About This Episode
Recorded September 25, 2019, as harvest opens in Cara Meteer's territory covering southern Illinois and eastern Missouri. Early yields are better than she expected: 200s and 220s, and a 108-day hybrid that came out at 170. She caps the optimism, though - that is only the 10 to 20 percent of acres planted in April under good conditions. She rates roughly 90 percent of her territory's planting conditions as fair at best.
The worry is what comes out later. Many growers switched from 115-day hybrids down to 112s or 110s to fit a shrinking window, and Meteer expects the usual yield drag from earlier maturities on those acres. Northeast Missouri, from Kirksville down toward Mexico, took the worst of it: standing water, heavy prevented planting, then a dry stretch mid-season and rain again as harvest starts. Fungicide-treated fields are yielding better but carrying extra moisture.
Her advice is to take the drying cost rather than gamble on field dry-down. When the window opens, run - she would rather pay an elevator or fire up a dryer than watch corn stand into December and risk a wind event. She also talks about corn reels, which her in-laws helped patent, as the tool everybody wants hanging in the shop and nobody wants to use. Her closing point is harvest safety.
“I think that once our window does get here for us to be able to harvest, we have to go, we have to bite the bullet.”
— Cara Meteer
Key Takeaways
Early April-planted corn in her territory is running 200 to 220 bushels, with a 108-day hybrid at 170 - but that is only 10 to 20 percent of the crop.
About 90 percent of the territory got fair-at-best planting conditions, so Meteer treats the early numbers as unrepresentative of what follows.
Hybrid switches from 115-day down to 112 or 110 will show up as yield drag on the acres planted late in May and into June.
Fungicide is paying a yield bump for growers who applied it, but it adds moisture points and pushes dry-down later.
Budget for drying instead of waiting on the field; corn left standing into December risks a wind event that no yield gain covers.
Meteer's first harvest priority is safety - do not let impatience put a machine or a person in a stuck situation.
Full Transcript
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Shay: Enjoy. Welcome back to the Ag View Pitch. My name is Shay Foulk here with special guest Kara Meteer. How's it going and what do you know today, Kara?
Cara
Meteer: Sure. Again, Kara Meteer, LG Seeds Area Sales Manager for Southern Illinois and Eastern Missouri. You know, we're starting to get into it, Shea. We're getting close. We are so close to harvest. Some guys have actually had some luck, gotten rolling. Hearing a few yields here and there. A lot of, a lot of our early planted stuff is looking all right. We've got some 220s coming in, we've got some 200s coming in. We had 108-day pulled out the other day, came in at 170. So I don't think we can complain on some of that. But again, that was some of our better conditions when it came to planting.
Shay: And how is that a departure from normal? I mean, is that pretty on par, some of those yields that are coming in for the timeliness of planting?
Cara
Meteer: I actually believe that they're, they're above average right now. We are looking at some really good yields coming in that were planted in that time frame. Now I can't speak for what's going to happen later on when we get to some of this stuff that, that really got affected by the weather this year, but I do believe that, you know, our 170s, our 200s, our 220s, those are, those are great yields. We've, we've had some really good luck, and I do think that again, that was some prime prime planting weather that we did get lucky with early on, but that is only a, a small percentage, 20, 10% maybe, of our crop that's going to come out.
Shay: Now, we had talked with a lot of clients and people in the industry earlier in the season and had them kind of rate, uh, you know, the planting of, of the crop and what conditions you— they got in at. If you had to break it down into, uh, excellent, good, fair, and poor conditions on a percentage basis, what do you think that would be in your territory?
Cara
Meteer: Sure. I'd say it's probably more of a fair, the 90% of the time. You know, that 10% we're talking about that's coming out right now had some really good conditions. These are April planted, these are, again, great weather, sun was out, we were rolling, we were getting things in the ground. But I think that a lot of it was just fair wheat. We got hit so hard, I'm not really sure what's going to happen. But again, I've been pleasantly surprised by what we've been seeing in the field. So fingers crossed that that does stand as we go forward. But I do think that what you're going to see is a lot of this early planted stuff that had a later maturity has done quite well. It's, it's, we've been lucky. We've gotten in there. We've seen some really good yields.
However, there is a chance that some of the hybrids that we did decide to switch, if someone had to make a switch or made a choice to pick an earlier maturity rather than going with a later maturity when our conditions were not as prime for planting, we may see some yield drag with those because naturally we do see that with some of our earlier hybrids. That's You know, it's not all, all hybrids, but generally that is the rule. And you will see a lot of that happening if there were a lot of switches made.
Shay: And a lot of people made that decision this year, whether it's the operations decision because historically that's what they've done or because for whatever reason they thought, well, it's safer for us to do this.
Cara
Meteer: Correct. Right. You had a lot of people that looked at it and said, okay, What, what do we need to do to get this planted and be able to harvest in a timely manner? And that always does come down to how, how long are the maturity on this hybrid. So a lot of, you know, 115 switches back down to a 112, a 110, depending on what your window was. And again, you do see yield drag with an earlier hybrid that you wouldn't see in a 115, 114, 113. Maturity day hybrid. So that's, that's going to come into play here once we get into some of these hybrids that were planted later into May and unfortunately that were planted early into June.
Shay: Yes. Now a lot of the areas throughout the Midwest, the weather was a story here early this spring, and then huge areas had the wet and then very dry for a while, and now we're getting back into wet. Is that pretty Is that typical of your area that you're in?
Cara
Meteer: So I'd say that is definitely typical of the northern portion of the area that I do cover. So center of that would probably be Kirksville down to Mexico. You know, they got hit very hard early, a lot of preventative plant, a lot of standing water, just horrible conditions in terms of being able to get in and then allowing things to dry up. But then throughout our growing season, we have seen a lot of dry spells. And now I think we are seeing a lot of rain. So unfortunately, Mother Nature did, did decide to come in full bore and deal us kind of a rough hand. But I— hopefully we will see the stuff that did get planted come out and, and again, pleasantly surprise us. But there are a lot of preventative plant acres that did not get in. In, in northeastern Missouri.
Shay: Okay, any other major agronomic challenges that you saw as stressors throughout the season, whether as disease or insect pressure?
Cara
Meteer: Sure, so again, we, we still are watching the migration patterns of our rootworm. Corn rootworm's just been very unpredictable the last few years, and I'm not sure how quickly or how soon we will see something come up with them throughout the next few years due to the rain that we did get early. So early rain, lots of rain allowed us to wash out some of those corn worms that were lying in wait for our crop to get into the ground for them. But like I said, we, we're not sure what their patterns are going to be. Typically they have gone more north in the last couple of years. So Missouri has been lucky. Illinois has been lucky. Um, a lot of those pockets have migrated to the north. Unfortunately towards Minnesota, Iowa, out towards South Dakota.
Disease-wise, I think we're looking at some chances of— there were some Southern Rust that we did walk into a little bit here and there, but for the most part, a lot of people went and took, took the leap and did some fungicide. And I actually have heard from a couple of our growers that the fungicide-applied crop actually is coming in with a nice, a nice yield bump. So we are seeing some benefits to, to taking that leap in and having that cost early on.
Shay: The fungicide was a huge decision point this year, and it's been a big talking point for the last 5 to 8 years on application timing and if you're actually seeing the yield bump. And I know a lot of producers this year were concerned with allowing that plant to continue to grow a little longer and take up those nutrients longer because this leads into my next point. You know, one of the biggest challenges for growers this season that you and I were talking about offline here is going to be some of the drying costs associated with that and making the decision of, okay, it's time to just get this crop out of the field.
Cara
Meteer: Right. Gosh, yes. I actually was just talking to Shay about this again offline, but in discussing what I discussed with my own parents, you know, that's going to be a big decision coming, coming up here very quickly. We're experiencing rain right now and we don't know what our window is going to be to be able to actually get in and harvest. But going back to fungicide, fungicide does add, you know, a few more percentage of moisture that we have to wait for dry down. And I don't think we're going to have the ability to do that this year. I think that once our window does get here for us to be able to harvest, we have to go, we have to bite the bullet. We have to just take our drying costs with whenever we can get things in, into an elevator, or if you have your own dryer to use those, you know, get her going, be prepared to use it. This is the year for it.
You know, I'd hate to see a lot of standing crop later on in the year, which unfortunately we have a chance for. But I do think that if we get a good window and people are prepared for drying costs or what our moisture might be when we get them out, that we could be sitting in a decent spot. Again, I'm not sure what Mother Nature is going to hand us, but with the rain we have right now,, you know, we're still in a delay mode and looking at a couple weeks on some things just to dry down naturally.
Shay: So, right. And that comes into, you know, harvestability. That's one of the things is you let it set in the field and hoping for it to dry down a couple more points before you put it in the bin or have to pay those drying costs. But there's nothing more disheartening to have a wind event go through and have some good standing corn just be an absolute mess, whether it's dry or not.
Cara
Meteer: Gosh, yes. You know, I always love to talk about how my, my in-laws are actually one of the patent holders for the original corn reel. So Mature Manufacturing, back in the '80s, you know, that's, that's really how they got their start. They started with these corn reels, and just about everybody that we work with has one hanging in their shop.. And we always joke that we love that you have them, but we hate that you have to use it. Right? Yes. Right. And I just really hope that this year we don't have to pull things like that out of our shed because of the, again, the hand that we're dealt. Unfortunately, that seems to be my phrase that we're saying, but that's, that's really where it lies. We're not sure what's going to happen going forward. You have a lot of, a lot of chance that's still out there. And like I said, we love to see corn reels out there.
We love to see them with your name, but I hate having people having to actually use them. Hopefully it means if you have one in your shed that you don't have to use it. You only use it when you don't have one.
Shay: Yes, exactly. Now just a couple more minutes here. We'll, we'll wrap things up. I have a couple more questions for you. We had talked early, earlier on in the season towards the end of July that farmers were glad to just get it in the ground. And that was kind of how their attitude was. And I think the word that you used when we were talking here earlier is cautious as we move into harvest and how that may be a good thing. Can you explain that a little more?
Cara
Meteer: Sure. I think early on, we planted things and I say this jokingly, but we almost mean it. We were, we were just happy to be able to throw something in the ground and allow it to stick. So now that we're at a point where, all right, this is exciting. We're going to see some yields coming out. We're going to see how things really shook out this year. This is kind of like a test tube year, essentially, to see what's happening with, with all of, all the things that we have had happen to us. But a lot of people have sat there going, all right, I don't know what's gonna happen. I don't know what my yields are gonna be. If you go in thinking that your yields are gonna be top dollar, unfortunately you're probably gonna have some disappointment going in. So I think that a lot of growers are very cautious going in thinking, all right, I'm going to be happy with what I've got.
I'm going to be happy with the yields that are coming out, be happy with my stand, be happy with whatever I see. And that, that caution is going to be beneficial in the long run. And again, we've seen some really, really awesome yields coming in early on, but that's probably 20% of what we're going to see. So that caution is, is going to be pivotal going into these, these next few weeks of seeing what our yields are.
Shay: And I would say another thing with the hand we've been dealt, there's a lot of opportunity out of the adversity, opportunities to learn on what works and what doesn't. And then also to look at some of the hybrids and the varieties that are out there, how they perform under stress and not just in perfect growing conditions. It's a learning curve for the growers and for the companies alike.
Cara
Meteer: Oh gosh, yes. This is, You know, while we look at it, we go, oh my gosh, I cannot believe this is the year that we've had. This is one of those years that we're going to talk about for years to come. We're going to see how a lot of these hybrids actually work under stress, under— I hate saying it, but prime stress conditions. The research is going to be invaluable. We're going to be learning a lot. We're going to learn about our farming practices. We're going to learn a lot about our timing. We're going to learn a lot about sustainability, just seeing how things last in a year that is just not, not ideal. It's going to be one of those years that we talk about. Like I said, it's going to be like 2009 and 2012 where we talk about, oh, do you remember that year that, well, this happened and, you know, it was better or worse than expected. And it's going to be one of our war stories.
So yes, we're going to hear a lot. From this year. And I hate saying it like that, but it's true.
Shay: When it's the year 2050 and we're talking to our kids and grandkids, we can say, "Oh, you remember back in 2019?" Right, that's exactly right.
Cara
Meteer: This will be our war story.
Shay: Well, taking a little bit of optimism there as we wrap things up. Any last thoughts or advice as the neighbors to the north and in your area move into harvest here?
Cara
Meteer: You know, I think number one is safety. Please be safe, please be assured that, that you can get out there in a safe manner and not get stuck. We've all seen our neighbors get stuck. We all get itchy when things are going forward, but safety is always first and foremost in my mind. And I think next up is just being aware that things might not shake out exactly the way you want it to with the weather. So be prepared. People go in, get things to an elevator, get things in a drying bin to get it out of the ground. I, I unfortunately know that there's going to be some standing stuff late in December and we hate to see that, but it is what it is. So if we can avoid that early on, that's good.
Shay: Thank you very much for hitting on that safety and thanks for joining us today, Kara. We really appreciate it and we wish you a safe rest of harvest.
Cara
Meteer: Great. Thank you, Shea.
Shay: And thank you, listeners of the Ag View Pitch. Stay safe out there, and we will catch you next time.
Narrator: Thanks for joining us on today's episode of the Ag View Pitch. As always, you can reach out to us at cbarron@agviewsolutions.com or duanel@netins.net. We'll catch you next time on the Ag View Pitch.