By now, you will all have gone through the exercise of planting a crop, puzzling over what to treat it with to control those pesky weeds and worried about what it will be worth later. That is, unless you are still hung up about how you are going to pay for all the inputs, how much hail insurance you are carrying, the "new" bug that is out there this year, and whether your spouse is actually going to run the truck for you this fall. She (or he) still doesn't quite believe you that the new canary seed is actually itchless.
Rule # 1 comes into play at this time of the year. You remember it very well about halfway through seeding, don't you?; (Residue management starts at the back of the combine). If you don't have a chaff spreader, maybe this is a good time to think about getting one, or at least making one that stands a chance of working. If you are going for one of the type that is hydraulically driven, try to plumb it into the back side of a fluid driven, knife or reel, so you have a ready made and cheap indicator that possible plugging will show up. The wrong place to connect is to the header height system, because that essentially stops the spin when you adjust the header, and as a farmer who did just that found out, constipation of a rotary machine from the back (due to a plugged spinner) can be very costly.It is also important to carefully control the height of the stubble left, if you intend to seed directly into this field next spring, depending on the shank spacing on your seeder. Anchored stubble can often be about the same as the shank spacing and if the straw and chaff are well spread, can be 2 or 3 inches taller than the shank space. Remember, you may be able to move some straw around with heavy harrows (if the straw is dry), but you can never move chaff. Chaff is often the cause of diagnostic troubles the next year, when it comes to considering disease causes and volunteer grain control problems. Spreading the straw evenly over as much of the width of cut as possible has long been considered the norm.
Rule #2 is always considered in any good management unit in these days of limited profit margins and error controlled operations. (It's rotations - remember?).Think about what you are going to plant on every field next year before you harvest this years' crop and you will likely end up with far less problems and definitely a lot less surprises.
Broadleaf crops go on grassy crop stubble and vice-versa. It is incumbent on every farmer these days to produce as much crop profitably as possible on the acres that are operated. An improper sequence of crops can lead to disasters of monumental proportions, when you forget which crop protection product you used on a particular field last year, and you wind up losing an entire field due to herbicide residue or a forgotten disease incidence. Rotations can often be a money saving plan when utilizing inoculated pulse crops followed by cereal type crops, realizing the savings made possible through the extra nitrogen left by the pulse crop.
Rotations also mean a change in herbicides, to enable you to get away from using the same group each and every year, and some even give you an added benefit of having a slight residual for the next years' crop. Anything that can help on the input bill next year is always welcome. Rotations can also mean timing in seeding a field. If you seed the same field first in order each year, you will give the advantage to the competing weed populations, because they think they have you fooled. This eventually will lead to a certain species of weed always present in that field, because you have eliminated most others. Field diagnostic walks will show this single weed species very often, and the farmer will not likely know why.
Rule # 3 is the seed factor. Be aware of the quality of the seed you are currently using and plan to use for next springs' seeding. A germination test is always the minimum that should be done on a sample of cleaned seed. Pedigreed seed purchased on a regular basis is always a good investment, and assures you of a quality crop as it emerges. What the crop turns out like from that point onwards is now in your management hands. And the result should be very carefully evaluated before you consider it for any further growing . If you know, or suspect a disease incidence in your field, plan not to use the production for a seed source, because it is usually far more expensive to try and cure a problem after you notice it than to take preventative action before hand.Rule # 4 My advice is to keep careful notes on each field day-by-day throughout the year and be sure to include things like the temperature, wind strength and direction especially on spraying days.The field notes are always a help even 2 or 3 years later, when you need to know if you used a certain product and at what strength, and what the results looked like as soon as you noticed them. Record seeding rates, dates, fertilizer used, crop products used, results, and estimated yields initially on harvesting, which can later be confirmed. Make notes of weed patches in the fields or unusual conditions as you observe them, because a note is always better than a memory. The new GPS systems are really nothing more than a big electronic notebook.
Here is your most valuable tool when it comes to evaluating what you did, whether it paid off, and for how much, and what are the best options you employed for the most economic yield and profit. A simple shaving of herbicide rates might seem expedient at the time, versus a high end input experience, but at the end of the day, you can say with finality "I should have done it this way, or I wish I had done it all the other way."
You get the picture.
Rule # 5 Consult an acknowledged Ag. expert anytime you would like to know more about what is actually happening out there. They are, for the most part, always willing to help you find the answers to dilemmas. If they are not willing to help, well then it is time to find another one. You get to build up a trust after a while, and you will soon know whom you can depend on for sound advice that you need, and when you need it.I know that it is hard to think of seeding when your mind is bent on harvesting with all its pitfalls and particulars, but keep the notebook handy, and try to think seeding and what do I need to do to help me next year. Happy harvesting.