News mostly good for fall harvest

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Harvest season continues to move forward this week for Clinton County, with many favorable yield reports coming in for both corn and soybeans.

The harvest season has not been without its problems with some isolated quality issues for both corn and soybeans.

Soybeans have been hardest hit with quality issues and producers are finding difficulty in some situations to get their product accepted at the grain terminals. It is hopeful we can continue to have favorable harvest weather even though temperatures have fallen to more like November temps.

I want to give a final reminder out to folks not to forget to sign up for the two Women In Ag programs. Annie’s Project, a six-week workshop, will be held at the Clinton County Extension Office Community Room beginning Tuesday, Oct. 30 from 6-9 p.m. and running consecutive Tuesdays through Dec. 4.

Annie’s Project is an educational program dedicated to strengthening women’s role in modern farm and ranch enterprises. The mission of Annie’s Project is to empower farm women to be better business partners through networks and by managing and organizing critical information focusing on the five broad areas of agricultural risk: human, financial, marketing, production, and legal.

The second program is the Lady Landlord Program. This workshop will provide women landowners with the confidence, skills, and resources necessary to interact with tenants, develop and negotiate lease arrangements, and more.

This program also will be held in the Clinton County Extension Community Room and is set for Friday, Nov. 2 and will be from 9 a.m.-noon.

Contact us at the Extension office to sign up for these programs by calling 937-382-0901.

As I said, there have been many favorable reports thus far for the 2018 harvest season. Laura Lindsey, Ohio State University soybean agronomy specialist has reported in this week’s Agronomic Crops Network newsletter that some of the 2018 Ohio soybean performance trials have been harvested and results have been posted.

The south region which includes two plot sites located in Preble and Clinton counties are the sites thus far harvested and the results can be found by going online to the agcrops.osu.edu/newsletter site.

According to Lindsey, for the south region, the early soybean trial (2.5-3.6 relative maturity), soybean yield ranged from 44.8-76.2 bu/acre (average of 63.7 bu/acre) in Preble County and 51.6-78.6 bu/acre (average of 69.5 bu/acre) in Clinton County. In the late soybean trial (3.7-4.4 relative maturity), soybean yield ranged from 38.4-70.8 bu/acre (average of 55.4 bu/acre) in Preble County and 47.5-80.3 bu/acre (average of 66.4 bu/acre) in Clinton County.

These are very favorable yielding averages, represent 20 companies and over 70 different varieties. It just goes to show how productive our Clinton County soils can be for our fellow farmers.

Hopefully we don’t have too many harvest delays but the delays can lead to leaving corn standing in fields longer than we care for. In some instances we chose to leave corn in fields to take advantage of dry-down versus running it through the grain dryer.

Dr. Peter Thomison, Ohio State University agronomy scorn specialist, notes that leaving corn to dry in the field exposes a crop to unfavorable weather conditions, as well as wildlife damage.

A crop with weak plant integrity is more vulnerable to yield losses from stalk lodging and ear drop when weathering conditions occur.

Additional losses may occur when ear rots reduce grain quality and can lead to significant dockage when the grain is marketed. Some ear rots produce mycotoxins, which may cause major health problems if fed to livestock.

For growers considering the risk of allowing corn to field dry, Thomison notes a study OSU conducted a few years ago that evaluated effects of corn plant populations and three harvest dates (early-mid Oct., Nov. and Dec.) on the agronomic performance of four hybrids differing in maturity and stalk quality.

Some key findings from that research study:

• Nearly 90% of the yield loss associated with delayed corn harvest occurred when delays extended beyond mid-November.

• Grain moisture decreased nearly 6% between harvest dates in Oct. and Nov. Delaying harvest after early to mid Nov. achieved almost no additional grain drying.

• Higher plant populations resulted in increased grain yields when harvest occurred in early to mid-October. Only when harvest was delayed until mid-November or later did yields decline at plant populations above 30,000/acre.

• Hybrids with lower stalk strength ratings exhibited greater stalk rot, lodging and yield loss when harvest was delayed. Early harvest of these hybrids eliminated this effect.

• The greatest increase in stalk rot incidence came between harvest dates in October and November. In contrast, stalk lodging increased most after early-mid November.

• Harvest delays had little or no effect on grain quality characteristics.

• Most of the yield loss, about 11%, occurred after the early-mid Nov. harvest date. In three of the eight experiments, yield losses between Oct. and Dec. harvest dates ranged from 21 to 24%. In the other five experiments, yield losses ranged from 5 to 12%.

Grain moisture content showed a decrease from the October to November harvest dates but little or no change beyond the November harvest dates.

Let’s continue to have successful and safe harvest this fall.

Tony Nye is the state coordinator for the Ohio State University Extension Small Farm Program and has been an OSU Extension Educator for agriculture and natural resources for over 30 years, currently serving Clinton County and the Miami Valley EERA.

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Tony Nye

OSU Extension

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