Iowa, Arkansas, North Carolina farmers thankful for ‘million-dollar rain’

XtremeAg farmers Kelly Garrett, Matt Miles and Kevin Matthews obtain a break from the new and dry summer season with life-saving rains.

KELLY GARRETT – ARION, IOWA

A fifth-generation farmer, Kelly Garrett farms corn, soybeans, and winter wheat in western Iowa.

We began all our Netafim drip irrigation techniques final week for the primary time this 12 months. We had just a few minor startup issues with a few of the pumps, however Kurt Grimm and the individuals at NutraDrip have been ready get issues going with just a few tweaks.

We irrigate with our drip, however maybe extra importantly, we use it to fertigate our crops on the root zone. The flexibility to get vitamins on to the plant in a matter of hours with simply the flip of a change has confirmed to be a key element to driving excessive yields.

We’re conducting just a few fascinating trials this 12 months, together with one with NutraDrip, Agricen, Netafim and Iowa State College. We are attempting to find out if delivering stress mitigation merchandise via the rootzone may have the identical impact as a foliar software. If we decide that we are able to successfully cut back crop stress utilizing our drip irrigation techniques, it could be a sport changer for us.

It’s been sizzling and dry for the previous couple of weeks and our dryland acres have been exhibiting stress. Fortunately, we acquired near an inch of rain over the weekend. One other million-dollar rain on the proper time.

MATT MILES – MCGEHEE, ARKANSAS

Matt Miles is a fourth-generation farmer in southeast Arkansas who grows corn, soybeans, rice, and cotton.

We at all times speak in regards to the “million-dollar rain.” We had 100% of our irrigation pumps turned on Sunday once we acquired wherever from 0.5 to 1.5 inches of rain. It made me take into consideration what the true worth of that rain is with the value of diesel as excessive as it’s.

So, I did some calculations on the price of electrical and diesel and used information from earlier years to find out that we spend round $51,000 per day to run our irrigation pumps. This doesn’t embrace labor price (which may be very intensive with in-furrow irrigation), or the damage and tear on the tools. For those who determine that our corn and beans are each utilizing about 1/3 inch of water per day at this stage, then it’s secure to say that the rain we had saved us a minimal of $100,000 for the two days that we didn’t must pump.

Our corn is now on the R3 stage and all our beans besides the double crop beans are at R5 with our February beans being just a little forward at R6. We hope to terminate irrigation on the February beans by the center of subsequent week with the prospect of harvesting them in July. It would sound loopy, however we’re serious about attempting to plant corn behind these harvested beans. Keep tuned.

KEVIN MATTHEWS – EAST BEND, NORTH CAROLINA

Kevin and his spouse, Cindy, personal and function Matthews Household Farms of North Carolina, Inc., Precision Nutrient Administration, Inc., and Deep Creek Grain, Inc. in East Bend and Yadkinville.

We acquired some much-needed rain over the previous couple of days. Protection was spotty with just a few areas lacking out, nevertheless it was a life saver for many of our fields because it has been sizzling and dry right here for the final month.

Our corn is beginning to pollinate so we hope for cooler climate and a few extra frequent rains over the subsequent month. We’re placing out our Veltyma fungicide later this week as we’re beginning to see some indicators of grey leaf spot low in within the cover. We farm in a excessive illness strain atmosphere, so not a 12 months goes by the place we aren’t combating off one thing.

We’re tarting to conduct XtremeAg trials of some merchandise from Spraytec which might be designed to reinforce motion of merchandise into the vegetation via foliar functions. We’re within the second half of the season, and we are actually specializing in repairing drought stress on the crop. Now we have seen a whole lot of success with merchandise like End Line from Nachurs to mitigate any stress harm and provides the crop sufficient of a lift to get it to the top of the season.