Monday, April 3, 2023

Research Update (April 3, 2023)

Research Update (April 3, 2023)

Diligence Technologies Inc., West Tennessee

EVENTS FROM THE PAST MONTH:

Spring must be here for real.  Meeting season is past, wheat is growing, and burndown trials are being sprayed.  We even managed to plant the first soybeans of the year last week.  As we get deeper into the month of April, we hope to plant our yielded corn trials and get the year going in earnest.  Mostly, it just feels good to be back in the field.

 

CROPPING SEASONS:

If the weather allows, we hope to start marking out yielded corn trials this week and beginning the majority of our corn planting the second week of April.  From there we will roll into cotton planting as the weather warms up.

We are currently spraying burndown trials as weeds (largely ryegrass and horseweed) reach the desired growth stages.  We still have a few burndown sites available if you need to slide something in at the last minute.

Wheat growth is accelerating as we have more warm days and it will not be long before we will be preparing for flag leaf and heading fungicide applications.  We did have some freezing weather within the last few weeks, but our wheat was small enough that it appears to have escaped any damage.

 

GREENHOUSE ACTIVITIES:

Greenhouse activity is beginning to slow as we finish off trials started over the winter.  We still have a few more sprays to make and ratings to take, but we should have most things wrapped up by the end of the month.  Many thanks to all those that sent greenhouse trials our way to help keep us going through the cold months.

 

WEATHER INFO:

The rain has been fairly consistent, and the temperatures have been quite variable.  For several weeks now we have been getting a day or two of rain each week.  While we will be begging for that in July, it has made it difficult to conduct pre-season spraying and tillage operations.  As usual, it will be a bit of a scramble to get all the fields in shape prior to planting.  We have had several warm and sunny days along with several others where we needed to dig out the coats.  If history is a good teacher, April will be just as variable on the temperature side.

 

PEST INFO:

The usual suspects are in the field for burndown trials (horseweed, ryegrass, chickweed, poa, etc.) right now.  Horseweed emergence appeared to be on the late side this spring but the populations were strong when they showed up.  Aphids have been light in our wheat plots so far.  Most other things will not get fired up until we get a little deeper into the season.

 

We want to welcome William McGuire to the family.  Will is a recent graduate of the University of Tennessee at Martin and joined us earlier in the month.  Please make sure to meet him on your visits to the farm this season.

Many thanks to those who have sent us protocols for the upcoming season.  If you still have trials to place or have something pop up at the last minute, please let us know.  We will be glad to help.

Tim, John Louis, Jake, Will, & Jim

 

Proverbs 12:27

… the substance of the diligent man is precious.