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Hoorman Soil Health Services

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...

Brian Doughtery, a Understanding Ag consultant, says compaction is a sign of a poorly functioning soil. Soil compaction is not a natural occurrence, it comes from too much equipment (heavy axle loads, too much tillage), not enough biology (lack of roots and living organisms), and excess nutrients. Well aggregated soils look like black cottage cheese; soil crumbles easily in your hand and water and gases move freely in soil. Well aggregated soils have 50% solid materials made up of ground up rock, minerals and water with the other half being pore space by volume. Compaction just means the pore space is reduced or eliminated resulting in denser compacted soil. For good plant growth, roots need to penetrate the soil to get water and nutrients and have adequate gas exchange. Roots need oxygen produced and released by the leaves to move down into the soil to break down the food produced by the leaves. Roots give off carbon dioxide after the oxygen breaks down the food in the roots. It’s a...

Beck’s Hybrids conducts annually extensive corn and soybean research to improve crop yields. They recently released a 256-page book on their recent results. Research is conducted throughout the USA, Midwest, and Ohio.  Over 2 decades, the yield penalty for late corn planting is less than on soybeans. The most important thing on corn is getting it planted at a consistent depth, spacing, population, and under the right conditions more so than actual planting date. In no-till, having good closing wheels to close the slot is essential. Optimal seed to soil contact is critical for uniform emergence and the yield benefit was 2.7 to 5%. Spiked wheels help crumble soil when conditions are not perfect.  Becks did significant corn nitrogen (N) research. Putting N fertilizer on both sides of the seed allowed more uniform root distribution and yielded an average of 7 bushels more corn. The highest average corn yield of 225 bushel per acre over 4 years was 60# N applied on both sides of th...

Many planters and drills were rolling this week in Northern Ohio. Some had to stop due to rain, others found conditions were not quite right. Soon, everyone will be moving again so watch out for the increased road activity during this busy planting season. When the weather warms up, and there is some rain, usually mushrooms start popping up. Taking a walk this past weekend, I was looking at the trees. Many trees are very slow putting on leaves. Upon further inspection, many trees appear to be dead. Not small trees, fairly large trees, anywhere from 6 to 18-inch diameter trees. Upon inspection, 9 large trees were dead out of 12 trees in a fence row. Two weeks ago, after walking through a woods, there were dead trees down everywhere. Having walked that woods several times, these were mostly new logs, not all old logs. The question is: What is killing my trees? The answer appears to be complicated. Maybe not just one factor, but several interacting factors. In the last several years, th...

  New University of Florida research shows that healthy plants with high levels of nutrients resist plant pests. As farmers get ready for spring planting, applying fertilizer enhances plant growth, yield, and reduces pests. Dr. Arnold Schumann outlines benefits certain nutrients give to plants to fight various fungus, bacteria, and viral diseases. In general, nutrient and pathogen relationships are quite complex. Pathogens (disease organisms) alter the plant’s ability to take up nutrients, how they transport them, how they are used etc. Often, pathogens damage the roots, stems, and leaves so that the plant cannot produce a crop. Sometimes pathogens tie up nutrients or damage the vascular system for moving nutrients around in the plant. Secondary infections often occur and sick plants attract insects that also damage the plant. Keeping plants healthy includes creating nutrient-rich food which is also beneficial for livestock and human health. Most people think of nutrients as plant...

  Recent soybean research by Dr. Rafiq Islam, Ohio State University shows benefits from using sulfur fertilization and small doses of aspirin or salicylic acid (SA, a fulvic acid) to increase soybean yields. Soybeans are planted on about 86.5 million USA acres. Yearly increases in soybean yields have been flat and with lower prices, farmers are looking for ways to get higher yields. Hot weather, drought, flooding and other environmental issues have caused soybean yields to stagnate. Dr. Islam used research funds from the Ohio Soybean Council to investigate salicylic acid (SA). SA helps crops tolerate drought and stress by more efficiently regulating stomatal closure (water loss from leaves), transpiration, and proline biosynthesis (an amino acid which helps proteins to form). By enhancing stress tolerance, SA could help improve soybean yields and quality under challenging conditions. Another growing concern for soybean cultivation is soil sulfur deficiency, due to reduced atmosph...

A new trend emerged at the CTTC conference last month. At least one third of presentations had soil health, regenerative farming, or cover crops in the title. A big change in farming practices started with soil and health and cover crops from 2010-2020, but that trend has slowed down. Was it just a fad? The last 3-5 years have been tough. Dry weather and volatile crop and input prices makes change difficult. Slowly, more research is being started and a new generation is interested in soil health and regenerative topics. More farmers and researchers are looking at the advantages and disadvantages of new farming techniques. Dr. Oslo Cotez, a new OSU cover crop and corn production specialist is researching this change. Dr. Cortez says the biggest problem with farmers planting cover crops is getting them seeded and established after harvest. He is actively researching farmers transitioning to no-till and cover crops. Dr. Oslo has set up several long-term field scale sites throughout Ohio....

Three years of national survey results have now been collected on farmers who no-till. No-Till farming magazine recently shared these 2nd half results. Farmers use a lot of different equipment, different brands, and different sizes. A major change has been the switch to larger corn planters. No-till and probably most farmers are switching to 16-row (40 foot) corn planters 31.2% up 3.9%, 24-row (18.2%) while 12 row planters have fallen from 28.4% to 23.7%. While farmers have less money to invest due to lower prices and weather concerns, equipment is always a major expense on every crop farm.  On no-till planter attachments, farmers use coulters out front (38.4%), row cleaners (67.6%), closing wheels (86.5%), seed firmer (64.2%), down pressure systems (57.5%), pop-up fertilizer applicators (31.5%), and 2” X 2” fertilizer placement (34.7%). On soybeans, narrow row (7-10” row spacing) are common in the East but less common in the South and West. About 54.2% of farmers use 15-inch rows...

      Three years of national survey results have now been collected on farmers who no-till and use cover crops. No-Till Farming magazine shared these results recently. Around 80.5% of all no-till farmers use cover crops, which has been steady, although slightly less than the peak in 2023 at 83.2%. Weather—especially dry weather in the fall—and getting a crop established could be part of the reason for a slight decrease in cover crop acres. Also, as finances get tight, sometimes cover crop acres are easy to cut. Why do farmers use cover crops? The number one reason is still erosion control or prevention, followed by better soil biology and higher soil organic matter accumulation. The top three maximum benefits are still erosion prevention, followed by improved rainfall infiltration and then better soil biological activity. Higher yields and/or lower crop inputs were not in the top three, but often occur after numerous years of using no-till plus cover crops continuously. ...

  Last week, I presented some free Van Trump report information. Here’s a quick summary. Van Trump thinks interest rates, and the US Dollar will decline which should eventually help US commodity exports. Stock market: short-term unsteady, long-term Van Trump is bullish. On inflation, as energy production increases, expect both fuel prices and inflation to decline. Fuel and freight costs are around 25% of most cost of goods.  Van Trump offered some insight on the Generation Z. Most like to travel, like really good healthy food and they are willing to pay for it. Many do not want to buy a house and would rather rent to be free to travel. They tend to want the best of everything now, so many are broke. They like to work from home and do not want to physically go to work but overall; their job satisfaction tends to be low. They are not learning from their co-workers. That hurts productivity.   Van Trump expects that very soon artificial intelligence (AI) will take over m...

  Many farmers subscribe to the (Kevin) Van Trump Report. Last week, Kevin and I were in Peoria, Illinois, speaking. Here’s a free summary of Kevin’s thoughts on the farm economy. First, Kevin came from a small Missouri farming community. He worked as an NFL football assistant coach. He’s a big (large) man with a huge personality! He’s fun and mostly optimistic about agriculture. Then he started working at the Chicago Board of Trade buying and selling commodities. He was successful. Why? One, he is easy to see and notice (large frame, booming voice). Two, his colleagues said he had an unfair advantage. Since he came from a farming community, he knew how farmers thought and had many farming friends. However, he also knew many capital investors (NFL owners, coaches, doctors, lawyers, bankers, etc.). He knew how to trade both sides. The following is what Kevin Van Trump thinks, good or bad. On tariffs , there are tons of unknowns, but he thinks something needs to be done. Too many...

Dr. Jodi DeJong-Hughes has been doing strip till research in Minnesota for the past 20 years, comparing it to conventional tillage practices on both corn and soybeans. She says the two most common questions farmers ask are, “Does strip till allow my soils to warm up and dry out in the spring?” and, “Will crop yields suffer (decrease) with strip till?” Dr. DeJong-Hughes has set up her research trials to test these farmer assumptions. On strip till, about a 6-inch area where corn or soybeans are planted is tilled, either in the fall or spring. In standard 30-inch rows, about 80% (24 inches) remains no-till, with about 20% (6 inches) tilled. The benefits of strip till in corn include reduced soil erosion, improved soil structure, and better water infiltration. In a four-year study in Minnesota, known for its shorter growing season and colder spring soils, Dr. DeJong-Hughes tested sandy, silt-clay, and clay loam soils, taking weekly soil moisture and temperature readings. She compared stri...

  Roundup (chemical name glyphosate) is the most commonly used herbicide in the world. However, due to weed resistance and human health concerns, its days may be numbered. How will farmers control weeds chemically if this product is gone? The following is a highly technical summary of herbicide alternatives to using Roundup (common name) or glyphosate. One reason glyphosate was so popular was because crops like corn and soybeans were inserted with genetically modified genes that allowed the plant to survive the chemical application. Several crops now have genetically modified genes for various herbicides. The problem is that none are quite as good as glyphosate, either due to performance or lower cost. However, there are some options. Burndown chemicals are used at the beginning of the growing season to kill the first flush of weeds. Weeds compete with the main grain crop for moisture and nutrients. Killing weeds early is the best strategy. However, often cool soil and air temperat...