AGRONOMIC THOUGHTS - March 2024

As we are headed into spring planting, we have had enough moisture over the winter to give us a decent moisture profile that we didn’t have entering the 2023 crop year. Hopefully this moisture continues throughout the spring and summer. The wheat crop is in much better condition this year (53% good to excellent) compared to last year (17% good to excellent). We have had several weeks that have allowed us to get topdressing done on wheat and fertilizer applied for summer crops. The warm February has pushed the wheat along and most of it has more growth than normal. Not sure at this point if that is good or bad. Likely this will be a year where fungicides are important.

Commodity prices are lower going into this crop year vs last year but with the rain hopefully we will have more normal crop yields. Also, fertilizer prices have dropped along with commodity prices. I am also hearing that chemical prices have come down significantly this year as well. 

There is still a little time to finish getting planters ready for corn and soybean planting. Along with this, don’t forget to get your Operation Center cleaned up and ready for this season. If you have it ready to go it will help you with keeping track of applications that you may need to bill out later for landlords as well as record keeping for other agronomic data. With much of the new technology coming it is going to be very important to have a cleaned-up Operation Center. Also, is going to be important to have your machines connected to make data transfer much easier. If you haven’t used the ”Work Planner” before, it is a tool that can speed you up significantly when you get to the field. Be sure to check this out. If you need help, talk to your sales representative or call Remote Support (620-860-4945) to guide you through this. Most of the new technology coming down the road will be driven from the Operation Center app on your phone. If you don’t have it, you might want to download it and get familiar with it.

There may still be time to get a few last-minute grid samples pulled if needed. If this is something that you are interested in, you can get in touch with me through your sale representative or call the Andale location at
316-444-2221. Also, not a bad time to be thinking about samples you may want pulled after wheat harvest. I can get these scheduled to be pulled as soon as the wheat comes off. As always, let us know what we can do to help you with your farming operation.

Rob Meyer, Agronomic Specialist, CCA