Planting is on time this year

Spring planting has gone according to schedule. According to Iowa State University crop specialist Jim Fawcett, nearly all of the corn is in the ground and a majority of the beans is in. He said that 98 percent of the corn has been planted in east central Iowa and that most of it is already visible. Eighty-four percent of soybeans in east central Iowa is in the ground.

Fawcett said April was an unusually cold month and certainly much colder than the April of 2010. Consequently, very few crops were planted that month in southeastern Iowa or anywhere else in the state.

?There was not much planting before May 1,? he said. ?I would say maybe 1 or 2 percent of the corn crop was planted in April. We started slowly, but it?s amazing how much corn and soybeans can be planted in such a short time. Things are looking pretty good now.?

Fawcett said April was not an especially rainy month, but just enough to keep farmers out of their fields. He said that the machinery in this day and age is so large and so advanced that it takes very little time to plant a field. Farmers have received mostly nice weather in May in which to perform their planting.  

?The crops were planted on time,? said Fawcett. ?We?re about at the five-year average, and maybe even a little ahead.?

Fawcett said last year?s early planting season was an anomaly.     

The corn grown in Iowa descended from a tropical plant, so it cannot tolerate cold temperatures as well as soybeans can, which evolved in a temperate zone. That is one reason to plant corn later in the year than beans. However, there are other reasons to plant corn earlier. One is that corn yields drop steeply the longer a farmer waits to plant it. The decline in yields is not as sharp for beans. Fawcett remarked that corn planted on June 1 will yield significantly less than corn planted in early May, whereas the difference in performance between beans planted at those two times is not as great.

The other reason to plant corn earlier than beans is that corn?s growing point is lower than beans?, which means that most of its early growing is done under ground. Fawcett said corn?s growing point stays below ground until the plant is a foot tall. A soybean plant?s growing point, on the other hand, is above ground as soon as the bean is.

Iowa State University farm management specialist Jim Jensen said the snow cover was fairly light this year. He said the snow melted and came back several times. The snow cover influences how easily hibernating insects can survive the winter. The insects like snow because it insulates them from the extremely cold temperatures over the winter. Jensen said the lack of snow cover was not good for the bugs.

Fawcett agreed that the snow cover seemed lighter than in other years but added that the temperatures were rarely very low, and he?s worried that many beetles have survived the winter and will menace the crops this summer.

?We do expect to see bean-leaf beetles that survived the winter,? said Fawcett. ?Very few bean-leaf beetles survived the winter last year. We also expect to see flea beetles on corn. We have already heard reports of flea beetles in central Iowa.?

The fungus Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) wreaked havoc on soybeans in 2010. Fawcett said the disease was more prolific than he had ever seen it. Agronomists have discovered that the appearance of SDS is related to the time at which soybeans are planted and what the conditions are at that time. For instance, soybeans were planted early in 2010, in the month of April. However, the soybeans came out of the ground to wet and cold conditions in early May of that year. Fawcett said that since soybeans were planted at a normal time this year, SDS may not be as widespread.

?It?s a little early to tell what problems the crops will have later in the year,? said Fawcett. ?We don?t see symptoms of SDS until August.?