This year’s rainfall has been comparable to the 1988 and 2012 growing seasons. These conditions have caused many farmers across the corn belt to question how this will impact yields and what they can do to protect their crops.
Pioneer field agronomist, John Mick, joined us on RFD-TV’s Market Day Report to talk about the drought’s impact and share management considerations for producers.
“To be kind of blunt, I haven’t seen a field of what I would call good looking dryland corn in south-central Nebraska,’ says Mick. “This drought really began a year ago, persisted through the winter months. We came into this growing season with significantly below normal subsoil moisture, and corn can withstand a fair amount of intermittent stress as long as it’s got some subsoil moisture to live on, but we just have not had that.’
Unfortunately, Mick explained that signs of stress on the crop are already proving evident saying, “This week already I’m starting to hear reports of some dryland corn being abandoned.”
His advice for producers, “Stay optimistic and keep perspective.”
“The good book says it rains on the just as well as the unjust alike,” say Mick. “An inch of rain covers up a lot of mistakes and makes everybody a good farmer. When it doesn’t rain, all our sins, all our mistakes, are laid bare, but if we stay humble, if we stay observant, if we stay inquisitive, we can certainly learn a lot about how to improve on our overall agronomy and management.”
