Here is this week’s AgFax: Southern Grain.

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- Owen Taylor, Editor owen@agfax.com (888-327-6329)

OVERVIEW

More rain. As we closed this issue Saturday morning, thunderstorms that started Friday had already moved over the Delta states and were halfway across Alabama, western Florida and into northwest Georgia. While some areas were dry, most locations needed open weather to finish planting corn, make fertilizer and herbicide applications and knock out early soybean acreage. For corn and soybeans, this will be a late crop in many areas.

Wheat status. A few of the earliest fields in south Georgia and Louisiana will probably be ready for harvest by mid May. Mississippi Extension workers are finding severe freeze damage in parts of the state after the mid April cold snap. Most of the damage was outside of the main production areas.

Soybean seed supplies. As expected, soybean seed supplies are becoming a factor. Many farmers are having to take delivery on something other than varieties they requested.

Fungicide shortages. We’ve carried comments in the last 2 issues about certain fungicides being unavailable in some areas. Late in the week, Kentucky obtained a crisis exemption for Folicur on wheat after Proline supplies ran short.

CROP REPORTS

Chris Main, Tennessee Extension Wheat Specialist: “We’re still hoping for sunshine and dry weather to move the wheat along to maturity. People are finding some barley yellow dwarf spots and Hessian fly here and there, but nothing new or major has turned up in the last 7 to 10 days.”

Dewey Lee, Georgia Extension Grain Specialist: “In the very southern part of the state, we’re probably 2 weeks away from seeing the first wheat cut, then harvest will be going in earnest in 3 weeks or a little more. Nighttime temperatures are still pretty cool, and that has prolonged flagleaf senescence. Overall, I’m pleased with how the wheat looks. Corn looks good, too, but it’s moving slowly due to these cool nights. Combined with later planting because of cold weather, it’s a little behind where we would like it to be in early May. We’re on the dry side and could use a good, general rain.”

Jay Chapin, South Carolina Extension Specialist: “Parts of the state have gotten rain, but in other areas growers want a little more. We’ve got some good looking wheat and some really sorry wheat. As is typical, we’ve got rust showing up now and some powdery mildew hanging around, plus some septoria. A lot of wheat ranges from half-kernel to early milk, so we’re past the point that fungicides can be legally used. Also, we have some Hessian fly damage. This tends to be where growers had wheat the previous season and no-tilled into stubble last fall. I’ve seen a few fields that were pretty much wiped out, plus spots with really bad damage. These fields still had residue from the previous wheat crop, and no-tilling a second crop of wheat into that was just asking for trouble. Hessian fly is a kind of sporadic thing here, and it gets bad about every 10 years. We’re trying to document what lines are really sustaining damage.”

Erick Larson, Mississippi Extension Grain Specialist: “Unfortunately, some areas suffered moderate to severe yield loss in wheat due to that freeze event on April 14. I’ve done some substantial scouting around the state, and a number of my colleagues have been checking fields, as well, and we’ve seen cases of significant yield loss. Most damage is in central portions of the state, running in a fairly narrow band from roughly Holly Springs in north Mississippi all the way to south of Tylertown, almost on the Louisiana line.

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“You find little or no damage to either the east or west of the effected area. The bulk of our wheat is in the Delta on the west side of the state, and temperatures didn’t get low enough to do much. But in specific locations in the worst areas, the lows dropped to 28 to 30. The extent of damage in those fields depends, of course, on field borders, wind direction and speed, topography and the age of the wheat. One field near Tylertown probably sustained a 90% yield loss. In north Mississippi, the wheat wasn’t quite as mature, so it wouldn’t have been as susceptible. We continue to see increasing levels of leaf rust and have found some bacterial diseases that are a byproduct of freeze injury. Most wheat in the state is well past the stage when it can be legally treated with a fungicide.

“Hopefully, most of our corn is in the ground now. We do have some replanting issues. Rain has delayed nitrogen and herbicide applications in places, and that may lead to problems if the weather continues like this, especially with nitrogen. A few consultants have said they have corn with appreciable size that has yet to receive a nitrogen application.”

Ron Heiniger, NCSU Cropping Specialist, Plymouth, N.C.: “We’re only 60% to 70% done with corn planting. It’s been slow. We’ve had a lot of inquiries about the cutoff date. The cutoff date, officially speaking, is May 10. Past that, you see a yield decline and quickly hit a point when it’s 2 bushels per day. You could run through the middle of the month, but by May 15 you should either be wrapping it up or moving to an alternate crop.

“Wet weather has delayed things. We had some big rain events in the last 2 to 3 weeks that kept fields wet. Not just one event – but a series of 2- to 3-inch rainfalls, and some areas received up to 6 inches in a single event. Everytime the soil got dry enough, it rained again. So far, we’ve replanted 2% to 3% of the acres, maybe more. With the drought we’ve had, soils in some areas did soak up rain pretty quickly. We were planting in the Piedmont today (May 2) in a location that received 3.5 inches of rain last Saturday (April 26), and it wouldn’t have been possible to get into the field on that clay soil so soon if it hadn’t been so dry.”

Edward Twidwell, Louisiana Extension Wheat Specialist: “Wheat is really turning. I was with a producer around Marksville in Avoyelles Parish who figures he’ll start cutting in about 10 days. We’ve had pretty weather this week, with temperatures in the 80s, and that’s moved things along. We’re expecting a pretty good shot of rain tonight (Friday), but after that it’s suppose to be clear. A lot of these guys are chomping at the bit to plant soybeans. I haven’t seen a lot of lodging. Wheat seems to be holding up pretty good.”

Pawel Wiatrak, South Carolina Corn and Soybean Specialist, Blackville, S.C.: “Most of the corn, I think, is in the ground. Some growers are trying to replant after the light freeze. Damage was localized, with certain areas hit harder than others, and some growers decided to replant right away.

“Some MG IV soybeans have been planted, but that acreage may be limited by seed availability. Companies were having trouble delivering MG IVs on time. We’ll see some MG Vs and VIs planted in May, but most of our crop will be behind wheat this year.

“With seed in short supply, we’re getting questions about how low growers can go with seeding rates. My research showed last year that on wide rows – 36 to 38 inches – you can go down to 55,000 to 60,000 seed per acre. Over the years, Jim Dunphy (North Carolina Extension Specialist) has found similar results. These are situations where beans are planted in a full-season system from mid April into May. For doublecrop production, we recommend drilling or going with narrow rows, and in those cases you need to plant recommended rates, 100,000 to 110,000 per acre.”

Rob Ferguson, Louisiana Interim Coordinator, Soybeans-Feed Grains: “Corn is all up. For the most part, it’s been fertilized. Overall, the crop looks good. Soybean planting is moving right along. We started running into areas where it’s too dry to plant. We’ve been hoping to get rain today (Friday) out of the system moving through (the Midsouth). We’ve got issues with slug damage. Now that it’s drying out, they’re moving out of the debris from last year’s corn or milo, and they’re feeding on tender vegetation.

“So far, I’m hearing that a lot of people are planting soybean varieties that they’re not familiar with, but I haven’t heard of anyone who couldn’t get his hands on seed. Some soybean seed was freed up in south Louisiana. Growers expected to plant soybeans after they pulled their crawfish traps, but crawfish prices were so low and rice prices so attractive that they pulled the traps early and went with rice.”

Jeremy Ross, Arkansas Extension Soybean Specialist: “We’re 12% to 15% planted statewide, with most of that south of Interstate 40. As you go north of I-40, most of the heavy soils are just too wet. Without the rain today (Friday), they were still too wet yesterday. But with this rain, it probably will be the end of next week before we’ll see any planting in those fields.

“It’s hard to say what the soybean seed situation is. Some people are getting what they ordered, others are getting substitutes. Growers are finding seed to plant, but not necessarily the varieties they wanted. They’re still getting seed tested, too, and some pretty low germ is turning up. The Arkansas State Plant Board has reportedly issued more stop-sale orders than it has in a number of years.

“We’ve started getting calls about replanting. Cold, wet weather and seedling disease have had an effect, especially where seed weren’t treated. A consultant in Phillips County said a field had 80,000 to 90,000 plants per acre, and he asked if the farmer should replant. In a normal year, that would be a tough call. But with seed supplies like they are this year, I would keep a field if it averaged 90,000. If it falls much below 80,000 and seed is available, then it probably would be worth replanting. Deciding whether to keep some of these stands depends, too, on uniformity. As long as they don’t have holes the size of a pickup, 80,000 to 90,000 still should be okay.”