HOME:
Current Soil Health News from
Hoorman Soil Health Services

  After a wet and late planted spring, crops and weeds are starting to grow. Spraying weeds is important for getting good yields and reducing weed competition. Many farmers use commercial applicators to spray their fields, but a lot of farmers do it themselves or have applicators for spot spraying. There are factors that affect herbicide performance. Water quality; water pH; the temperature of the water, air, and soil; type and volume of water; size of weeds; and even time of day can impact herbicide effectiveness. In the Midwest, Purdue University is a leader on improving herbicide performance. For anyone spraying herbicides the following publications are a must read. PPP-86: The Impact of Water Quality on Pesticide Performance. PPP-107: Adjuvants and the Power of Spray Droplets. PPP-112: Water Temperature and Herbicide Performance. PPP-115: Compendium of Herbicide Adjuvants which explains how to prevent water minerals from tying up herbicides. Here are some tip: Check your wat...

  Farmers are making significant progress on planting but some areas are well behind. May 2025 has been the second coldest May on record. Between cold, wet, windy conditions; farmers are managing to get crops planted. Some areas have received over 7 inches of rain, just in the month of May and these farmers are way behind getting crops planted. However; soil microbes, plants, and humans would benefit from more sunlight, warmth, and adequate moisture. On the weather front, the polar vortex from the arctic region has been dipping down into the Midwest, bringing cold air, wind, and some moisture. La Nina events may be starting to fade, but it’s allowing the colder conditions to persist. Added to that situation, dry conditions in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada are fueling wildfires and smoke which is further reducing sunlight in the USA Midwestern States. When it is cold, microbes do not reproduce as quickly. Microbes double their population every 10°F increase in temperature abov...

May has been a cold and wet and many farmers are struggling to get crops planted. Some for the first time. Others are already replanting. Although a week old, May 18th USDA's crop progress report is probably fairly accurate with the recent rains. Estimates are that only 34% of corn acres are planted in Ohio, with 22% of corn emerged. Emerged acres are probably higher by now. Corn planting progress was behind the 5-year average (48%), but corn emergence was slightly ahead (20%) as of May 18th. For soybeans, 40% of soybean acre were planted and 24% of soybeans emerged. On corn, some farmers got a few acres planted in late April when the air temperatures for a short period of time were warmer. but soil temps were cool. That corn either emerged, rotted or the soil got hard and struggled to emerge. Corn needs to come up within 3 days of each other for optimal yield. Cold wet weather causes many mineral deficiencies since the microbes in the soil are not warmed up and repopulating. Yello...

Farmers are again struggling this spring to get crops planted. Depending upon the amount and distribution of rain, some farmers may be almost done while other farmers are struggling to get their first field planted. In late April, there was a nice warm stretch of weather for a few days with some relatively dry weather. Some farmers got a lot planted. Others waited. Some fields of corn and soybeans are up but with the cool weather, some are struggling to grow. For slugs; cool, wet weather with slow growing crops are the best conditions for a “ slug fest smorgasbord"! Slugs like wet cool conditions and they love to eat plants under stress. Most plants, especially corn, can out grow slug damage with good weather. Soybeans are the most susceptible to slug damage. Once you see slugs starting to eat newly emerging soybeans, it is too late because once the cotyledon ( first new emerging leaves from the seed) is damaged, the plant dies. A lot of fields have either weeds still growing or...