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In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by the Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment, we speak with Dan Berning, Pioneer agronomy manager, and Scott Walker, Pioneer marketing manager. Berning and Walker explain how to manage drought conditions and share tips on what to do in the fall to set yourself up for success in the spring.
“We need to do everything we can to help preserve soil moisture for next year’s crop and make sure that we get good root development.”
— Dan Berning, Agronomy Manager, Pioneer
Pioneer polled U.S. corn growers to gauge how their crop was faring with drought stress this season. More than 50% responded that they were seeing moderate to severe signs of stress in their corn.
In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, Pioneer agronomy manager Dan Berning and Pioneer marketing manager Scott Walker, explain how to navigate through a drought and share tips on how to prepare for next year. Berning and Walker also explain why hybrid selection is a crucial piece to the puzzle.
The Strip-Till Farmer podcast is brought to you by Dawn Equipment.
Dawn Equipment, a family-owned company in Sycamore, Illinois, has a reputation for responsive customer service and American-made quality products that goes back to its origin nearly 3 decades. The company has grown to more than 40 employees and numerous products, earned awards for innovative design plus a growing number of patents, but it has not lost its commitment to U.S. made products. And customers and dealers can still call to speak directly with sales and engineering staff. Dawn has redefined several market segments like strip-till and active hydraulic control of planter and attachments. Dawn was the first company to make a remotely controllable planting product. Dawn continues its commitment to innovation, to customer service, and to active response to the changing needs of America’s farmers. Visit them at www.dawnequipment.com.
Full Transcript
Noah Newman:
So great to have you with us on another edition of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by drought Lite from Dawn Equipment. My name's Noah Newman, associate editor. Let's talk about a Pioneer poll that asked U.S. corn growers how their crop was faring with drought stress this season. Well, more than 50% responded that they were seeing moderate to severe signs of stress in their corn. So for this week's edition to the podcast, Strip-Till Farmer Managing Editor, Michaela Paukner, catches up with Pioneer Agronomy Manager, Dan Berning, and Marketing Manager, Scott Walker, as they explain how to navigate through drought conditions. And they share tips on how to prepare for next year. Without further ado, here's Dan and Scott.
Scott Walker:
Scott Walker. I'm the corn marketing manager for Western U.S., basically Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, Canadian border down by the Rio Grande Valley.
Dan Berning:
And Dan Berning. I'm the agronomy manager that covers a lot of that same area that Scott just described. So working with our sales team to really bring crop management information and help our growers get the best out of the Pioneer products that they would be planting.
Michaela Paukner:
Perfect. All right. So today we're talking about corn yields and drought. Can you give us a brief overview of what areas of the U.S. are experiencing drought-like conditions and feeling the impacts of drought this year?
Dan Berning:
It's pretty widespread, unfortunately, this year. It's pretty much a lot of what we would consider to be the Western Corn Belt part of the U.S. that's really impacted. And it really gets into the western half of Iowa and pretty much everything west of that is dealing with some pretty significant drought, even on some of our lighter soils in say like Southeast Iowa, there are some late-season drought conditions. But as we get into areas of Northeast Nebraska, Northwest Iowa, and then out on the high plains, they've been dealing with kind of a chronic drought conditions all season long. And actually, it really was, that stage was set from a year ago. They were faced with some of those dry conditions, so they had very little sub-soil moisture build up on them through the wintertime. And then that just kind of rolled into the growing season this year and lack of normally expected rainfall has just compounded that intensity of drought.
Scott Walker:
So just as an example of that is many of our growers who have irrigation in Nebraska were pre watering this spring. So they were putting water down ahead of planting to put some moisture in the ground. And that's not very common.
Dan Berning:
It's pretty unusual in Nebraska. They'll do that on the height planes where they got some very low capacity irrigation wells. But in most areas of Nebraska, that's a pretty uncommon practice, but it was pretty broadly applied this year.
Michaela Paukner:
So with those drought conditions that started already last year before the season started, how has that impacted the corn crop's growth up to this point?
Dan Berning:
Well, early season when you have those dry conditions, some of the challenges that you can deal with are really just even getting a good uniform stand established if you don't have good moisture in that seed zone. So we saw some growers last spring, they were trying to plant a little deeper to get into better moisture, but as a result just tended to see a little more variability in emergence. So you can see that now when you look at plant, the uniformity of size and placement may not be as consistent as what we would ideally like to see, and some of that was really set from the very beginning. Other issues that growers are dealing with as a result of the drought is just, do you have enough of that sub soil moisture to get good root penetration and good root development, which obviously that is going to support the crop all season long and in how well or what amount of space you're really pulling that moist sub soil moisture from to help support the crop throughout the season.
So as we get into pollination period, if the crop's under severe stress at that point, we can interfere with how successful that pollination is or how many kernels might actually set on that kernel as we get into late season drought through that grain fill. Again, it can impact how many kernels are retained on that ear or how many might be aborted or sloughed off, and then also how well or how deep those kernels set if we got enough moisture to carry the crop all the way through the season.
Scott Walker:
So how does that affect the test weight then, Dan?
Dan Berning:
Well, we could expect to see a little lower test weight if we don't get that full kernel depth or that full starch accumulation into that kernel that we would expect under more normal type of conditions. So unfortunately some growers, they've been affected by all that happening throughout the whole growing season.
So some of that may be affecting growers all the way through, but typically we expect that the most impactful drought stress is going to be that flowering stage, getting that successful pollination, successful kernel set. Probably the most frequent occurrence is that late season drought that we got the tall crop out there using a lot of water, but we just are running out of those sub soil moisture reserves, maybe not getting quite enough rainfall to keep up with the full demands of the crop. And so we can see that late season kernel fill restriction a little bit can still have some good yields in the face and drought. But this year the intensity and the length of period that we're seeing that drought occur is just a little stronger or quite a bit stronger in some areas with a greater intensity and the length of drought that we're experiencing.
Michaela Paukner:
So as many of our listeners know, we know no-till and strip till conserve soil moisture with that residue on there. So have you seen your no-till and strip till customers sparing better through the drought?
Dan Berning:
It hangs on a little bit longer, gives you a little more opportunity to catch that rain to actually builds some grain to give you that opportunity. So yes, doing what growers, that's kind of the advantages of that no-till or strip till. A lot of growers in those areas that do tend to be a little more drought prone, they like to leave that crop residue standing in the field as best they can to capture any winter moisture and snowfall and things like that a little bit better. And then preserve that by reducing or eliminating that tillage operation. So keeping as much of that soil moisture preserved in the soil as it can, and quite frequently you're going to see that advantage carry you deeper into that growing season when you don't have the growing season rainfall occurring.
Michaela Paukner:
Using this year, when do you think that the no tillers and the strip tillers really started to feel the impact of the drought?
Dan Berning:
It was from the very beginning.
Michaela Paukner:
Okay.
Dan Berning:
I'd say that having that residue on the surface provided a little bit more of a mulch, actually could give you several examples. This spring we had some very high intense winds and even at that point, the no-till, strip till where we had some crop residue out there, we were seeing less windy erosion taking place. Fields that were trained either through tillage or unfortunately some wildfire situations or things like that, we were seeing some pretty intense wind erosion at that point. Once we got the crop planted, then having that residue out there helped ensure that we had more moisture right there in that seed zone and getting the crop up and started at that point. And then as we got deeper into the growing season, again preserving that moisture, even though it seems like it's not a lot of moisture that we saved, every drop becomes critical when you're in these chronic drought situations to carry you a little bit farther into the season again and give you a chance to get to that next rain.
Michaela Paukner:
So what are some of the signs of drought stress in [inaudible 00:08:49]
Dan Berning:
Some of the real obvious ones early season, it might be just suppressing the growth rate of the crop. So a little bit shorter, shorter crop early season. Typically you'll see as that drought becomes a little more intense, the leaves will roll up as that plant is trying to protect itself from the drought and reduce the evaporation loss or transpiration loss through that. As it progresses into even more intense drought, you'll tend to see some of that tissue and the lethal tend to stall or flash just kind of as those cells are losing moisture or not having enough moisture to sustain themselves, they start to die out. So you'll see that kind of flashing or scaling of the leaf if it happens during the flowering stage, it can reduce the amount of silk elongation and the ability to pollinate successfully. And then late season you'll tend to be again, lower or shallow or kernel depth.
And at any time along that you can continue to see some of that leaf flashing or scalding of the plant in premature death.
Scott Walker:
Premature death when they see the ears kind of lay down.
Dan Berning:
Yeah, as that plant loses it's trigger pressure of having enough moisture within that stock and within that year shank, you'll see those ears start to tip down prematurely and it'll crimp that ear shank in some cases. And then that can be a little more subject to ear drop a little bit later on at that crimp point. If we get a lot of winds, it can kind of tear loose at that point and see that ear fall on the ground. We also, I know just here recently this weekend even, there's lower trigger pressure in that stock under these drought conditions. So we had a wind storm front blow through and it crimped or broke over some stocks even again, just not enough water within that stock to give it the rigidity that have the standability that we would normally like to see.
So yeah, unfortunately there's a lot of compounding factors that to-
Scott Walker:
Keep building upon themselves.
Dan Berning:
Exactly, keep building on themselves. So timely harvest is going to be important in order to harvest as much of the crop that has been made to the best of our ability, I'm afraid that under some of these situations that ear drop potential, but also the potential to see a little less stock integrity in some of these situations where they've had some chronic drought issues as well. So everything we can do that to help preserve the soil moisture for the next year's crop and then making sure that we can get good root development penetration to really into the sub-soil is kind of the strategy for no till and strip till.
Scott Walker:
Okay for no-till specifically, what can no tillers do right now to maximize their yields if they're dealing with drought?
Dan Berning:
So for this year, it's going to be a matter of timely harvest. Again, kind of expecting that if we've been under chronic drought situation, our stock integrity, our ear retention, maybe a little bit less than what we would normally like to see. So trying to get that crop out of the field as quick as we can would be the best management practice that's still available to us for the next crop, then leaving that residue out there and it captures much winter moisture as we can for the next product.
Noah Newman:
Let's burn a timeout and thank our sponsor Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment. Dawn is bringing today's innovative farmers a new strip till product from the regenerative AG focused underground agriculture brand. The Pluribus Lite is priced like a strip freshener, but it offers the features and performance to be used in the fall or the spring as a primary strip tiller or strip freshener. Check out the Pluribus Lite at DawnEquipment.com. Now back to the podcast.
Michaela Paukner:
Is timely harvest the best thing that strip tillers can do as well who are in this drought?
Dan Berning:
It's going to be a very, very similar situation for them. So just kind of monitoring that and prioritizing which fields maybe they need to come out first and harvest as timely as we can.
Michaela Paukner:
What are some of the factors that you use to prioritize which field should be harvested first?
Dan Berning:
I would go out and start doing maybe some pinch tests on the stalk just on the lower half of the stalk, just doing a little bit of pinch or push the stalks over a little bit and see if some fields are more prone to breakage or lodging that than others. And so using that as one of the primary factors out there. If some fields have a little bit better stay green than another field, the ones with better stay green probably are going to have a little bit better standability. So those are probably going to be the two things. Look for visual stay green and then do the pinch test to see if you can detect differences in stalk integrity.
Michaela Paukner:
So then we're also talking about today how hybrid selection helps manage drought stress. So could you tell us how hybrid selection helps to manage that?
Dan Berning:
That's a critical piece. Finding those hybrids that are best adapted to those drought scenarios out there. Sometimes even when you pick the best drought tolerant hybrid, if you don't have enough water, it may just be the last to die, but ideally again it's given you a little more opportunity to catch that rain. We do a lot of very intense testing and characterization for drought tolerance within Corteva and we have our Optimum AQUAmax products that are really designed to fit that drought environment. Those hybrids have been developed that they've got some characteristics like faster, better root development, deeper into the sub soil moisture earlier in the season. They tend to have a little more control of the stoma mates of the leaves that are letting water vapor transpire through that plant so it controls the amount of water or reduces the amount of water that's being evaporated or transpired through that crop a little bit better. And then just some things like just trying to make sure that our silk emergence is synchronized with the pollen shed, even under drought conditions, sometimes drought can throw that off. So these hybrids have been developed to optimize that pollination synchronization as well. And then just other traits that trying to give us more reliable opportunity to produce a crop when we're faced with these chronic crop situations.
Scott Walker:
And just to add onto that is our AQUAmax products, during the research we put them through extensive testing in these drought conditions. So they have to pass it and think it's three years of severe drought testing to be labeled if they need all the criteria that they state to be labeled an AQUAmax product.
Dan Berning:
We've got some research locations that are in some very dry areas of the world. And then we can use some things like drip tape irrigation to really dial in the level of stress and the timing of stress that we want to evaluate to really make sure that we've got those reliable products. And then we've got the network of the pioneer team, the agronomists, the sales reps, the territory managers that really study these products and really work on making sure that we get them plates for the growers own field environments and situations. So working with that local team I think really helps dial in which products are going to have the best opportunity for success within their local geographies as well.
Michaela Paukner:
What are some of the locations where you are putting the crops or the hybrids through the severe drought conditions for testing?
Dan Berning:
So some of the areas that we typically do that type of managed stress testing is in California. We've got areas out there that they give very little in-season rainfall. And then in Chile, again, we've got an area there that has less than four inches of in-season rainfall. So we know it's going to be a dry environment and again using drip tape we can dial that in. But even some of our locations out on the high plains around Lubbock, Texas, Garden City, Kansas, North Plat, Nebraska, we've got locations across there that are doing similar testing as well to really help us select and characterize those products at very early stages. And then as we get into later stages of evaluation before we get to that commercial advance. But we have now in hundreds of locations across the country and what we call impact trials. So we can test them in those real world environments and inevitably we're going to have, drought is going to occur-
Scott Walker:
Somewhere.
Dan Berning:
[inaudible 00:18:29]
Scott Walker:
So we can simulate the environment we're in today.
Dan Berning:
Right, right. And they'll be under a different crop management, the no-till, strip till, conventional till. We really test them across all those types of practices and environments as well.
Michaela Paukner:
Interesting. So knowing that right now we have very little moisture and if this continues, what can no-tillers and strip tillers be doing to set themselves up for a good season next year?
Dan Berning:
For next year? Preparing for next year? So kind of watch that, do what you can to make sure we're preserving the soil moisture with the residue that we're going to leave out there. We may want to think about making sure that we're eliminating competition from wheat competition. And in some cases that may mean that if we do get a little bit of precipitation here in the fall, maybe even using some herbicide systems to eliminate that fall wheat growth and eliminate, get that weed control all year, year long, not just in the spring, but make sure that we don't have some of those winter annual weeds coming up and competing for that moisture early in the season. As we get into harvesting as well, just thinking about some of those field operations and make sure we're eliminating compaction so we don't want to have that restriction. So eliminating compaction and weed control would be some fall practices to watch out for.
As we get into the spring and start preparing for our crop then making sure that we're planting when soils are fit and not creating compaction at that point, whether it's hard pans or even what we call sidewall smear in the seed trench if we're planting under too wet of conditions, so we may want to consider that. Those are going to be some of the major considerations, just making sure that we're not doing anything to restrict root development, managing the weed control, and then also watching for things like insects that we might want to watch for. And then you'd mention the hybrid selection, that's going to be a key part of that planning and selecting for next year as well.
Scott Walker:
That's what I was going to say, make sure you're working with your local Pioneer sales reps and making sure you get the AQUAmax products on farm so you can essentially protect yourself, little insurance package to make sure you have the [inaudible 00:21:11] And then if we go into the spring game, then we're still dry. What's your recommendation on planting Dan
Dan Berning:
Yeah, like to get into moisture, so I like to see it planted two inches regardless, and if it's too wet to plant two inches, we need to wait a little bit, but we can go a little deeper if we need to, if we're under really dry conditions, which some growers were faced with this past year that may have to go as deep as two and a half or maybe even three inches deep if they need to make sure they're getting a good reliable moisture conditions. The other thing that should probably mention is soil fertility, good soil fertility, good balanced soil fertility, not only nitrogen management, but things like phosphorous and potassium are also going to help that crop deal with drought stress better with good adequate fertility. Drought stress will tend to compound other stresses. So if it's under some kind of a nutrition stress due to lack of adequate soul fertility or things like that, it'll just be a compounding effect. So it can really help that crop be able to handle drought better if it's not undergoing some nutrient stress as well.
Michaela Paukner:
Yeah, you're essentially controlling the things you can control and setting it up to survive the thing you can't.
Dan Berning:
Right. So don't get too conservative, I guess I understand that under some of these drought scenarios, we feel like our yield potential is somewhat limited, but we still want to manage for the realistic yield goal set that we're trying to achieve out there when it comes to all those other crop input decisions.
Michaela Paukner:
And then how do cover crops affect a corn crop that's growing in drought conditions?
Dan Berning:
So cover crops, there is a concern that maybe cover crops, just add a little more competition for that. It depends a little bit on the situation that we're dealing with and in a lot of areas throughout the corn belt cover crops can help us by reducing some of the weed competition that we're going to have. We put the cover crop out there throughout the winter time when normally we would expect the soil moisture's going to be readily available, so we're not really losing that excess moisture to the crop at that point. As we get into the spring, we'll terminate that cover crop and then it acts like a mulch to help preserve moisture and help control weeds. So it's acting like a residue mulch for us as we get farther west in the areas like say on the high plains where they tend to be a little more drought prone or chronic in that. Again, the implementation of cover crops might vary a little bit from year to year depending on what their sub soil moisture status is going into the fall when they're making those seeding decisions and whether they feel like they've got enough to sustain a winter cover crop or whether they want to forgo that for that year and save as much moisture as they can for the road crop that they're going to plant the following year.
Michaela Paukner:
So in those western conditions, if a farmer would decide to plant the cover crop, is there a chance that the cover crop would use of all the moisture before they plant the real crop?
Dan Berning:
It could be another competing factor. If we have a year that we have extremely low winter moisture to help build up the soil reserves. So in those situations you don't see as much cover crops implemented on what would be a true dry land or rain fed environment, but would be used more under those irrigated scenarios where they might be able to supplement that soil moisture through some rainfall. And then again, just kind of the same thing using the cover crop for the benefits around or building up your organic matter and your soil health, your microbial environment by having a living crop all year round. And then also that weed control and preserving soil moisture when you can terminate the crop, but you might need to have that supplemental irrigation to help get it through the fall in the wintertime.
Michaela Paukner:
Okay. Was there anything else that either of you wanted to add that I haven't asked you about?
Dan Berning:
Off the top of my head, I'd say again, if growers are faced with some of these challenges, visit with your Pioneer sales rep, we've got some great resources, information around how we can maybe manage that crop to get the most we can under these drought scenarios. How we can deal with some of the situations we're faced with, even though it's not really what we want as far as evaluating that standing crop for harvest priority and then obviously the hybrid selection and crop selection for the next year. It's the great thing about the American farmers is that eternal optimism that next year is going to be better and we know it's going to be different eventually.
Scott Walker:
Most farmers have what about 35, 40 opportunities.
Dan Berning:
So a lot of the areas in Western corn belt, we're going to be faced with drought occasionally, but there's going to be better years as well.
Noah Newman:
And that'll wrap things up for this week's edition of the podcast. Thanks to Dan Burning and Scott Walker for joining us. Thanks to Michaela Paukner for hosting. Thanks to our sponsor, Pluribus Lite from Dawn Equipment. Check out their products at DawnEquipment.com and of course, thank you once again for listening. We really appreciate it. And until next time, for all things strip till, head to StripTillFarmer.com.
