Farming

Dan is joined by Kyle Ostenson from Valley Irrigation to break down the new crop monitoring system that Dan just installed on his new pivot. Valley Insights uses aerial imagery and cameras mounted on the pivot towers to scout for crop health concerns related to water application or other issues in the field.

In most of the corn and soybean growing regions, we envision center pivots when we think of irrigation. But in an Ag world impacted increasingly by environmental forces compelling us to till less and drastically reduce resource consumption, we may utilize more drip irrigation. Dan Luepkes explains the Netafim drip irrigation system he uses to set yield records on his Illinois farm. You’ll see command central, the distribution infrastructure, and head in field to see the results.

Soil data and tissue sampling data are used by farmers to make decisions and corrections during the growing season. But, some of the most important factors affecting crop performance are happening under the crop canopy. Kelly discusses the new drone technology from Aker that he is using on his farm this year to look at diseases, insect pressure, nutrient deficiencies, temperature, humidity, pressure, CO2 and O2 levels all under the canopy.

Dan finally is getting some heat after a frost at the end of May did some damage to his corn. The pre-emerge herbicide was mitigated with the lack of rain and the heavy water hemp pressure in his field. After talking to his BASF rep Dan has a new plan for stepping up the assault on water hemp.

Matt is out early this morning to talk about the phenomenon of atmospheric inversions and his method for making sure the conditions are right for spray applications.

One of the biggest inconsistencies in farming today is something that many farmers overlook - water! As the carrier, it is the most essential component of every chemical application on your farm. Whether you source your water from a treatment facility, or from a well or farm pond, one thing is for sure - water is never just water.

Waterhemp is a prolific seed producer. The weed generally produces about 250,000 seeds per plant, but some plants are capable of releasing over 1 million seeds in the right conditions. The highly competitive weed is a threat to both soybeans and corn crops. In this video, Dan talks about the BASF herbicide products he will be applying on his corn and soybeans to keep waterhemp from becoming a yield limiting factor this season.