in-crop-weather State Indiana Crop Weather Week Ending Date May 10, 2009 IN-CW051109 AGRICULTURAL SUMMARY Intermittent rain showers slowed field operations again this week, according to the Indiana Field Office of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. The heaviest amounts of rain fell across central and southern portions of the state with some areas receiving nearly 3 inches. Planting progress of corn is about 13 days later than last year and 20 days behind the average pace while planting of soybeans is about 12 days later than last year and 17 days behind the 5-year average. FIELD CROPS REPORT There were 1.6 days suitable for field work during the week. Eleven percent of the intended corn acreage has been planted compared with 57 percent last year and 70 percent for the 5-year average. By area, 19 percent has been planted in the north, 6 percent in the central region, and 8 percent in the south. Two percent of the corn crop has emerged compared with 17 percent last year and 29 percent for the 5-year average. Two percent of the intended soybean acreage has been planted compared with 17 percent last year and 31 percent for the 5-year average. Eighty-two percent of the winter wheat acreage is jointed compared with 84 percent last year and 90 percent for the 5-year average. Fifteen percent of the winter wheat is heading compared with 11 percent last year and 25 percent for the 5-year average. Winter wheat condition is rated 79 percent good to excellent compared with 72 percent last year at this time. LIVESTOCK, PASTURE AND RANGE REPORT Pasture condition is rated 17 percent excellent, 57 percent good, 21 percent fair, 3 percent poor, and 2 percent very poor. Pasture condition continues to improve with the warmer temperatures and ample moisture. Livestock remain in mostly good condition. Crop Progress Table ------------------------------------------------------- : This : Last : Last : 5-Year Crop : Week : Week : Year : Avg ------------------------------------------------------- Percent Corn Planted 11 5 57 70 Corn Emerged 2 NA 17 29 Soybeans Planted 2 NA 17 31 Winter Wheat Jointed 82 62 84 90 Winter Wheat Headed 15 NA 11 25 Crop Condition Table ----------------------------------------------------------- : Very : : : : Excel- Crop : Poor : Poor : Fair : Good : lent ----------------------------------------------------------- Percent Pasture 2 3 21 57 17 Winter Wheat 1 2 18 57 22 Soil Moisture & Days Suitable for Fieldwork Table ---------------------------------------- : This : Last : Last : : Week : Week : Year : ---------------------------------------- Percent Topsoil Very Short 0 0 0 Short 0 0 0 Adequate 38 33 45 Surplus 62 67 55 Subsoil Very Short 0 0 0 Short 1 1 1 Adequate 53 51 59 Surplus 46 48 40 Days Suitable 1.6 1.5 3.5 Contact Information --Greg Preston, Director --Andy Higgins, Agricultural Statistician E-Mail Address: nass-in@nass.usda.gov http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Indiana ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Other Agricultural Comments And News INCREASED RISK OF FOLIAR DISEASES IN LATE-PLANTED CORN Rainfall patterns have delayed corn planting throughout much of the state. Late planting increases the risk of damaging levels of certain foliar diseases, particularly gray leaf spot, southern leaf blight, and northern leaf blight. Several factors can contribute to this increased risk: 1) When there is a mix of fields planted early near fields planted late, the early fields can be a source of spores for late-planted field. The early fields act a bit like "Typhoid Mary". 2) Compared to early fields, late-planted corn is often at an earlier stage of crop development during periods of spore release and leaf blighting. Since leaf blighting early in plant development is more harmful to yields than late-season blighting, the late-planted fields have the potential to be hit harder than earlier fields. Fields not planted until the last week of May or into June have the highest risk of foliar disease. Producers planting corn late this spring should use hybrids with adequate levels of resistance to gray leaf spot. Selecting hybrids with good resistance to gray leaf spot is especially important if the field is under conservation tillage (30% or more residue cover) and has had corn anytime in the last two years. Also, if a field has a recent history of southern leaf blight or northern leaf blight, consider those diseases in hybrid selection. Of course, many producers have already purchased seed for this spring. If a field is sown late and the hybrid doesn’t have substantial resistance to the diseases mentioned above, a fungicide application is more likely to be cost-effective. Figure 1 (which can be viewed at: http://www.uky.edu/Ag/kpn/kpn_09/pn_090505.html#VEGETABLES) lists the factors that increase the likelihood of getting a positive economic return from a fungicide application in corn. The more of those that are in place, the more likely a corn field is to benefit economically from a fungicide application. If you do choose to use fungicides, it is always a good idea to leave at least one untreated strip in the field in order to see if the fungicide provided any benefit. Sometimes it will but often it won’t, and getting on-farm evidence helps in making future farming decisions. Paul Vincelli, University of Kentucky Faculty, Department of Plant Pathology, 201F Plant Science Bldg. (Office: 207), Lexington, KY 40546-0312, Email: pvincell@uky.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SOYBEAN SEED QUALITY CONSIDERATION Only a year ago the quality of the soybean seed germination was a hot topic going into planting season. Reports were coming in of varying germination (70-80%) soybeans all across the soybean growing regions. I talked to the PDA lab last week and found that most of the beans that they tested for sale in Pa were testing at or near the 90% germination level. This is great news particularly with the high price of soybeans and the fact that the grower will receive a good quality product. In our studies over the last few years, established soybean populations struggled from the time they dropped out of the planter to the time they came up. In some cases, a 30% loss from seed drop to emergence was observed, while losses from pop up to mid season were only 4%. If there aren't any pests, where might these losses come from? Soybean handling comes into play and while we do not have all the data to support this, handling might be a cause. Dr. Elwood Hatley, retired Extension Specialist, often cautioned growers that each time a seed bag is dropped 2% or more of the germination can suffer. Recall that the soybean seed has two halves that are easily broken. Those halves are the structures of the plant that end up being the cotyledons. When dry they easily separate and germination is lost. So if you go to the dealer and toss the bag on truck(1), get home and toss the bag on a old hay wagon(2), then toss the bag back onto the truck(3), then man handle the bag to load the planter(4); an 8% minimum loss could occur in the soybeans. With that in mind the point is to handle them like you handle eggs from the chicken house. One final note dealing with the weather, if you have alfalfa to get off, fungicide to get on wheat, corn and beans to plant, manure to spread and the rain finds you behind the game, then I would put less priority on early planting soybeans and get the other activities out of the way. Soybeans have a large window in which to establish without significant yield losses. Be sure to compensate seed populations for germination loss and soil conditions. Del Voight, Interim Grain Crop Specialist, Field Crop Educator - Lebanon County (Pennsylvania), Lebanon County Cooperative Extension - Capital Region in Pest Management and Pesticide Education Field Crop News, Crop Management Extension Group, Penn State University, E-mail:dgv1@psu.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The INDIANA CROP & WEATHER REPORT (USPS 675-770), (ISSN 0442-817X) is issued weekly April through November by the USDA, NASS, Indiana Field Office, 1435 Win Hentschel Blvd, Suite 110, West Lafayette IN 47906-4145. For information on subscribing, send request to above address. POSTMASTER: Send address change to the USDA, NASS, Indiana Field Office, 1435 Win Hentschel Blvd, Suite 110, West Lafayette IN 47906-4145. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Weather Information Table Week ending Sunday May 10, 2009 ----------------------------------------------------- | Past Week Weather Summary Data |--------------------------------- Station | Air | | Avg | Temperature | Precip. |4 in. |---------------|------------|Soil |Hi |Lo |Avg|DFN| Total|Days |Temp ----------------------------------------------------- Northwest (1) Chalmers_5W 79 40 58 -1 0.10 3 Francesville 78 37 58 +1 0.23 3 Valparaiso_AP_I 78 40 59 +3 0.30 4 Wanatah 80 37 58 +4 0.21 5 61 Winamac 77 42 59 +2 0.53 4 North Central(2) Plymouth 76 41 59 +1 0.28 3 South_Bend 77 39 59 +4 0.18 1 Young_America 75 41 58 +1 0.16 2 Northeast (3) Fort_Wayne 73 41 59 +2 0.31 3 Kendallville 77 44 59 +3 0.25 3 West Central(4) Greencastle 75 40 60 +0 1.30 3 Perrysville 80 42 60 +2 0.98 3 58 Spencer_Ag 73 42 60 +2 0.95 3 Terre_Haute_AFB 75 45 61 +2 0.54 3 W_Lafayette_6NW 79 39 59 +2 0.22 2 62 Central (5) Eagle_Creek_AP 73 47 61 +1 1.12 3 Greenfield 72 45 59 +1 1.52 3 Indianapolis_AP 72 46 61 +2 1.02 2 Indianapolis_SE 71 44 59 -1 1.03 3 Tipton_Ag 75 45 58 +2 0.97 3 64 East Central(6) Farmland 73 44 58 +3 1.41 3 59 New_Castle 70 44 58 +2 0.64 3 Southwest (7) Evansville 79 50 64 +2 2.04 5 Freelandville 76 47 62 +2 1.08 3 Shoals_8S 76 41 60 +0 1.57 4 Stendal 79 48 64 +3 2.30 4 Vincennes_5NE 77 49 62 +2 1.37 4 66 South Central(8) Leavenworth 74 48 62 +2 2.92 5 Oolitic 74 47 61 +3 1.07 4 62 Tell_City 76 51 63 +2 2.88 5 Southeast (9) Brookville 75 46 63 +5 0.62 3 Greensburg 73 44 62 +3 0.78 3 Seymour 73 46 61 +2 1.35 3 ----------------------------------------------------- Weather Information Table (Continued) Week ending Sunday May 10, 2009 ------------------------------------------------- | Accumulation |-------------------------------- | April 1, 2009 thru Station | May 10, 2009 |-------------------------------- | Precipitation |GDD Base 50oF |-------------------------------- | | | | | |Total | DFN |Days|Total| DFN ------------------------------------------------- Northwest (1) | Chalmers_5W | 5.41 +0.48 18 190 -18 Francesville | 4.69 -0.12 18 167 -3 Valparaiso_AP_I | 4.69 -0.53 17 188 +30 Wanatah | 4.91 -0.10 19 139 +10 Winamac | 5.22 +0.41 21 178 +8 North Central(2)| Plymouth | 5.56 +0.46 22 176 -6 South_Bend | 4.39 -0.47 16 202 +58 Young_America | 5.05 +0.38 16 204 +40 Northeast (3) | Fort_Wayne | 6.33 +1.85 18 218 +64 Kendallville | 4.09 -0.37 20 205 +58 West Central (4)| Greencastle |10.07 +4.87 20 250 +17 Perrysville | 7.53 +2.36 18 249 +53 Spencer_Ag | 9.05 +3.50 21 257 +55 Terre_Haute_AFB | 8.26 +2.90 17 322 +90 W_Lafayette_6NW | 6.85 +1.84 20 218 +48 Central (5) | Eagle_Creek_AP | 8.52 +3.52 21 283 +62 Greenfield |10.04 +4.56 21 225 +36 Indianapolis_AP | 8.80 +3.80 17 305 +84 Indianapolis_SE | 8.78 +3.57 20 234 +28 Tipton_Ag | 9.35 +4.16 20 204 +59 East Central (6)| Farmland | 8.30 +3.53 20 213 +75 New_Castle | 7.35 +1.82 17 205 +62 Southwest (7) | Evansville | 8.78 +3.22 21 392 +60 Freelandville | 8.86 +3.39 20 301 +48 Shoals_8S |10.43 +4.67 20 276 +29 Stendal |11.27 +5.16 21 390 +103 Vincennes_5NE | 8.93 +3.46 20 313 +60 South Central(8)| Leavenworth | 9.20 +3.05 23 328 +75 Oolitic | 7.66 +2.13 22 280 +63 Tell_City | 9.61 +3.20 18 357 +56 Southeast (9) | Brookville | 6.03 +0.71 19 292 +116 Greensburg | 6.84 +1.21 20 301 +96 Seymour | 7.78 +2.40 20 268 +43 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 2009: Agricultural Weather Information Service, Inc. All rights reserved. DFN = Departure From Normal GDD = Growing Degree Days. Precipitation (Rainfall or melted snow/ice) in inches. Precipitation Days = Days with precip of .01 inch or more. Air Temperatures in Degrees Fahrenheit. For more weather inrformation, visit www.awis.com or call 1-888-798-9955.