 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
‘Season of extremes’
Despite a growing season ‘bookended’ with challenging weather conditions, Tennessee’s 2019 harvest is expected to post impressive yields for corn an
| Story by: Sarah Geyer; photos by: Sarah Geyer, Glen Liford, Wesley Long, and Chris Villines |
12/3/2019 |
Greene County producer Mark Klepper describes 2019 as a “season of extremes” for Tennessee farmers with unrelenting rainfall and flooding during April planting and several weeks of hot temperatures and drought conditions leading into harvest.
Although worry over rain or the lack thereof served as “bookends” for this year’s growing season, weather conditions during the critical growth stages for the state’s corn and cotton crops were rated favorable to ideal.
According to the Nov. 8 crop production forecast report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), the state’s corn harvest is expected to reach a second consecutive year of record-setting yield, averaging an anticipated 174 bushels per acre, an increase of 6 bushels over last year. Cotton yield numbers are also expected to increase over last year with a predicted average yield of 1,116 pounds per acre, 75 pounds more than 2018.
However, Tennessee’s soybean crop didn’t fare as well. The NASS Sept. 10 report showed the crop appeared to bounce back from delayed planting, and the NASS predicted increases in both soybean production and yield as compared to last year. Then came the hot, dry days of September and early October, and in its Oct. 12 forecast report, the NASS had decreased September’s production prediction by 12 percent. The Nov. 8 report continues to predict that late-season production loss, but the average yield, estimated at 47 bushels per acre, bests last year’s harvest by 1.5 bushels.
As harvest numbers begin to roll in, Co-op’s proprietary brand of seed, Croplan™ by WinField United, is once again being reported as a top performer for producers across the state, including the following farmers.
The Kleppers — Greeneville
In spite of a challenging year weather wise, Mark Klepper is pleased with results he got from the Croplan corn varieties in 2019 on his Greene County farm. Mark, who along with his dad, Allen, raises about 700 acres of row crops — 540 acres of corn and 160 acres of soybeans. He also has a herd of 200 beef cows and eight chicken houses.
“It’s actually been a rough season,” says Mark. “We had too much water during planting, too much water probably all the way up to July. And now [in the midst of harvest in October], it’s been extremely dry. It’s been one extreme to the other. I would call it the season of extremes.”
The wet weather was particularly troubling for the veteran farmer, since a good portion of his crop ground is in low-lying areas where water tends to pool when rain is heavy. One of the fields, he notes, is adjacent to a creek that has overflowed its banks and flooded the tract three or four times over the past several years.
“I planted it in the right conditions when it was dry, so I had a good stand,” he says. “It didn’t drown it out too badly.”
In spite of the obstacles, however, Mark is optimistic about yields and is expecting to be pleased with the results.
This is the second consecutive year he has relied on Croplan seed. More than half of his acreage this year was planted with Croplan varieties, including 5290, 5678, and 6926, due in large part to the success he enjoyed last year and the advice from Greene Farmers Cooperative Agronomy Salesman Jason Crawford.
Several years ago, Mark had a misstep with the Croplan brand when the variety he planted didn’t yield as highly as some of the other seed he planted.
Last year, Jason convinced him to give Croplan another try, offering to help him choose some varieties that might better suit his management style.
Mark planted Croplan 5290 on his last piece of land to see how it would work. The seed was barely in the ground when they received a drenching rain, and the field flooded. After the crop came up, he took the planter and reseeded only the areas that didn’t come up.
“Luckily, there wasn’t much I had to replant,” says Mark. “The Croplan still averaged 200 bushels an acre.”
So this year, Mark and Jason sat down together and looked at the possibilities. Jason had done his homework and consulted with Croplan sales representative Caleb Robertson to help choose the best options.
“I’ve been pleased,” says Mark. “I like a pretty plant. And one thing about Croplan is it usually produces a tall stalk with a good ear on it. I like to see it look good, and, of course, I also want it to yield.”
The Wards — Cornersville
On a scale of 1 to 10, Dwight Ward says he’d give the 2019 growing season an 8.
“If we had gotten some rain in September, I would’ve rated it even higher than that,” says Dwight, who with son Dwayne and grandson Ethan, raises close to 2,000 owned and leased acres of soybeans and corn on the family’s Richland Farm in Cornersville and on land in neighboring Giles County. “It just quit [raining] and was so hot that a friend of mine said, ‘Lord, I don’t know what you’re cooking but I think it’s done!’”
The Wards, members of both Lincoln and Marshall Farmers co-ops, diversified their crops, raising four different varieties of Croplan soybeans — 4487, 4500, 4825, and 5137 — and two different varieties of Croplan corn, 5678 and 5370. Their use of Croplan products dates back to 2013, when the family exited the dairy business they had operated since 1970 and switched to row cropping.
As of mid-October, they had harvested all the corn, the 4487 soybeans, and most of the acreage planted in Croplan 4500.
“What we harvested on the 4487 was in the 50-bushel range, and the 4500 is yielding similar to that,” reports Dwight. “We planted the 5370 corn on what we thought was poor ground but still averaged around 200 bushels per acre, which is pretty good. The 5678 averaged around 215 bushels [per acre].”
The Wards’ crop diversification strategy is a “smart move,” says Brett Jones, Tennessee Farmers Cooperative agronomist.
“I think it’s wise for them to diversify their crop so they can look at the different maturities and what varieties do better,” Brett says. “It’s very easy to fall into a trap of planting everything in one variety. If something adverse happens, though, your whole crop is going to fall on its face.”
Lincoln Farmers Cooperative Manager Mark Posey says that how the Wards
manage and “feed” these crops helps them be successful, noting that a key is yearly soil sampling.
“When Dwight was dairying, he knew if he fed those cows they would make more milk,” explains Mark. “He treats his crops the same way. He ‘feeds’ them nutrients according to what the soil sample dictates, and the crops respond accordingly. Not everyone has that mindset.”
The Hunts — Henderson
Bart Hunt, a third-generation Henderson row crop producer, farms more than 2,500 acres in Chester and Madison counties with the help of two people — Jack, his business partner and father, and Luke, his 17-year-old son and Chester County High School student.
This year, the First Farmers Cooperative members planted 750 acres of corn, 300 acres of soybeans, and 1,500 acres of cotton. Despite the extreme weather conditions in early spring and late summer, Bart says his corn crop had ideal growing conditions and averaged a yield of more than 200 bushels per acre.
The family’s soybean crop, on the other hand, suffered from the late drought, says Bart, averaging about 45 bushels per acre.
“The beans were cut short by probably 10 to 15 bushels,” he says. “Considering all the heat and dry weather they went through, I guess that was pretty good.”
At press time (Nov. 4), the Hunts’ cotton harvest is nearing the halfway point. Bart says so far the crop looks “really good.”
This season is the first they’ve planted cotton since 2011. When he decided to reintroduce the crop last fall, the producer reached out to fellow farmers and friends for recommendations on the market’s new seed technologies.
“Bart was looking for exceptional yields across the board,” says Ryan Zawacki, an agronomist with First Farmers Co-op. “I knew that Croplan 9608 B3XF, a relatively new variety, would fit his needs for yield, his
management practices, and his ground.”
The producer designated 220 acres on two of his better producing farms for the variety and also suggested First Farmers use a 24-acre section of this land for a First Acre test plot with the variety. The farmer planted those acres the last few days of April and first of May, and the weather turned cool and wet shortly after the seed was in the ground.
“The plants had a tough time coming out and looked really rough during the first month after emergence,” says Bart. “After that, we had just about ideal conditions. We got rain about every time we needed it and had plenty of heat units.”
Though the Hunts don’t have numbers for their entire cotton crop, Bart says the Croplan fields, which were the first harvested, averaged a yield of 1,805 pounds per acre, and the First Acre plot yielded an average of 1,974 per acre.
“The Croplan cotton impressed me,” says the producer. “I have to tell you, I was a little apprehensive about it, but the results speak for themselves. I’ll definitely plant it next year and probably double my acreage.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|