Thoughts From The Combine Cab

By: Maria Cox

Operating the combine is a little like turning 16 and getting your driver’s license; you can study the settings and manuals but nothing compares to the freedom you feel when you get behind the wheel on your own.

Then, after a few days, the newness wears off and you settle in for a long harvest. After I tweak the combine settings and calibrate the yield monitor, my mind tends to wander. Typically, I think about the challenges we face and how we can improve during the next season.

Here is what I’m thinking about this harvest:

Split nitrogen applications will pay this year. Our 2017 corn nitrogen plan ranged from all fall application on fields I planted in March to all spring application to part spring application and part sidedress. I don’t have any nitrogen watch simulators on our fields yet, but common sense tells me that we had some leeching after 10 inches of rain in late April. Until a few years ago, we applied most of our nitrogen in the fall. We are moving in the direction of utilizing more split applications. I’m planning to watch our nitrogen applications more closely next year. It’s better for both the environment and our bottom line.
Soybean harvest will be slower because of weeds. Weed pressure in soybeans was the hottest topic of the summer. Ten inches of rain after a pre-emergence soybean application doesn’t bode well for weeds once August comes. I learned that an additional spray helped fields and we should have done more of that. It would have been worth the expense to do more spraying. Looking to next year, we are going to explore different types of soybeans and herbicides.