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One of the founding pillars of Crop-Tech Consulting is integrating a systems approach to farming. Crop-Tech is continually adding to their expertise and services. To aid in this process, CTC conducts over 150 test plots every year and works in conjunction with Farm Journal to gather research data on the industry’s equipment, practices, and technology. The Boots in the Field Report features Crop-Tech Consulting agronomist Ken Ferrie. He will keep you up-to-date by describing what he is seeing ...
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Episode 338: Boots In The Field Report July 8, 2024
21:31
21:31
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21:31
During the roundtrip from Heyworth, Illinois to Northeast Iowa and back, the area affected by heavy rains was larger than Ken was expecting to see. In this week’s Boots In The Field Report he gives a recap of the field conditions along the route, covers tar spot considerations and reminds the pest boss to be scouting for silk clippers and rate root…
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Episode 337: Boots In The Field Report June 17, 2024
11:33
11:33
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11:33
Ken talks hail replant, no-tilling beans after wheat to conserve moisture, ugly corn phase and carbon penalty locking up some beans, need for doing stand evaluations now to document cause of uneven stands, rootless corn, nitrate loss, and water hemp out of control on this week’s Boots In The Field Report.…
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Episode 336: Boots In The Field Report May 30, 2024
9:23
9:23
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9:23
In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers planting progress, replant reports, stand evaluations, sidedressing information and predictions of the ugly corn phase. He also gives his perspective on the wind and water erosion we have seen this spring.
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Episode 335: Boots In The Field Report May 22, 2024
9:08
9:08
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9:08
Planting is nearing a close for most operations, but the jobs of the pest scout are just getting rolling. Ken covers what they should be on the lookout for in this week’s Boots In The Field Report. Scouts should be evaluating corn fields for crusting issues and dust storm damage and soybeans for crusting and PPO damage to make hoeing and replanting…
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Episode 334: Boots In The Field Report May 9, 2024
6:52
6:52
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6:52
Ken Ferrie walks through considerations for planting strategies for this time of year and field moisture conditions in this week’s Boots In The Field Report. Since the window for pre-solstice flowering has passed, focus for planting switches to getting the corn in the ground. Areas that have bathtub rings might need a strip freshener to open up tho…
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Episode 333: Boots In The Field Report April 30, 2024
6:15
6:15
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6:15
How well or long seeds will survive underwater depends on many factors including hybrid/variety type, seed quality, how far along the crop is, and temperature. In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie walks through steps to take as fields dry out including using drones/scouting to figure out how much replant seed might be needed, noting …
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Episode 332: Boots In The Field Report April 24, 2024
4:18
4:18
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4:18
After Thursday morning’s frost warning is through most of Central IL will be moving to a green light for planting corn and will hold most likely till the end of planting. Green light is in regards to temperature, if field moisture is too high, then growers have to wait for that to dry out first. Due to weather, several fields have a heavy cover of …
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Episode 331: Boots In The Field Report April 9, 2024
6:28
6:28
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6:28
With the predicted weather for Central IL, Ken gives a green light for full season beans on ground that is fit and sees a window for a possible green light for corn starting as early as this weekend. Ken fears some growers will grow impatient and work ground too wet to try to dry it out, creating season long compaction, or mud in corn. He also remi…
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Episode 330: Boots In The Field Report March 27, 2024
5:38
5:38
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As growers start to roll on planting early beans, Ken Ferrie walks through considerations for deciding when the right time for your operation is. Planting beans in March doesn’t show a large yield advantage over waiting to plant the first week in April but can provide some advantages for operations that only have the ability to plant one crop at a …
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Episode 329: Boots In The Field Report March 22, 2024
6:14
6:14
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Ken covers questions about using spring anhydrous strip-till or a Zone Builder when facing the possibility of a dry year. There are options that can make it safer but most of them require water. The drier it is or higher rates of anhydrous make for bigger risks of planting issues.
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Episode 328: Boots In The Field Report March 6, 2024
6:38
6:38
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Time spent on planters now can bypass a lot of headaches later and can keep farmers from jumping the gun on doing tillage passes before the ground is fit. A simple test is taking soil right below tillage depth, balling it up in your hand, and see if you can ribbon it. If it ribbons an inch or more, it will be a compaction layer not just a density c…
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Episode 327: Boots In The Field Report February 23, 2023
6:01
6:01
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In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie advises growers, if they haven’t gotten their wheat top-dressed, the window to get that on is closing fast. He comments, if tougher wheat stands are going to corn in case of a winter kill, he would still top-dress it, but if going to beans, might want to hold up on top-dressing. Due to Iowa’s drou…
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Episode 326: Boots In The Field Report February 13, 2024
8:42
8:42
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In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie answers the question of if freezing and thawing will take out a compaction layer and if it could actually make it worse. He also speaks with University of Tennessee State Specialist Ryan Blair on how the growing season went last year and about the expansiveness of the Extension system throughout T…
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Episode 325: Boots In The Field Report January 25, 2024
6:06
6:06
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6:06
In this week’s Boots in the Field Report Ken Ferrie answers some questions coming in from winter meetings: Will a spring or fall horizontal tillage pass put in more of a density layer?, Was it allelopathic toxins in the cereal rye ahead of corn that caused such a yield ding?, Will there be a cap to CI payments per farm operations?…
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Episode 324: Boots In The Field Report January 5, 2024
8:48
8:48
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8:48
In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie answers a question from a Beyond The Basics viewer from Southwest Ontario. The viewer was asking about nitrogen carryover in red clover, where is the best place to reduce nitrogen in the overall nitrogen program when using red clover, and does it pay to use a nitrogen stabilizer in that situation.…
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Episode 323: Boots In The Field Report December 21, 2023
9:23
9:23
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9:23
In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie shares his concern on the December 12th drought map for the “I” states and advises growers to close tile gates, if they haven’t already, to keep what water they have from getting away. He also answers the question from a Beyond the Basics viewer about how deep to pull samples in long term no-till …
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Episode 322: Boots In The Field Report December 4, 2023
16:42
16:42
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16:42
In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken talks with Jared Bergan about the stats from this year’s hybrid flex plot: hybrids added, operations and locations participating, record for highest and lowest kernels per bushel. Ken also answers a question from a Beyond The Basics viewer about how soil test values can be helpful in hybrid selection and…
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Episode 321: Boots In The Field Report November 22, 2023
7:54
7:54
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7:54
In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers the last of the Hybrid Ear Flex plots that came out this past week, hard pulling conditions, and considerations for growers contemplating going from narrow to wide row beans.
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Episode 320: Boots In The Field Report November 14, 2023
10:05
10:05
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10:05
In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie takes a peek into the results that came off the host of plots that came out last week, from N rate, planter fertility, corn nematode, fix/flex, to bean tillage and row spacing plots.
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Episode 319: Boots In The Field Report November 1, 2023
7:56
7:56
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7:56
The rain events are creating some delay for harvest and tillage work and but it also brought lower soil temperatures to get growers closer to safer anhydrous application conditions. While more often growers are concerned in dry falls about sealing for anhydrous, Ken Ferrie warns that too much moisture can create smearing from the knives, preventing…
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Episode 318: Boots In The Field Report October 20, 2023
7:49
7:49
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7:49
In this Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie covers harvest recaps getting called in. Fields that got that heavy rain in August have high ground out yielding low ground, beans that turned too quickly showing premature death from disease, and harvest loss proving to be an issue for some field conditions. Ken recaps the fungicide and insecticide plot…
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Episode 317: Boots In The Field Report October 13, 2023
7:46
7:46
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7:46
In this Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie reports on initial review of soybean plot data that came out this week. He advises that the research crew will have to look at a lot of variables: planting dates, varieties, maturities, row spacing, rainfall timing, rainfall amount, tillage, use of covers and more. While the data may vary widely this yea…
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Episode 316: Boots In The Field Report October 6, 2023
7:13
7:13
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In this week's Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie reports on harvest progress and recounts yields getting called in throughout IL and IA. Wide swings in yield not only throughout the state be in single fields. He also updates on lime shortages and replant bean plot results.
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Episode 315: Boots In The Field Report September 28, 2023
7:24
7:24
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7:24
Join us for this week’s episode of Boots in The Field Report with Ken Ferrie, where he provides a plot and harvest update that's both informative and timely. Ken dives into the ongoing issue of lime shortages that some growers are grappling with. Furthermore, Ken underscores the importance of keeping a close eye on harvest loss and the correct cali…
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Episode 314: Boots In The Field Report September 21, 2023
9:50
9:50
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9:50
In this week’s Boots In The Field report Ken covers why it is more important than usual this year to calibrate the yield monitor to make sure growers are capturing spatially accurate yield maps. These dry years can give clues to where perched water tables and sand lenses are located out in the field. Ken also advises harvest scouting teams to stay …
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