R. F. D. News & Views, October 23, 2013

IFCA Warns of Improper N Applications

BLOOMINGTON – With harvest winding down across central Illinois, dry fertilizer application is underway. The Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association (IFCA) is reminding farmers to adhere to sound stewardship and agronomic guidelines by ensuring that fall N not be applied until the soil temperature falls to below 50 degrees at the four-inch level. At stake is the risk of increased nitrate levels in surface water supplies that serve central Illinois cities.

“In the spring of 2013, surface water supplies had nitrate levels of serious concern, causing some cities to undergo treatment in order to get below the 10ppm (parts-per-million) drinking water standard,” the IFCA stated in an Items of Interest e-newsletter to members last week. “Those without treatment came very close to having to supply bottled water to pregnant women and children. Illinois agriculture, through C-BMP (Illinois Council on Best Management Practices) and the ‘Keep it for the Crop’ program is engaging retailers and farmers in these watersheds to take concerted stewardship efforts to assure that the nitrogen applied is protected in every way possible to keep it for the crop and out of the water systems.”  

 

More Farmers Examining N Management

BLOOMINGTON – During a recent webinar on developing an individual Nutrient Management Plan for your farm, Dr. Howard Brown, interim director of nutrient utilization and research projects for the Illinois Council on Best Management Practices (C-BMP), told his audience that due to the vagaries of the weather, it’s not about putting N on at the right time, but rather putting it on over time.

“A farmer wants to sell all of his grain at the highest price. He wishes he could. But what a farmer does is hedges his risk by looking at multiple opportunities to (sell) and at the end of the year, averaging that together, he does fairly well,” said Brown.  “From the standpoint of nitrogen, if we knew when it was going to rain and when it was not going to rain then we could determine when to put it on. But since we don’t know, we can put nitrogen on incrementally– therefore we hedge our environmental risk and we enhance our utilization.”

Corn needs the most N from around 40 days post-emergence through the silking stage, according to Brown. A Purdue crop researcher has concluded that many current hybrids tend to take up the most N towards the end of the growing season, which may be why many farmers are turning to N management programs featuring later N applications, Brown explained.

“C-BMP is making an attempt to retain nutrient stewardship and management at the farm gate. We all know there are issues surrounding nutrient management that have everyone’s concern,” he said, noting the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone, global climate change and drinking water standards as hot-button issues relating to the use of agricultural fertilizers and chemicals.

More info: www.illinoiscbmp.org.

 

Report: Cover Crops Improved Yields

BLOOMINGTON – Farmers who utilized cover crops fared better than those who did not during the 2012 drought, according to a recent survey of more than 750 farmers primarily from the upper Mississippi River watershed. Corn and soybean yields both improved by the use of cover crops, which provide a tremendous benefit in counteracting nutrient runoff concerns and proposed regulations while increasing yield and profit, according to Illinois Corn, a partner in Illinois C-BMP (see articles above).

Key findings of the survey, which was conducted by the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) and North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture and Education (SARE) program, involved cover crop adoption, benefits, challenges and yield impacts. During the fall of 2012, corn planted after cover crops realized a 9.6 percent increase in yield compared with side-by-side fields with no cover crops. Soybean yields improved by 11.6 percent after cover crops. But in the hardest hit drought areas of the Corn Belt yields improved even more dramatically, with an 11 percent yield increase for corn and 14.3 percent increase for soybeans.

The survey also revealed that farmers are increasing the acreage they utilize for cover crops, intending to plant an average of 421 acres in the fall of 2013, up from an average of 303 acres last year.

 

NRCS Reopens; EQIP Cutoff Announced

CHAMPAIGN – All Illinois Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) offices are open and have resumed normal operations following the government shutdown that was lifted October 17, reported Ivan Dozier, Illinois state conservationist for the NRCS. Along with NRCS offices reopening, local Soil and Water Conservation Districts have also reopened.  “We’re glad we can all get back to work and back to business,” said Dozier. “We all take pride in providing both hands-on help and program assistance to our clients. We’ll just have some catching up to do.”

The catching up began on Oct. 18 when Dozier and the Illinois NRCS announced upcoming Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) application cut-off dates. EQIP provides financial and technical assistance to farmers to help them address specific soil, water and other natural resource concerns on farm and forestland.

“This will be the first signup opportunity for Fiscal Year 2014,” said Dozier, while expressing confidence that the continuing resolution signed by President Obama to reopen the government would continue to support funding for conservation programs. “I encourage all Illinois producers with resource concerns to submit their paperwork and get their projects in early.”

The four cutoff dates for FY 2014 are November 15th, 2013, January 17, 2014, March 21, 2014 and May 16, 2014. (Ill. NRCS news releases)

 

Illinois Farm Fact:

Illinois producers have raised over 460 million bushels of soybeans in the past century. (Ill. Soybean Assoc.)

 

(Tim Alexander is a freelance reporter who writes agriculture, news and feature articles for the News Bulletin, Farm World and many other publications.)