Integrated Crop Management News

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Fine-Tune Oat Seeding Rate This Spring

March 28, 2016
Oat Seedlings in the field

It’s time to plant small grains. When planting oats, spring wheat, and barley, farmers typically plant two to three bushels of small grains per acre, but there is a better way to optimize plant populations and grain yields. Farmers calculate corn and soybean rates by seed count and should do the same for small grains. Several factors affect final plant stands at oat harvest, including: desired final plant stand, number of oat seeds per pound, germination rate in the seed lot, and expected stand loss from irregular seeding depth or early plant death.

Terminating Cover Crops - What's Your Plan?

March 22, 2016
Cereal Rye

Take time now to get a plan in place for terminating a cover crop. Whether termination will be done with a herbicide, rolling/crimping, or tillage, it is important to know not just the advantages, but also the limitations with a termination method. Regardless of termination choice, it is important to have a plan in place to minimize problems this spring.

The Source Matters for Getting the Most out of Aerial Imagery

March 10, 2016
Aerial Imagery photo

As spring plans are finalized, don’t forget to consider aerial imaging as part of a continuous improvement plan. Remote sensing and the use of aerial imagery has been used for decades in agriculture but since 2010 we’ve seen the number of available imagery providers grow extensively. The use of imagery can vary from farm to farm but several common uses include variable rate fertility recommendations, assessing water management performance, quantifying soil compaction and machinery induced yield limiters, locating late season weed outbreaks, and generally evaluating the consistency of crop vigor across a field.