Matt Darr
Safety should be a major concern for all farmers during harvest, but as the season goes on, it can be easy to miss details or neglect safe practices that can put you or others at risk. Here are six simple safety tips to maintain throughout the season to keep yourself and your crew out of harm’s...
With harvest quickly approaching, it’s time to make sure your combine is prepped and ready for the field. This article published in fall of 2020 has some good tips for...
In addition to conducting regular spring maintenance on your planter, which we outlined in a recent post, it’s important to adjust the settings and perform...
As farming slows down for the winter, many producers start thinking about what tools they might want to add to their farm for the next crop season. Throughout the year, we’ve shared information on equipment and products that you might be considering for your operation. If you are looking to...
Farmers in Iowa are faced with some new challenges this harvest season after the derecho swept through the state in early August. In this video, Ben Covington and Dr. Matt Darr with ISU Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering share their tips for harvesting downed corn this fall,...
When heading into the field for harvest, it’s important to make sure your monitors, sensors and scales are getting accurate numbers. Taking the time to calibrate your combine yield monitor is the first step in making sure you are using high quality yield data to make decisions in your operation...
In addition to preparing the soil for planting, tillage can be an effective strategy for weed management. During a field trial, blue chalk was applied to the soil surface in areas where a tillage pass was made with a vertical tillage (VT) tool at a 3 degree, 5 degree and 9 degree gang angle...
Adjustable vertical tillage (VT) tools can easily allow you to till your fields more or less aggressively depending on the tool’s gang angle setting. In this video, Dr. Matt Darr shows the impact different gang angle settings have just below the soil surface.
Vertical tillage (VT) tools can be an effective way to maintain residue and prevent soil erosion while still preparing the soil for planting. When you select a vertical tillage tool for your operation, consider these factors:
1. Types of blades
In areas with wet...
After the derecho passed through Iowa in early August, many farmers have been left with unharvestable fields. These fields may require additional management to prepare the soil for another crop next season. In this video, Dr. Matt Darr reviews the results of four tillage options five days after...
Safety should be a major concern for all farmers during harvest, but as the season goes on, it can be easy to miss details or neglect safe practices that can put you or others at risk. Here are six simple safety tips to maintain throughout the season to keep yourself and your crew out of harm’s...
Following the derecho event on August 10, millions of acres in Iowa face challenging conditions. In many cases the corn may be unharvestable. These unharvestable fields require some level of fall management to ensure the future crop can achieve even emergence and normal early plant growth.
...Monday’s derecho event took a toll on crops across Iowa. Satellite imagery shows millions of acres of Iowa crops impacted by the high wind events. As growers dig out from the destruction left after the storm, decisions regarding how to manage the impacted crop will be front and center.
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Whether you are thinking about trying strip-till or already using strip-till in your farming operation, the question of timing comes up—fall or spring? There are many factors that go into this decision, including availability of...
Recently Iowa State University (ISU) completed a five-year study of high speed planting technology using the Precision Planting SpeedTube and the John Deere ExactEmerge seed meter and seed delivery system. Both planters provided excellent singulation and spacing of corn while...