XtremeAg’s Dan Luepkes has received much-needed rain, Lee Lubbers is getting ready for wheat harvest, and Chad Henderson is getting a tiling project completed before double-cropping soybeans.
Dan Luepkes, Oregon, Illinois
A fifth-generation Illinois farmer, Dan was raised on a small, 200-acre dairy farm. After the family got out of milking cows, he picked up a few small farms and continued to grow, eventually saving enough money to buy challenging, low-productivity, sandy farms that no one else wanted.
[embed:render:node:303407:left:picture|image_embed_1_4_width]A couple of weeks ago I was at a graduation party and talking with a friend about how dry it was and how we were in the 11th hour when it comes to the survival of the crop. He remarked that it always rains when you need it most.
A few days later, we received an inch of rain and then it was followed up with .20 inch of rain, and then another .30 inch just a few days later. Not enough to recharge the subsoil moisture, but what a difference it made in the look of the crop.
[embed:render:node:315667:left:picture|image_embed_full]In our irrigated fields, the height of the corn was consistent across the field, but we noticed a large difference in the girth of the stalk in the areas getting water, compared with the corners that were not getting water. I believe the heat and drought stress will result in 2 to 4 fewer rows around each ear in the non-irrigated areas. We’ll keep an eye on it: It is so important to keep enough water in the soil profile to keep the mass flow of nutrients up into that plant.
The rain also brought the grass back to green from the dead brown it was before the rains. And, my stress level has dropped quite a bit with this moisture, and I feel very blessed to get those rains.
Chad Henderson, Madison, Alabama
A fifth-generation farmer, Chad farms over 8,000 acres with his dad, son, and nephew as a part of Henderson Farms in northern Alabama. Chad grows corn, soybeans, and wheat in what had been mostly a dryland environment until 2012 when he added the first irrigation systems to Henderson Farms.
Our drainage tile project is finally starting to be installed. Installation is about halfway complete now. It is an exciting, and eye-opening project for our farm. We are using the pattern tile technique and a lift station. Advanced Drainage Systems is leading the project and has been great to work with.
Land in the first half of the project was disked over and planted with our double-crop soybeans. The second half of the project should be installed later this week and the ground will be planted immediately after. We will wrap up our double-crop soybean planting this week.
Lee Lubbers, Gregory, South Dakota
[embed:render:node:303411:right:picture|image_embed_1_4_width]Lee and his brother began farming in the 1980s during some of the toughest times for farming, but the lessons they learned still shape them today.
It’s starting to feel like the dog days of summer as July rolls around. According to the forecast, the heat will be the norm. Hoping we get rain this week. It’ll be too late to help the winter wheat as we are pretty close to harvest, but any rain would be a lifesaver for our row crops.
[embed:render:node:315672:left:picture|image_embed_full]Our wheat harvest will start later this week. We’ve had a lot of drought stress on the crop this year and we essentially have two crops. Everything to our northwest has only had 2.60 to 2.85 inches of rain this spring — and it shows. It’s amazing that we even have wheat to cut in some areas. The kernels will be more shriveled and yield will be half of what it is closer to my home farm. In the southern part of our wheat acres, we’ve had 4 to 5.50 inches of rainfall, and it’s made all the difference in the wheat quality. It’s only a 15- to 20-mile difference between locations, but the difference in crop quality is like night and day.
[embed:render:node:315669:left:picture|image_embed_1_2_width]We have washed and serviced our sprayers and are giving them a well-deserved break for a while. Our large sprayers have been doing a ton of tests for our XtremeAg partners. We spent 2.5 days doing a multitude of foliar fungicides, foliar micros, and various combos on corn and soybeans. We will have another day at R3 soybeans coming up soon.
[embed:render:node:315670:left:picture|image_embed_1_2_width]We finished cleaning up all of our field’s border areas for noxious weeds. Hopefully, no late-season insect issues will hit us, but spider mites do like dry weather, and the grasshoppers are thick this year. Hope everyone stays safe. Hope for rain!
XtremeAg.farm is a team of the nation’s top producers who have come together to share their experience, expertise, knowledge, and farming practices with other farmers. [embed:render:node:303525:left:picture|image_embed_1_4_width]Members get access to exclusive content from the team as well as one-on-one support for their own farming operation. Visit XtremeAg.farm for more information.
