After making some impressive progress last week and perhaps even more progress in some parts of the state this week, it sounds like we’re going to slow way down over the course of the next couple of weeks at least due to weather.
“We’re planting, I’d say, on the hours, not on the days to get this crop in,” says Purdue Extension Soybean Specialist Shaun Casteel in the latest Purdue Crop Chat Podcast, found now at hoosieragtoday.com.
He urges patience moving forward as any planting windows we do get will likely be short.
“It’s easy just to go to the field and race straight into it, and taking the time is probably the hardest thing to do. What I mean by that is you’re going to the field, you’re getting the planter set up, you’re starting to run- just because you ran in the previous field the day before or the hour before, each field is a little bit different. On the drive there’s something that could happen. So, don’t just drop and go. Drop and go for your 200 or 300 feet, whatever it is, if your monitors are working, great, but still get off that tractor and go check the seed rows, make sure everything’s getting good seed depth. That field condition can be a little bit different, and you know you need to adjust for that and then hit it.”
Purdue Extension Corn Specialist Dan Quinn agrees.
“You want to push, you want to go as fast you can, but still taking that time as you move from field to field to get out of the tractor, check that planter, check the depth, check that singulation of your seed… You want to get done but is it really worth maybe pushing up another mile an hour when you’re planting? You potentially could have issues on that.”
Check out the Purdue Crop Chat Podcast with Dan and Shaun now below. They also discuss recommendations for wheat management and what they’re hoping to find in this year’s research trials.