Field and Garden: Foster County weather and crop report

“It just keeps raining and raining,” a farmer remarked during our phone conversation ten days ago. “We had an inch and a half on Saturday, and then two-tenths of an inch on Monday and again on Tuesday.”

Most of our focus has been on the amount of rain (13.5 to 15.3 inches) Foster County has received this spring and summer. However, after my conversation with the farmer, I became curious about how often it has rained.

Checking the records from the Carrington NDAWN station, I discovered that we had measurable rainfall on 51 out of 112 days from April 1 to July 22.

Between May 14 and July 7, we never went more than three consecutive days without rain.

Fields haven’t had an opportunity to dry out between rainfall events. Drive around the county, and you’ll see that almost every field of corn and beans has significant areas where the crops have drowned out.

“In the best fields, I’ve probably lost five to ten percent of my crop,” one producer told me. “Losses are much greater in other fields.”

The good news is that warm weather has finally arrived, promoting rapid crop growth. The corn nearly doubled in height during the first two weeks of July. Some corn has finally reached or is very near to tasseling, and the soybeans are beginning to bloom.

The small grains look good. Wheat yields are likely to be above average, but grain quality is still uncertain.

The pastures in Foster County remain green and productive. Some ranchers have already taken a second cutting of alfalfa.

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Here’s a surprising fact: soybeans require as much or more nitrogen than corn.

Fortunately, approximately half of the nitrogen needed by soybean plants is provided by bacteria living inside nodules on plant roots.

Several factors can affect the formation of nodules, including soil moisture, salinity, compaction and plant disease.

Now is a good time for farmers to check nodulation on their beans. Healthy plants should have eight to 20 nodules on their root systems.

The nodules should be pink or red when cut open. If the nodules are mushy and brown, they are not fixing nitrogen.

If nodule numbers are low, then seed inoculation is recommended the next time soybean is planted in the field.

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Last month, I wrote about the testing NDSU weed scientists are conducting to measure herbicide resistance in kochia and pigweed.

Farmers and agronomists are invited to participate in the study by collecting samples of these weeds from their fields and submitting them to a laboratory for genetic testing.

There is no cost to those who send in samples. The expenses will be paid by several sponsors, including the North Dakota Corn Utilization Council and the North Dakota Soybean Council.

The test results will be sent directly to the person who submitted the samples, helping them better understand how to combat weed populations in their fields.

If you’d like to submit samples of pigweed or kochia for testing, please contact me at the Extension office (652-2581, [email protected]).