Farmers are concerned about winter wheat emergence

Unusually dry weather has made for a quick harvest, but the XtremeAg farmers are anxious about winter wheat emergence this fall.

Temple Rhodes – Centreville, Maryland

Temple Rhodes is a fifth-generation farmer in Centreville, Maryland. Chestnut Manor Farms operates 3,000 acres of soybeans, 1,500 acres of corn, and 1,500 acres of wheat. His family also runs a hunting operation.

2023 corn harvest is officially done and in the books! I am really excited to review the data now. The past couple of weeks I have been spending time in the combine trying to figure out what we did right and what we did wrong this season. I am not sure how many things I did right, but I definitely found I did things wrong. The way that I learn best is from my mistakes. I am teaching myself how to do things better in the future.

I am starting to draw up plans that include buying more fertility and moving things around. What we found in the past, and has worked for us, is changing a few things every year to get our best season. I don’t think we’ll have to change our grower standard practice, but there are other things that will need to be tweaked once we receive all our data. 

We are trying to get our early season soybeans harvested, as well as working on XtremeAg trials and labs. We have about another week or two, until we start harvesting our double crop soybeans. We will be harvesting the milo in the next week.

Johnny Verell – Jackson, Tennessee

Johnny Verell is a third generation farmer in western Tennessee. He farms corn, soybeans and wheat.

This past week on the farm, we wrapped up harvest on our double crop soybeans. Our harvest finished up several weeks earlier than usual. I believe the early harvest was due to the lack of rain. We only had about one good rainfall around mid-August. The dry weather has allowed us to do an extensive amount of field work. It is usually very wet around this time of year, so we are thankful for the dryness. We are unloading our grain bags and getting them out to the market before it does start to get wet outside. Hopefully, in the next few weeks after we finish, we will get a good rain and begin to scout out wheat. We are hoping the rain will be enough to get the wheat out of the ground. 

We have started to look at the different trials we had on the farm this year and will begin to decide what varieties of corn and soybeans we are going to plant next year. We’ll also evaluate what programs we’re going to do in-furrow. We also began soil sampling across the farm to see if we need to spread any lime this fall. Aside from that, we are starting to spray stubble digesters on the corn stalks to help with the break down process. Due to the good yield, heavy residue, and lack of rain we had this year, we really need to speed up the break down process. Some of this ground is our double crop corn field, so we need to break that down to put corn on it next year again. 

Kevin Matthews – East Bend, North Carolina

Kevin Matthews and his wife, Cindy, are fourth-generation farmers in East Bend and Yadkinville, North Carolina. Matthews Family Farms, Deep Creek Grain, and Precision Nutrient Management farm corn, soybeans, wheat, and barley. 

All full season of soybeans are in the bin before Halloween. We have had two weeks of great harvest weather. We’ve known the value of desiccating soybeans, but this year again proved the importance of doing so even more. By desiccating we can start harvesting weeks sooner than usual. The time, fuel, and stress on the machines are other benefits you don’t normally think about with desiccation. We hear all the time about the cost of spraying and damage if done by ground rigs however, the benefits far exceed the cost.

Wheat is in the ground. We are very dry, but I prefer dry seeding of small grains. I have always been told, “dust it in, bust the bins” and in my experience with this is a true statement. Barley is up and looking nice along with our cover crops. Mowing field borders and waterways are near complete and ready for spring planting. 

Corn is wrapping up in our river bottoms. Hopefully in ten days the corn will all be in the bins, and the canals and ditch banks will be mowed. The mowing is especially important to give a clear view of our ADS drain tile outlets to ensure they are able to function properly.

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