Pioneer Agronomist: ‘Patience Will be Rewarded This Year’
Beautiful, warm days in the middle of April, like what we saw over the weekend and to start the week, is what farmers live for. It’s been tough for many of them to have to watch fields dry after significant rainfall last week.
“I understand the excitement this time of year. I’m excited about it too and I can’t wait to be out in the field but let’s make sure we’re doing it right the first time,” says West Central Indiana agronomist Ben Jacob.
In our first Pioneer agronomy update of the season, Jacob opines that patience will be rewarded this year.
“The damage we can do by dragging iron through the field too early lingers with us for years. That’s not a one-time impact.”
It hasn’t just been the past few days of nice weather either. We had 60+ degrees days going all the way back to February and some awfully nice days in March too. Hopefully, farmers won’t be waiting for too long.
“Depending on what the weather does this week, we could open up. But as I drive through the countryside, one of the things that stands out to me is with the early heat we received and just how much growth we have of winter annuals and how wooly some of these fields are getting,” Jacob says. “So, there may be an opportunity here while the fields are still too wet to plant, or really too wet to till, if we can get a sprayer out with some floats and burn down some of this growth that we have to make the tillage passes easier and have a nice seedbed whenever we do get a chance to get into the field here hopefully sooner rather than later.
Jacob adds that while it’s frustrating to have to wait, the moisture is still welcome after the fall and winter that didn’t bring quite enough.
Hear the full HAT interview with Jacob below. To get in touch with your Pioneer agronomist, visit pioneer.com/findmyrep.
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