Weekly Ag Update
Weekly Field Crop IPM Report; By Ned Birkey, MSU Extension Educator Emeritus/ Spartan Agricultural Consulting; [email protected]; February 20, 2025
?The agricultural weather from the National Weather Service Climate Predication Center 8-to-14-day outlook for February 26 to March 4, 2025, updated February 18 is predicting a “slightly below” normal outlook for temperature and a “slightly above” normal chance for precipitation.? Meteorogical spring begins next week, while astronomical spring is less than one month from now.? Meteorogical spring is the season that includes March, April and May and is based upon the average monthly temperatures.? Astronomical spring, or the vernal equinox, begins March 20, 2025, at 5:01am EDT, and occurs when the sun shines directly over the earth’s equator, going south to north and providing equal amounts of sunlight in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.? FYI: Summer begins with the Summer Solstice on Friday, June 20 at 10:42pm EDT.
?61st Monroe County Ag Banquet and Monroe Conservation District annual meeting will be held jointly on Monday, March 10, 6:30pm at the Prince of Peace church, Ida, Michigan.? The keynote speaker will be Benjamin Wickerham, the Agriculture Program Director for the Michigan chapter of The Nature Conservancy.? Ben works with resource conservationists to find innovative solutions to overcome conservation adoption barriers.? Tickets for the annual dinner meeting cost $10 and are available at most Monroe County, and some eastern Lenawee County and southern Washtenaw County agri-businesses.? Back in the Day will cater for the event and there will be a drawing for door prizes and table favors will be sold by the MSU/ MCCC/ IAT Student Ag Club.? High School FFA members will be hosted free of charge by Greenstone Farm Credit Services of Monroe.
?Maximizing profits, maybe not maximizing yields may seem like a contradictory message until you think about added costs to achieve the last five to ten percent of the maximum yield potential.? 2025 may be a year to be a “low cost” farmer.? Many variable costs will not change much for profitable farms, who have lower costs, with the notable exception of dollars spent on synthetic fertilizer or biological fertilizer products.?? Nitrogen is the single largest fertilizer expense for corn farmers.? Several years of pre-sidedress nitrate nitrogen studies in Monroe County over the past 25+ years have shown that the highest rates of nitrogen never produced the highest corn yield while incurring the highest cost.? In soybeans, studies going back to 1994 consistently showed the highest seeding rates never produced the highest yields, even in soybeans drilled no-till in corn stalks.? Fewer plants, in uniform stands of soybeans, will have more pods, more pods per node and more branches with pods, instead of a lowly single stem.
?When to start vegetable seeds indoors is a question gardeners think about as March approaches, with longer daylight hours.? Starting seeds indoors, particularly for tender vegetables like tomatoes, eggplants and peppers, gives the plants a head start once the danger of frost has passed.? Tomatoes and peppers should be started indoors about 40 to 50 days before the frost-free date.? Cool season crops like radishes, peas, green beans, kale, onion, spinach, carrots can be planted or sown directly into outdoor garden soils or raised beds.? Seed packets or catalogs should give tips to speed up germination, or an ideal germination temperature, such as when using a heating pad or mat.? Adding grow lights may be a good investment to produce consistent full-spectrum light, better than even a south-facing window ledge.