Posted April 11, 2024 | By: Nutrien Ag Solutions

Join Tyler Richardson, Crop Consultant at Nutrien Ag Solutions on This Week in AgriBusiness as he talks to Mike Pearson about planting progress, ideal soil temperatures for corn and soybean planting as well as when to time your planting.

Episode Transcript:

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Welcome back to This Week In AgriBusiness. According to the USDA's First Crop Progress report released last Monday, 2% of the U.S. corn crop is in the ground, and that's a number that's going to be climbing quickly in the coming weeks, which makes this a perfect time to kick off a new series, Agronomy for your Acres, with our friends from Nutrien Ag Solutions.

Joining us this week is Tyler Richardson. He's a Crop Consultant down around Brookfield, Missouri. And Tyler, producers are getting antsy to get in the field, but what are the ideal soil temps you recommend for corn and soybean planting?

 So, the baseline soil temperature would typically be 50 degrees. That's where we like to start. That's what we consider acceptable. The closer we start heading towards 60, 65 and 70, that's what really gives us a good chance to get that crop flying up out of the ground and off to a good start. Currently here today, our soil temperature is 40, the 24-hour average has been 45.

So we're a little ways off, but the 10-day forecast looks good. I think we'll be trending upward into the mid-fifties, around 60 probably by the middle of next week. So things are headed in the right direction and guys will be able to pull the trigger.

That's right. Pull the trigger. The question is, if the weather's getting iffy, do you pull the trigger, plant a little early, Tyler, or is it best to wait until the soil conditions are right?

So every year we kind of keep looking for a silver bullet answer to that question. I think you've got to take a good look in the mirror at your operation and what your goals are. You know, what tillage practices you implement, do you have a cover crop strategy, what crop are you planning first? And, you know, as equipment starts getting bigger, it takes less and less time.

 We can cover more acres. How long is it going to take you to plant your crop? You can plant your corn crop in five days and your soybeans in six to seven and you want to be done by May 20th. Now, we've got almost 40 days in there that there will probably be a better window come along. So we want to get current crop prices and input pricing.

We want to give ourselves the best chance to maximize our ROI when we're all in this crop field in the fall.

Absolutely. If you're going to do it, do it right. Tyler, seed selection, how can that impact growers decisions during this time period?

Yeah, so it goes back to what crop are you planting first, you know stand establishment corn is really, really crucial. It's probably one of the most important factors in success coming with riding the combine. You know, you can look at other things. What's that seed’s early tolerance to seed borne diseases. What's its early vigor and emergence look like? You know, when we have to go into these less-than-ideal conditions, you know, if it's good enough to go but not ideal, I start looking towards products like 55VC80 Dyna-Gro. That corn just flies out of the ground and establishes itself better than about anything else I've got my portfolio so it's kind of a tried-and-true option whenever I start looking at these tough soil conditions. So certainly seed selection has a big play and can help guide you in the right direction of what decision to make.

 It certainly can. All of those ingredients need to come together for a successful planting season. Be sure to keep track of what's happening with Agronomy for your Acres. Tyler Richardson, Nutrien Ag Solutions. Thank you so much for joining us this week. Thank you. And folks, you can keep up to speed and learn more at NutrienAgSolutions.ca