About This Episode
Chris Barron checks in with Roger and Grant Rix, who farm near Aberdeen in northeast South Dakota, days after the planters came back into the yard. Roger calls it the easiest spring he can remember. They started and never had to stop for a rain, had the corn and beans in the ground in about three weeks, and left very little ground unplanted. The top inch or two of soil is dry, but subsoil moisture is good, and they are watching the northwest hoping for a shower.
Grant credits their no-till system for the planting conditions. The ground was as good as it gets and only the last few days of soybean planting required dropping another half inch deeper to find moisture. Neighbors who ran deep tillage to dry out ground are the ones he expects to struggle through the first month of the growing season. The Rixes planted only 30 percent of their crop the previous year because of standing water, and the operations that seeded cover crops held more soil moisture than the ones that tilled hard.
On rotation, the area is shifting away from a 50-50 corn and soybean split toward roughly 60 percent corn, and the Rixes are at about 65 percent. Corn basis is running 24 cents over against a typical 30 cents under for this time of year, a 50 cent swing. Their immediate concern is weed control. Pre-emerge went out on the soybeans, corn gets an early post in about two weeks, and with soil this dry they doubt the pres will activate, so they expect extra spray passes.
“Our area in South Dakota is almost always 2 inches from a drought or 2 inches from a flood.”
— Grant Rix
Key Takeaways
The Rixes put their entire corn and soybean crop in the ground in about three weeks without stopping for rain, the easiest spring Roger can remember.
No-till ground planted well in the dry spring. Only the last few days of soybeans needed another half inch of depth to reach moisture.
Neighbors who used deep tillage to dry out ground after last year's wet spring are the ones expected to struggle this season.
Area rotation is moving from 50-50 toward about 60 percent corn. The Rixes are at roughly 65 percent corn.
Corn basis is 24 cents over, against a typical 30 cents under for this time of year, a 50 cent improvement.
Dry soil may keep the pre-emerge herbicides from activating, so the Rixes expect more spray passes and are watching for escapes.
Full Transcript
Chris: Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ag View Pitch and our crop update. Today we have with us Roger and Grant Ricks, and they farm near Aberdeen, South Dakota, up in the northeast part. How's it going today, Roger and Grant?
Roger
Rix: Oh, pretty well. Uh, the planters came in the yard Saturday night. We finished up, so we're Got the corn and beans in the ground, and we're pretty pleased with looking anxiously for the, to the northwest, hoping we get a shower here pretty soon.
Chris: Okay, so this is, this is Roger that gave me the first answer there. I'm going to stick with you for a second here, Roger, and, and, uh, ask you, you know, kind of comparing this to history, what stands out in this year versus all of the years that you've been involved in the farming operation, what, what sticks out this year? Anything in particular?
Roger
Rix: Well, for one thing, it was probably the easiest spring we've ever had to plant that I can remember. We started and never had to stop for a rain, which is good and bad both. But we were able to— we started, and I think Grant just said a little bit ago, we were visiting, said 3 weeks we had everything put in the ground and didn't have to stop unless we needed fuel or got tired and planted end to end with very little, very little ground that we weren't able to plant this year. So, and we had, we had great planting conditions, topsoil, top inch or two were pretty dry, but we got good subsoil. So we're, we're feeling pretty good right now.—
Chris: So Grant, I'll pick on you next. You know, Roger talked about it being the easiest spring, planting-wise anyway, and I know you're pretty connected on the agronomy side of things. So what stood out to you, and what are some of the things that you're looking at on the crop now as things are starting to get close to having some things come up, probably from the earlier planted stuff?
Grant
Rix: Well, our operation set up pretty well. We did a lot of no-till, or we're generally a no-till operation. And with it being this dry spring, the ground just, I mean, the ground conditions were perfect. You couldn't have asked for anything better for planting into. The last week of soybean, or last few days of soybean planting, we had to drop in another half inch deeper to find more moisture. But other than that, everything was perfect. We have some neighbors that do some tillage that are really going to struggle this year, at least for the first month of the growing season, just because the deep tillage they did. Just to go back another year, a year ago, we only planted 30% of our crop. We were so wet. We were just— yeah, there were just just water everywhere.
The operations that did plant cover crop in their fields, which we were one of them, they— there was just a lot of soil moisture there. The guys that decided to do the deep tillage and a lot of tillage to dry out their ground, those guys are really suffering this year.
Chris: Interesting. So, um, when you look at crop rotation, I've been asking everybody we do these crop updates is kind of, in your given area, did you see any switching one way or the other from, you know, that was abnormal? More corn acres, for example? I mean, like you said, you guys, you guys were in a really rough area last year where you just had— there was so much prevent plant in your guys's area. You know, are most of those acres going back to corn, or some of them, more of them going back to beans, or what's, what's that look like to you guys?
Roger
Rix: A little hard to tell right now. Nothing's up, you know, what guys actually planted. But I would say there's going to be, uh, there was a lot of guys with 50/50 corn-bean rotation. I think you'll see more corn.
Grant
Rix: I'd say instead of the 50/50, it can be more of a 60% corn. Okay, across the board.
Chris: Okay, yeah. And, and you guys are typical. We keep hearing that too. It keeps making me wonder where the soybean acres going to come from if everybody's plant, plant planting more corn here. But what did you guys do?
Grant
Rix: Uh, we were about— we're about 65% corn.
Chris: Okay, okay, interesting. So as far as any other issues with the conditions, you know, obviously you said you guys are super dry. Um, probably an okay time of the year to be dry, I guess, as we root down and stuff. Any other issues or things that you guys are concerned about in the immediate future here?
Roger
Rix: I think it's, you know, having a nice half-inch rain would be a, it would be a great time for that just to help us with the germination and emergence. Other than that, you know, really we're starting to warm up, so things are gonna, the plant crop's gonna be emerging nicely now with the warmth, the additional warmth in the soil temperature. So I, I really don't see anything significant other than the replenishing the topsoil at this point. But that can, that can change over time too. We've had 5 and 6-inch rains before, and that could definitely happen again.
Chris: Yeah. Was there any frost in your guys' area, or anybody that planted early enough that would have had some frost damage, or not really? No.
Roger
Rix: Okay, our soil temp was never warm enough to get anything out of the ground when those frosts still came.
Chris: So, gotcha, gotcha. Okay, the last thing I want to hit on is, um, as we've been doing on a lot of these crop updates, is to ask you a little bit about basis. Do you get some sense with where basis is at right now versus where it is typically that you you know, there's more of a need for soybeans or more of a need for corn? Or is your basis quite a bit stronger than normal or about the same?
Grant
Rix: Our basis on corn is really good. I haven't checked lately, but I think it's 24 cents over. We're— this time of year, we're typically 30 cents under on corn. Um, I guess I haven't even looked at soybeans. We haven't had any soybeans to sell lately, so I haven't even looked at that.
Chris: Well, when you got a 50-cent better than normal basis, that's pretty strong. It says a lot. And, you know, and I think too, you know, it's going to be really interesting to see, um, like I said, once, once stuff gets up, things get growing, this whole marketing thing is going to be really interesting. So anything else I didn't I didn't hit on that you guys think that's worth mentioning or anything?
Grant
Rix: I don't know, like we're really dry right now. But our area in South Dakota is almost always 2 inches from a drought or 2 inches from a flood. So I'd rather be that 2 inches from a drought. Yeah. So you know, it wouldn't take much, you know, if we caught a 5-inch rain, that'd be pretty devastating for us, even for how dry we are right now.
Chris: Yeah, yep, that's the thing. The markets a lot of times thinks rain makes grain, but it also ruins grain sometimes too if you get too much of it.
Roger
Rix: But start losing acres pretty quickly. Yeah, yeah, we're pretty optimistic right now, but, uh, I don't know, check back with us in a couple months, we'll let you know what happens.
Grant
Rix: Yeah. And right now we're pretty concerned about weed control. You know, we've got all of our, uh, our pre's out on our soybeans. We'll be doing our pre's on our corn here. Well, we don't do pre, pre-emerge on corn, we do an early post. We'll be doing that here in about 2 weeks. And with all the prevent plant we had last year, we're, we're getting concerned that we're not going to get these pre-activated. So there might be a lot of spray passes going on.
Chris: Yeah. And that's a common thing we're hearing in these areas that are dry is the— we're starting to see escapes for sure. It's working its way from the south where it was warmer up to you guys and definitely a concern. Well, hey, Roger and Grant, really appreciate your time. Thanks a lot for sharing how things are going to this point, and I'll definitely be back to bug you guys again here when we get in the middle of growing season, see how things are looking.
Roger
Rix: Very good. Sounds good.
Grant
Rix: Great talking to you, Chris.
Chris: All right, thanks guys. And again, thanks everybody for listening to another crop update and the Ag View Pitch, and we will catch you next time.