Agronomy Managers Predict Successful Planting Season

Farmers across the United States have experienced far from adequate weather conditions in the last couple of planting seasons. Many farmers struggled to choose between replanting the same acres over and over again, or giving up and letting crop insurance take over.

“We’ve had an interesting couple seasons. Obviously 2019 was a disaster for just about everybody,” said Mark Jeschke, agronomy manager at Pioneer.

The United States Department of Agriculture Crop Production 2019 Summary reported that corn production was down 5 percent and soybean production was down 20 percent in terms of bushels compared to the year prior. The next planting season did not prove to be much better.

The 2019 and 2020 planting seasons were a huge disappointment to farmers all over that found themselves fighting the same fight two years in a row.

Former Pioneer agronomy manager Brewer Blessitt reported that farmers in his area were a month and a half late planting corn last year.

“Normally we would plant corn in March where I’m standing right now and last year on the first week of June was the first time we got corn planted in the field,” said Blessitt.

Agronomists and farmers are hopeful that 2021 will be the year that Mother Nature redeems herself. So far, the planting season has seemed to start off on the right foot and weather conditions have been satisfactory.

Mary Gumz, another agronomy manager at Pioneer foresees good fortune for the 2021 planting season.

“My gut feeling is we are going to go into planting season a little bit dry and if these weather patterns that we’re having right now hold, it's going to be an early and somewhat fast planting season,” said Gumz.

While southern states already have most of their crops in the ground, farmers in the northern region are eager to roll out their planters soon if they haven’t already.

Blessitt, who lives in northern Mississippi, reported that corn, soybeans and rice are already in the ground in the southern region. This is good news for the northern states, which will likely experience similar conditions.

“While a lot of people say it doesn’t work like this, my experience is there’s not a whole lot of difference from south to north. If you get a good start in the south, you’ll end up with a good start as you move north,” Blessitt said. “Personally I think we are already off to a better start than years past.”

Jeschke, Blessitt, and Gumz were all recently featured in the 2021 Planting Guide by Granular and Pioneer.

The Planting Guide served to debunk three planting myths: always plant corn before soybeans, seeding rate doesn’t need to vary much from year to year, and corn planted shallow will emerge faster, driving higher-end yield.

The three agronomy managers worked alongside data and graphs to reveal the truth behind each one of these myths. However, Jeschke can’t conclude that he would refer to them as myths.

“I don't know how much those are myths necessarily that need to be debunked so much as a way that you could think about this that maybe you haven’t before,” said Jeschke.

Myth or not, Jeschke denies it holding any truth.

“In the midwest, farmers generally plant corn first. On our farm, we plant corn before beans. There's a reason people do that,” said Jeschke, “It's not like we're advocating some massive paradigm shift here that you should plant your beans before your corn, but that getting the beans in the ground earlier might be more beneficial yield-wise than you would have thought.”

Gumz shared that the formulation of the myth likely derived from a former popular opinion concerning soybeans.

“Up until about 15 years ago, soybeans were the other crop. You put all your effort into your corn, you did corn right and then you started in on soybeans. If you look at soybeans, we've really increased the rate of genetic gain on yields per year quite a bit since 2012,” said Gumz.

Farmers are now starting to prioritize their soybeans alongside their corn, which has helped them discover that they too produce higher yields when planted early.

Blessitt interjected that myths such as these are common in the agriculture industry.

“In farming, convenience can sometimes be a mask for truth. Sometimes all it takes is for someone to say something really catchy for it to stick and spread,” Blessitt said.

Blessitt recalls a time in which he watched a myth about planting season form and spread firsthand. When a farmer began telling people that gray soybeans weathered better than red soybeans, it spread like wildfire.

“I heard it go around and I was walking around, evaluating plots and there was no merit to it whatsoever. Then consultants started saying it and then researchers jumped on and said there was never any difference,” said Blessitt. “I really believe that in agriculture, sometimes that's all it really is. Somebody, somewhere, said something really catchy and that kind of thing stuck.”

Gumz encourages farmers to refer to research conducted by land grant universities and seed companies to avoid falling victims to these types of myths.

“Sometimes with the seed companies it's like, “Oh you guys just want to sell seed.” Well yes, we do want to sell seed. That's why we exist. But we want you to make as much money as possible planting our seed,” said Gumz.

On the other hand, Blessitt reminds farmers of their “pocket agronomist” or smartphone where they can get all of the data they need at their fingertips.

“I work as a professional agronomist and we joke all the time that these iPhones are going to take our jobs,” Blessitt said with a laugh.

Jeschke commented on the constantly changing environment of the agriculture industry, in which you have to anticipate that data will evolve.

“Factors and conditions in the industry continue to change and just recognize the fact that you can’t necessarily continue to do things in perpetuity and get the same result. Seek out good sources of information, there’s certainly a lot out there. You've gotta sift through and really find the stuff backed by research,” said Jeschke.

Straying away from myths and doing research are two important things for farmers to keep in mind this planting season among their extensive to-do list.

“You get one opportunity to plant right. So go through your planter, have the field ready, watch for the conditions for the next few days and just don't get in a hurry,” said Blessitt.

Gumz added to patience being an important factor in a successful planting season.

“So many times we worry about early planted corn doing better so we want to plant as early as possible, but the other things have to be right also. If you're planting early but you’re also planting into a too wet seed bed, you're gonna lose all those gains from planting early,” Gumz said.

On the other hand, it can become easy to lose sight of the little things when focusing on the big picture.

“Just pay attention to doing the little things well leading up to planting season,” said Jeschke, “like just really maintaining the planter and replacing discs when they’re worn, getting a proper seed bed and then paying attention once the seeds in the ground to see how it’s doing.”