Replanting Decisions

With all the wet weather you may have parts of fields where stand loss is significant. Alot of factors such as extent of stand loss, seed and fuel costs, crop insurance, herbicides planned/used, etc go into a decision to replant. The first decision is can you drive the planter down through the field and replant skips or waterlogged area that have dried. If the field sustained more substantial loss, then doing a stand count is essential. With corn, if you have 70% or more of the initial targeted population (as an example 20,000 out of 28,000 hoped for) remaining and plants are fairly evenly spaced, its probably not economical to tear up the field and replant. With soybeans, if you have 4 plants/ft of row in 30" rows or 1 plant/ft of row in drilled beans that are reasonably spaced there is probably no benefit to replanting, especially if it remains wet and you cant get in the fields for a week or more. If you do replant, you can stick with your intended variety/hybrid maturities unless you have some really long season ones which you likely should avoid, especially with corn after June1.

The above are very general statements. You can find alot more detailed and useful information from an Iowa State publication.

Zane Helsel

Watch for slugs

I had a report today of slug damage in a no-till soybean field. With the wet weather pattern we have been in it is important to check no-till corn and soybean field for slug damage. This is particularly important for fields that have had a history of damage. Penn State has a fact sheet that provides information on managing slugs in field crops. Hopefully, with some warm and sunny days the crop will soon be able to outgrow the damage.

Bill Bamka

Corn Stand Counts

Now is a great time to estimate corn populations and make replant decisions.  In most cases, plant populations of 28-32 thousand plants per acre result in optimum yields.  A fast way to estimate plant populations is to use the 1/1000th of an acre method.  For 30" rows, measure 17' 5" and count how many plants are in that distance and multiply by 1000.

Stephen Komar

Cereal leaf beetle in Timothy

I was called to a farm today to look at a timothy field to see why the leaves were being skeletonized. The damage was being caused by cereal leaf beetle larvae. We are most familiar with cereal leaf beetle being a pest of wheat. However, cereal leaf beetle can also be found on forage grasses, including orchardgrass and timothy. Penn State Cooperative Extension has a cereal leaf beetle fact sheet that provides additional information on identification and management of this pest.

Bill Bamka

First Cutting Hay

Past statistics suggest the "average" NJ farmer cuts hay about 2 weeks too late. Cutting date, and more specifically, stage of growth is the single most important factor affecting the nutritional value of hay. Alfalfa (and in mixtures with grass) should be cut at full bud to 1/10th bloom, clovers at 1/4 to 1/2 bloom and grasses as heads are emerging (which many are in right now). For clarity, 1/10th bloom is when just 1 out of every 10 stems has just one flower showing which is something you can't see by driving past the field. So when it stops raining this week it's likely time to start (and/or continue) harvesting hay in most of the state. Remember, there are many ways to make poor quality hay, but starting on time is the best way to have a chance to make great quality hay!

Zane Helsel