Farmers constantly face challenges, and extreme situations sometimes call for unconventional solutions. The original author of the proverb, ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, has been lost to history, but it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to imagine the root of this phrase to be a [...]
One of the areas we have focused a lot of our attention on over the past couple of years is stress mitigation in plants, whether that stress comes from heat, moisture, or even herbicide use. As farmers and agronomists, we can’t control Mother Nature, [...]
You have to make so many decisions throughout the crop season. Some can make or break your yields. How do you make those choices on your farm? I’ll give you a simple guiding principle that governs how the most profitable farm operations make these [...]
Never, ever, ever run short on nitrogen. You and I both know if you want to maximize corn yield, you can’t run short on nitrogen, not even for a single day. How do you balance that with the environmental issues with nitrogen, as [...]
Bug problems can strike when you least expect them. About 35 years ago, we had “woolly bear caterpillars” invade our farm, causing us to spray most of our acres. I had never heard of that insect prior to them showing up in massive numbers [...]
“ARE WE GOING TO BE ABLE TO GET ANY CHEMICALS THIS SPRING FOR OUR CROPS?” That was the question a North Dakota farmer asked me the other day. Here was my response: “Oh, yeah. We should have an ample supply of everything. A lot [...]
If you’ve had Iron Deficiency Chlorosis (IDC) in the past few years, wouldn’t it be nice if you could find a way to permanently end your risk for having this issue on your farm? There is. If your soil pH drops below 7 and [...]
If you haven’t been using soybean seed treatment, please consider the following. The number one thing I hear from farmers who tell me they aren’t using seed treatment is, “I’ve tried it before, and I didn’t get much out of it.” Most [...]
Resistant weeds are becoming more of a problem every year. While there are many things you can do to add yield to your soybean crop, few things are more important than having fantastic weed control. Here’s our best suggestion if you have a weedy [...]
Near-record expenses and near-record commodity prices have created an environment where new companies are popping up everywhere selling various biological products, bombarding farmers with advertisements that make all sorts of claims. How do you know what to believe? Now more than ever in this [...]