know, that would probably be a gauge to go out and take some tissue tests for 3 or 4 weeks in a row, see where you're at, compare them to the numbers that we have in that booklet.

And then if you want to do— try some foliar feeding, that, you know, that would probably be an opportunity to help take those fields to the next level. Awesome.

Chris: No, that's great. I guess, uh, what I'm going to do now is give you the last word. I know, um, last year when we talked about the one thing we didn't hit on was planting depth, and, and I just want to real quick say that, you know, on corn and soybean— and soybeans for that matter too, right? Even if you're going to err on the side of too shallow or too deep, go too deep, right?

Troy

Deutmeyer: Yeah, I've been a firm believer if you're going to err on one side, it's, it's always on the deeper side. And kind of an example, last year had a customer around the Manchester area that I forget what it was that broke on one row and ended up putting the soybeans were like almost 3 inches deep. And when they found that out, they called and they're like, oh man, this is going to be a disaster. We're trying to find a one-row planter that we're going to have to replant that, and they came up about 2 days later. And within 3, 4 days— 3, 4 weeks, I should say— you couldn't even hardly tell that that happened. But I guess ideally for around here, I like to see an inch and a half on the soybeans and about 2 and a quarter to maybe 2 and a half on the corn.

Chris: Okay, perfect. I think that's, that's a key thing, and that I think we didn't hit exactly that I want to touch on. I'm gonna give you the last word. What do you want to tell producers as they head into and wrap up and monitor this spring planting season?

Troy

Deutmeyer: Field conditions, field conditions, field conditions. I know the soybeans, especially in our area, they do have a very strong trend once we get past the 20th of April that, you know, it's hard to match that yield. So maybe if you got to push stuff, you know, push soybeans. But the one thing we learned from our 300-bushel survey from customers last year is we had 300-bushel weighs from April 10th planting dates all the way to May 20th. You know, guys had 300-bushel corn. So, um, and it was interesting where we— there was about a 2-3 week period there where we didn't have any 300-bushel wheys from a planting date standpoint. It was because the conditions weren't good, and the guys that waited that extra 5 or 6 days for, for the planting conditions, you know, got rewarded.

So don't freak out if all of a sudden we get a couple-week delay and it's the first of May and you don't have your corn in. And then I guess the other thing is just be safe out there and, and, uh, enjoy that we get to be involved in, in agriculture. And our, our office is a cab where we can, we can look for miles rather than some of my friends that sit in a cubicle all day. So enjoy it and be— enjoy it and be safe.

Chris: Yeah, they get to look inches instead of miles.

Troy

Deutmeyer: So that's right.

Chris: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna quote my dad. My dad always used to say, throw that damn calendar— I'm quoting— throw that damn calendar away if it's If it's fit, you plant. If it's not, you stop. When it's fit, you plant. Yeah, that calendar and burn the damn thing. I mean, he literally hated the calendar in the spring. He always, like you said, would look at the conditions, would go earlier than a lot of people, but he would also wait and was okay with planting late, which I think is exactly what you just said, which is awesome. So yeah, all right, well, hey, as usual, this was a great conversation. We'll probably corner you again when we get a little ways into the growing season and it's time to— you know, we've done our monitoring, then it's time to make some decisions on things, and we'll corner you again. Really appreciate it.

Troy

Deutmeyer: All right, thanks. Stay safe out there, everybody.

Chris: Yeah, will do. And again, Troy Deitemeyer with Pioneer, Pioneer Agronomist, and really appreciate you guys listening. We'll try to get some more stuff out here on the Ag View Pitch. Again, if you're not connected to 19 Minutes, please check that out too. We got a lot of really good stuff on there. Comes out the 9th, the 19th, and the 29th. Of every month. With that said, we'll catch you again next time on the Ag View Pitch.