It looks more like early March than early April today.

Wednesday was a great day – with warm and sunny conditions. But it has been pretty gloomy since. We do not have snow yet, but it is predicted later on today.

Field work. There has been some field work in the area. Some fertilizer has been spread on some light ground, and some oats have been seeded (again – on some lighter ground). However, there really has not been any field work on the more prevalent heavy soil areas.

Oats. Speaking of oats, when is it too late to seed oats? And who seeds oats anymore anyway? The recent USDA planting intentions report indicate that Iowa farmers plan to plant 160,000 acres of oats in 2008, up from 145,000 acres in 2007 (about the corn acres in an average sized Iowa county). The optimal seeding date for oats in northern Iowa is before April 15. Oat yields decrease about 1.3 bu/a/day when seeded after April 15. The yield decrease is probably more like 1.0 bu/a/day in northern Iowa. So, it is not too late for oats this year.

Crop Planning. Crop planning is one last minute planning item you can do this time of year. You need to go through each field and write down everything you plan to do in that field. You can write down the following.

• Field name/legal description.
• Field acres, FSA number, CSR.
• Previous crop and yield.
• Fall fertilizer/manure.
• Spring fertilizer/manure.
• Fall tillage and intended spring tillage.
• Hybrids/varieties – include maturity, traits, etc.
• Planting rate.
• Pre-plant and post-emergence herbicides.
• Insecticides and or fungicides.

Field planning like this will force you to double check the kind and quantity of your seed, fertilizer and crop protection products. It will also make you double check the inputs you pre-paid last fall against your actual field acres. Be assured – you will find something you overlooked! Therefore, we can make some last minute changes if you need to.

This is also a good way to double check your refuge requirements for your rootworm resistant corn hybrids, corn borer resistant hybrids or triple stack hybrids. See this article for more info.

The Biotech Yield Endorsement for the federal crop insurance premium discount – when you use the YieldGard technology – is similar to the refuge requirements. See Crop Insurance (select crop insurance) for more info.

Write these items down for each field and include a field map (like an FSA map). Make copies for each person involved in your operation and/or a copy for each tractor. That way if any changes are made (and there likely will be), those changes can be recorded on the plan.

SOURCE: ISU’s Paul Kassel