About This Episode
Shay Foulk checks in with Alyssa Abbott, a strategic account manager with Pioneer covering east central Illinois from Will County south of Chicago down to Coles County and the McLean County area, and a farmer's wife at Momence. Recorded during a very wet spring, she puts her territory at roughly 40 percent planted on corn and 30 percent on beans, with individual farms ranging anywhere from zero to 90 percent. A widespread rain of 0.6 to 1 inch on the 21st shut most of the week down.
Her larger growers are mostly holding to the original plan. A few switched out of full season products at 114-day maturity and up, but most intend to stay with mid-season 111-day hybrids into the second week of June. Her reasoning is that corn adjusts to a later planting date and needs fewer growing degree units to reach physiological maturity. Pioneer maps this by hybrid: their 1197 planted May 25 needs 2,567 GDUs, and 95 fewer if it goes in June 1.
The earliest fields sat in cold, wet ground for over a month and emerged better than expected, which Abbott credits partly to cool conditions that discouraged seed rot and partly to how far seed treatments have come. She estimates about 10 percent of that corn will need replanting and 5 percent of the beans, using drone stand count software to gauge field variability. Prevent plant math, she stresses, is personal and depends on crop insurance and inputs already applied.
“It's absolutely been a test of agility and how quickly can guys adapt to the new plan, and it seems like the tune changes almost daily at this point.”
— Alyssa Abbott
Key Takeaways
Territory-wide planting sat near 40 percent on corn and 30 percent on beans, with individual operations anywhere from 0 to 90 percent on both crops.
Most large growers held 111-day mid-season hybrids into the second week of June; only full season 114-day and up products got switched.
Corn adapts to a late planting date. Pioneer's 1197 needs 2,567 GDUs planted May 25 and 95 fewer growing degree days planted June 1.
Foulk notes that a 10 to 20 bushel yield increase from a fuller season hybrid pays for a lot of fall drying, which is the objection he hears most.
Seed that sat in cold, wet ground over a month stayed viable better than growers expected; Abbott credits cool soils that discouraged rot plus improved seed treatments.
Her replant estimate at the time was roughly 10 percent of the corn and 5 percent of the soybeans, with prevent plant versus switching to beans a personal calculation on each farm.
Full Transcript
Shay
Foulk: Welcome back to the Ag View Pitch, everyone. This is Shay Foulk here with Ag View Solutions, and we have special guest Alyssa Abbott on this morning. Uh, Alyssa, can you go ahead and introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about what it is that you do and how things are in your area.
Alyssa
Abbott: Yeah, sure. Good morning, Shea. Um, Alyssa Abbott, I am a strategic account manager with Pioneer Seed in east central Illinois. I cover from Will County, just south of Chicago, all the way down to Coles County and to the central part of the state, McLean County area. I am also a farmer's wife up in Momence, Illinois, so the very northeast part of the district that I cover. And it's been a very wet spring in our part of the world, like a lot of other pockets, right?
Shay
Foulk: So, you know, I haven't seen a planter running in my area of northwest Illinois or east central Iowa with my travels here for the last gosh, almost 4 days now. What's it look like in your area?
Alyssa
Abbott: Sure. So there were some really isolated pockets across my district that were able to get into the field the last week in April. That was the earliest crop that we had planted. But like I said, those areas were few and far between. Since then, it's been intermittent rain events ever since. And then our most recent event was Tuesday the 21st, and we had widespread rain. Across the entire area, anywhere from 0.6 to 1 inch, and that's pretty well put guys out for the majority of this week.
Shay
Foulk: Right, and, you know, knock on wood here, but I think the forecast is looking a little bleak here, at least for the next 5 to 7 days.
Alyssa
Abbott: Yeah, it's absolutely been a test of agility and how quickly can guys adapt to the new plan, and it seems like the tune changes almost daily at this point.
Shay
Foulk: Right, and that's why farmers are so good at what they do with the ability to adapt. Can, can you talk about some of that agility? And you know, what do you, what do you mean by that? What, what are producers switching? Uh, how are they taking into account the prevent plant, uh, earlier hybrids? And is anybody at this point making the decision of, hey, we need to be switching over to beans or things like that?
Alyssa
Abbott: Sure. Um, so it's a very personal decision. Just to give you a snapshot of the area I cover, There's a huge range of where guys are at on percent planted for both corn and beans. I would say on average we're maybe roughly 40% on corn, 30% on beans, but that can vary from 0 to 90 on both crops. So it really depends on the individual farming operation. For the most part, the guys that I work with, larger operations in that geography, are sticking to the plan as much as possible. So we switched a few guys out of real full season products. You know, 114 maturity and up. But most of the guys that I talk to are planning to stick with the mid-season products, 111 days, through the second week of June in a lot of cases.
Shay
Foulk: Right. And what would you say that the biggest decision is for them to, you know, as you said, stick with the plan? What, what's, what's the thought process there?
Alyssa
Abbott: Yeah, so we all know that corn adjusts to later planting., it can adapt its growth and development and requires less GDU to get to that physiological maturity. So I think guys are taking that into account. We also know that there's a yield advantage with planting fuller season products, and, you know, oftentimes that can outweigh, you know, the planting date. So planting date is just one factor that contributes to final yield, and the big unknown is we don't know what the rest of the growing season is going to bring. But we've certainly seen years where we can still have tremendous yield potential even with late planting based on what Mother Nature throws at us. So I think the key is, you know, obviously mudding seed in the rest of the growing season can dictate a lot of that, and it's just a major unknown right now.
But I think guys are looking to control what they can control, and as we sit today, they're not going to not plant the full season product and take the risk of not having that yield potential there. Not knowing what the rest of the growing season is going to look like. So, you know, making sure that they, they lay all the cards on the table and set up for success regardless of what the rest of the season shows.
Shay
Foulk: Right. And I think you said it really well there, you know, control what you can control. Now let's back up a little minute, or just a minute here, to the fuller season hybrid. And it's a change that I've seen in the last 5 years. A lot more growers progressive growers, people that are turning out these high yields, they are switching over to these later season hybrids and working, you know, with what Chris does with Ag View Solutions and some of his profit management tools. It's interesting when you look at those fuller season hybrids and you see producers that say, oh, well, I don't want to have that fuller season hybrid because I don't want to have to dry corn. But all of a sudden, when you start looking at a 10, 15, 18, 20 bushel yield increase, that pays for a lot of drying, uh, when it comes to that fall season.
So I just thought that was an interesting note there that you had.
Alyssa
Abbott: Absolutely. Well, and we have it mapped out, so every hybrid in our lineup, we've done GDU projections based on planting date, and that, that ties back to our thousands of on-farm trials, um, in recent history. But just for an example, you take a product like 1197, planted on May 25th requires 2,567 GDUs to maturity, you know, planted June 1st, it requires 95 less growing degree days. So that's how, you know, hybrids adapt to the planting date, and that's definitely something to take into consideration and to give guys confidence that you can capture the yield potential of a full season product and not take as much of a hit as what you might think.
Shay
Foulk: Right, and looking at that GDU accumulation, so depending on where, you know, we have listeners over a huge area of states here, but with some of that earlier planted stuff, when you look at the GDU accumulation into when that seed actually got out of the ground, you know, 2.5, 3, almost 4 weeks later, and then the stuff that is emerging at this time, there's very little difference in that GDU accumulation. And when you start to take into account some of those stands, it really makes you wonder, you know, how the little bit of uneven emergence and the GDU accumulation is really going make a difference in yield there. So maybe unfortunately a little bit trial by necessity this year, but as you said, that's how we grow and adapt.
Alyssa
Abbott: I just told a customer yesterday that we're going to have a lot of interesting things to look at this summer.
Shay
Foulk: So, right. Yeah, we had some people talk about maybe switching over to hydroponics or aquaculture this year, but maybe next—
Alyssa
Abbott: creative solution. So it's been interesting. You mentioned the real early planted stuff, and like I said, our earliest planting was that last week in April, and it's been really, really slow to come along. Just this last week I was able to get out and evaluate some, and we're actually using some stand count software our drones are equipped with called Isaiah to get a feel for the variability across the field. But it is amazing what those seedlings have endured. I mean, a lot of them have been in the ground now for over a month, extremely cool, extremely wet conditions, and stands are surprisingly better than what we anticipated. So it's a little too soon to tell, too wet to do anything about it today. So the jury's still out, but as it looks today, I would say that probably 10% of that corn is going to need to be replanted and maybe 5% of the beans.
So despite everything it's been through, I would say I'm, I'm pleasantly surprised at what we're finding.
Shay
Foulk: Right. So, you know, a little bit of optimism there as things are developing in this process. Any other key points of optimism? I know, I know some of the listeners out there could really use some of that right now.
Alyssa
Abbott: One thing that I think is kind of interesting, I was speaking with one of my growers late last week, and he has a lot of experience under his belt, but he was saying he's never seen a year like this where we've had the seed sit in the ground for as long as we have and had it still be viable. And I can't point to one single factor that contributed to that, but I do think the cooler weather that we have had may have something to do with it. It's not as optimal conditions for the seed to rot in the ground. I also think our seed treatments have come a long way and are maybe keeping that seed viable a lot longer than what we've seen in the past. So those are some points of optimism. And like I said, we've certainly seen years, even with later planting, where we have tremendous yields in the end.
It really just depends on what Mother whatever nature throws at us here for the rest of the season.
Shay
Foulk: Right. And a lot of producers, I imagine a lot of the ones that you work with as well, probably do full or the majority of treated soybeans there. Have you seen anyone that maybe wasn't treating beans that is now at this time?
Alyssa
Abbott: Not from my group, but I think if we did, they would— this year would make a believer out of them.
Shay
Foulk: Right. And, and we've seen that with some of the other business that I deal with. We had a customer yesterday say, yep, let's go ahead and get those treated. Because it's to the point now where producers are starting to realize, and over the last few years, you know, we'll say 5 to 6 years, especially with the downturn in markets, producers have gotten really good about making decisions from a financial standpoint and looking at, hey, how can we protect that crop, even if it costs us a little bit upfront. And we've had some people switching over and saying, hey, we need to do everything that we can this year in particular, so that once that seed gets in the ground, it has the best chance possible to succeed.
Alyssa
Abbott: Absolutely. Yeah, like I talked about, even with the maturities, you know, we can always anticipate what the rest of the growing season is going to bring and, and try to get out ahead of that, but that doesn't do us a lot of good. You know, I think we got to tee ourselves up for success based on what we know today and hope for the best. And inherently, most farmers I work with are pretty optimistic, so I think that that's something that they're definitely prepared to do.
Shay
Foulk: Great. Now let's take a spin back here. You mentioned at the beginning, so not only are you a SAM with Pioneer, but you mentioned that you're a farmer's wife as well. Tell me a little bit about that dynamic. I know it's never, it's never easy for any given year. You're really the rock and the foundation of what keeps operations going. But how is it this year? What, what are you learning? How's your family adapting to that? Talk a little bit about that.
Alyssa
Abbott: Yeah, so for us personally, it's been a real interesting year. It was a little bit of a tease. We were in one of the pockets that was able to get going, um, well that last week in April and, and felt like we were pretty lucky, you know, relative to the, the rest of our local area. And then the rain started and things kind of flip-flopped and we've really been sitting ducks for the most part since that last week in April. So it's been It's been frustrating, to say the least. And I think my husband is one that's pretty optimistic and has stayed patient, and he's always wanted to tell me, "Control what you can control." So definitely hanging in there, but it's like anybody else, you know, we have to take the conditions almost daily and adapt decision-making accordingly.
And, you know, if you ask me today exactly how things are going to finish out and what our plan is, I would say it's evolving. You know, most of the fields that we had set to go to corn that we had chemical and ammonia down on, we've been able to get planted. There may be a few if they continue to stay wet that we'll have to scrap that. Those acres could potentially go prevent plant, and some of those acres that, that we potentially could get too late to get corn on, we may end up switching to beans. And like I said before, I know those decisions are very personal depending on the operation. Everybody has to run the numbers and, you know, based on their crop insurance and based on what they already have down. And, you know, there's so many factors that play into that decision. So I don't pretend for a second that what works for us would work for anybody else.
But yeah, it's definitely been a season of adaptation, constant adaptation.
Shay
Foulk: Right. And now, how long have you and your husband been a part of the operation there?
Alyssa
Abbott: My husband's been back for 12 years now, I believe, and we've been married for 6 is how long I've been a part of it.
Shay
Foulk: Okay, great. So definitely one for the history books that you'll be able to look back on someday and say, well, at least this year is better than 2019.
Alyssa
Abbott: I actually told somebody the other day, I feel like we've been saying that a lot lately. The last few years we've said, this is one for the history books. I can't believe that every year is going to be one for the history books. So we've definitely had some extraordinary highs and lows, um, since I've been around anyway.
Shay
Foulk: And I think the moral of the story is, you know, we're— we always make it through, uh, we get the crops that we get and we carry on because it's something that we love to do.
Alyssa
Abbott: So absolutely.
Shay
Foulk: Uh, you have any last points here as we wrap up, Alyssa?
Alyssa
Abbott: Um, the only other— the only other note I had written down is It'll be really interesting how this wet spring impacts things like corn rootworm populations. I know that's been a hot topic of discussion, and it seems like the last few years those populations have really taken a hit. I know the very north part of the district that I cover has made a large shift over to doubles and continues to be a very high percentage doubles. So, varies a lot by geography, but I'll be curious to see where those populations sit after a spring like we've had. But I would say the general consensus is, you know, we're suspecting those populations will be down significantly again.
Shay
Foulk: So how does that impact growers' decisions going into the season? And is there anywhere that the listeners out there can get a little bit more information on some of this that you're talking about?
Alyssa
Abbott: Absolutely. So universities are a great resource. I know the University of Illinois has a pretty extensive testing program that they publish data out of. You know, local seed advisors are a great resource for that. One of the big reasons we've seen a shift locally is there are tremendous yield gains, oftentimes going to doubles, a little less costly, although you consider insecticide into that figure and, and it's about breakeven. So it just depends on what you can get away with locally. In the advent of technology like Chrome, which recently received Chinese approval, It'll be interesting to see how those products stack up from a yield potential standpoint relative to the doubles, but we're suspecting parity yield there, which will give guys options depending on your, your rootworm pressure locally.
Shay
Foulk: Right, and I think the consistent message that we've had throughout the podcast here is that you make these decisions based on your personal situation and do what makes sense for your farm operation. And you really, you really had a key point there, consult with your local seed advisors, whoever it is that you deal with, reach out to the universities, make sure that you have all of the right materials in front of you to be making these decisions. If there's anyone out there listening that would like to hear from Chris or myself in regards to, you know, other things that we're hearing through the countryside, if you need access to some of these prevent plant tools that we have available, or if you'd like to talk a little bit more about Profit Manager and how we can help your operation, feel free to give us a call. Alyssa, thank you so much for taking time out of your morning here.
I hope things dry up for you and, you know, we'll make it through it. It's gonna be a good year ahead of us.
Alyssa
Abbott: Absolutely. I appreciate the time, Shay, and I also hope that planting conditions improve for everybody out there. I know it's been a trying spring.
Shay
Foulk: Exactly. All right, well, thanks for listening to the Ag View Pitch today, and we'll catch you next time.