Pick and Choose: Choose and Pick By Bill Casady

No nice uniform fields to harvest this year. Some have experienced non-uniform weather that has caused extreme variability both in crop conditions and more recently in field conditions. Poor moisture availability while the crop was made followed by excesses late in the growing season will leave areas of some fields with nearly too little to pick next to areas with nearly too little traction to pick.

When soils stay too wet to harvest, we eventually have to go in and harvest even if conditions do not improve. It is not even a logical or financially sound choice to leave a crop in the field in most cases. Compaction is a fundamental problem and fact of life with large machinery anyway. Yet in a year where moisture shortages may have caused a yield deficit, the decision becomes a closer call. Moreover, some grain will be of only fair to poor quality and should be moved immediately into the market and not into storage on the farm.

Scout fields this fall to map out harvest plans before heading to the field. Note areas that produced good ears and good quality grain as well as those with both inferior production and poor quality. Drainage maps will also help identify areas that will remain wet due to recent excesses. Hold off on these if possible. In some cases these will be some of the higher producing areas, but in most cases, poor drainage translates directly into poor root development and poor production due to drought stress.

No-till fields are expected to solidly outperform any so-called conventional tillage in a year like 2005. Root development in no-till is often superior and results in greater resiliency to drought conditions such as those in July of this growing season. The superior structure of no-till soils will also resist the tendency to compact these now wetter soils this fall.

Pick and choose what to harvest first this year. Don’t let good grain fall victim to lodging due to poor stalk strength before getting this grain into storage. Take poorer quality grain straight to market or commercial storage to avoid on-farm storage problems with that grain. Finally keep compaction in check by staying in existing tracks with grain carts and combines, by making multiple trips into the field as opposed to a few mammoth trips, and choosing what to harvest before getting ready to pick. Stay safe.

Bill Casady, Ag Ext.-Food Science & Nutrition
573-882-4370