Early Considerations for Harvest

The Dairyland Seed Agronomy Team has been fielding many questions about harvest implications of the 2023 growing season. Droughty conditions have left us with highly variable crops across and within fields. Variation from field to field is manageable, but variations within a field can be challenging.

The most concerning is variability within fields, especially corn. This was a result of seeds not finding enough moisture to germinate uniformly. Maybe half of the plants germinated appropriately, while the others sat in dry soil for a few weeks only to emerge at the next rainfall. The result was a wild mixture of V6-V8 plants mixed with V2-V3 plants all on the same acre. The soybean crop also experienced the same, but the end of season variability should be less than that of corn. Now we are stuck evaluating the best use for these crops.

In true meteorologist (or agronomist) fashion our recommendation is…it depends. Most importantly, know the top priorities for your farm. Relative to a livestock farm, this is a bit simpler for a grain farm.

• Do you have grain-drying capabilities on farm? Does your dryer have the capability to handle variable moisture?
• How do you want to balance field drydown with phantom yield loss?
• For variability in soybeans, consider a desiccant. We have found that desiccation at R7.5-R8 can increase the amount of yield we can capture.
• Links to our Dairyland Seed agronomy research can be found here: phantom yield loss and strategies for early soybean harvest.

For the livestock producer, it is doubly important to know your priorities. Remember that you cannot add more fiber digestibility to a forage crop that is already in storage. Let’s focus on a scenario in which we have fields that will be maturing at different rates due to uneven emergence (within single fields).

• Chopping when the first emerged plants reach appropriate timing will sacrifice some yield and starch but should hold strong fiber digestibility. Grain can be added to the ration from such a crop. Chopping when the late emerged plants reach appropriate timing will sacrifice some forage quality but should ensure more tonnage and starch. Do you need quality or tonnage?
• If you have grain drying capabilities or can tolerate grain variability, maybe you harvest the variable fields for grain and cherry pick the most uniform corn fields for high quality and tonnage chopping. This assumes that the variable fields will produce reasonably mature grain: a sticking point for those planting 110-day silage in sub-100-day grain corn regions.
• The option to harvest high moisture corn for feed adds a great deal of flexibility to the system.

It is important to think of these things proactively, but the reality is that any decisions will continue to develop and evolve over the coming months. We find ourselves halfway through the growing season and a good portion of yield is yet to be determined. This is good news if precipitation trends to the normal or above for August and September. Outcomes can still vary wildly depending on environmental conditions from here to the finish line. The picture will become clearer when we can gauge ear and pod development.

Brian Weller
Western Region
507.456.3034

Rod Moran
Western Region
507.456.3034

Dan Ritter
Central Region
219.863.0583

Branden Furseth
Northern Region
608.513.4265

Mark Gibson
Eastern Region
260.330.8968

Amanda Goffnett
Eastern Region
989.400.3793

Ryan Mueller
Eastern Region
989.400.3793

Enjoying our Agronomy Updates? Suggestions for topics you'd like us to weigh in on? Drop us an email at dairylandseed@dairylandseed.com. We'd love to hear from you!