Matt Spillman
It’s a little drier here on the other south end of Stark County. We didn’t get any rain last week, so it looks like we’ll have no moisture for two weeks. Thankfully, temperatures have been nice and cool the last few days, which is a little relief for the crop. But we really need some moisture to get the crop ready here. We’ve got corn that’s pretty ripe already, and some of these early beans are filling their pods, but the rain would be good to test weight and bean size.
We’re really not seeing any significant disease pressure. The drought is probably holding that stuff back. Even the beans still look pretty healthy, just a little grey in places where there’s a lack of moisture.
There was a line going toward Kidron and Orville on Route 30 that stretched straight to Cleveland where there were 4 to 7 inches of water last week. There was quite a lot of water.
There’s still grain in the bins out there, and people are going to have to move it to make room for the harvest. It’s never fun getting rid of something when you know you lost a lot of money on it. The big question is, can you hold onto the stuff until the end of the year and hope for a price increase in the winter that will give you some financial relief so you can at least try to make a few dollars on it?
Weed control is pretty good here. We have a few outbreaks of velvetleaf. In this hot, dry June, they get these fuzzy leaves and chemicals have a hard time getting through them, or maybe the beans covered some of them and didn’t get completely covered by the herbicide. Otherwise, everything looks pretty clean. I haven’t had to spray much after the corn this year with the dry weather and everything still looks pretty clean.
Josh Kiser
We had a drought there a couple of weeks ago, but we’ve had some rain since then, so the crops have recovered quite a bit. Two weeks ago we had 2 inches of rain in two days, and last week we had another inch and a half. Last week we passed a storm by about 10 miles and ended up with a half inch of rain in one rain, and another .75 inches in the evening.
The plants have definitely recovered. They looked pretty dry. Now the soil is nice and moist. The last time I went through the fields, the corn cobs were a little behind, but otherwise everything looks pretty good. There are tar spots on some of the corn fields. I haven’t really seen many diseases on the beans.
Some fields are starting to have a little grass growing, and some fields are starting to have ragweed growing. If you’ve been out there and sprayed, most of the fields here look pretty good. Some people were a little late and haven’t sprayed yet – those fields don’t look very good.
You can also see where people have used fungicides in corn, because there is a lot less leaf disease there. There are some fields out there with stem strength issues, maybe that was due to drier weather or just a variety.
Johannes Settlemyre
It’s been pretty dry. I don’t think we’ve had any rain in the last seven days. The crops are green and lush, but the gardens are turning brown, so a little rain wouldn’t hurt.
I think we lost 2.5 inches of rain this year, and the last 10 days haven’t had much rain at all. We’re growing bushels of corn and soybeans now, so logic and experience would tell you that the lack of rain has taken its toll on us. And during the Ohio State Fair, there were a few days that were 93 or 94 degrees, where you could see the bean leaves turning color. They didn’t want that much sun, and the heat was more than we really needed.
I think the beans are very healthy, but a couple of my neighbors are noticing tar spot on their corn. They didn’t treat it before because they never really had that much disease pressure, but they’re definitely seeing it now. In the last 3 or 4 days, a couple of people here have been spraying corn with fungicide to try and stop that or at least slow it down a little. Tar spot is still relatively new to us here and can reduce yield by 35%. My neighbors have put new gathering chains on the corn headers to make sure they’re set high and tight so they can pull the stuff in when it starts to fall down.
I have two beds of mountain cucumbers on about 10 acres that we sprayed last week, and there is one or two ragweeds that may be creeping through as well, but that is not really a commercial problem. The vines on the mountain cucumbers are really a nuisance, so we are trying to get rid of them.
Jeff Rea
We had a pretty long dry spell, but last week it finally rained. It was almost 5 cm, so it started growing again.
I think the dry weather has stopped growth. The beans are not as big as I would like them to be at this time of year. The beans have curled up a little, especially with temperatures around 38 degrees.
The corn seemed to hold up really well in the dry weather. I think it held up better than the beans, but now with the rain, the beans are really coming into their own. The rainwater didn’t drain away. It didn’t sit around very long. We built a fence and had drilled some holes about 3 feet deep. It was dry all the way down. After the rain, you could see the moisture deeper down. The rain soaked in pretty well and got into the soil and the groundwater.
We’ve had some waterhemp issues this year that we’ve never had before, and we’re continuing to battle giant ragweed. Some of our fields look really good, but we’re constantly battling weeds in our non-GMO fields, and that’s where we have our waterhemp issues. All of our Enlist beans are looking really good. They’re really clean this year, and our corn fields are really pretty clean this year, too. We’re really pleased with the weed control there.
Prices have to recover to some point because given the weather throughout Ohio and other parts of the country, I expect yields to be down. Prices have to reflect that at some point and we’ll see an adjustment here soon.
