View From the Cab

Iowa, Florida Farmers Busy Applying Nitrogen to Fields

Richard Oswald
By  Richard Oswald , DTN Special Correspondent
This year's DTN View From the Cab farmers are Karen Johnson of Avoca, Iowa, and Jamie Harris of Madison, Fla. (DTN photo by Nick Scalise)

LANGDON, Mo. (DTN) -- Every farm has a formula for success -- a combination of products like crops, livestock, or even custom services, ensuring uninterrupted streams of revenue. At the heart of it all are people, like DTN View From the Cab farmers Karen Johnson of Avoca, Iowa, and Jamie Harris of Madison, Fla., adding to the bottom line of agriculture.

The Johnsons have been busy. It's calving time in Iowa. Karen and her husband, Bill, got their first calf on Sunday. Karen pointed out to DTN that it wasn't exactly a landmark moment in the family. "Jerod (Bill and Karen's youngest son) already has five," she said. During calving, Bill tags every calf and administers an illness-preventing anti-scour bolus as soon as it's born.

But there's one relatively new disease on the farm that medications won't cure: The computer caught a virus. "It's been a strange week," Karen said.

Other than that, there were tractor repairs, bills to pay, smoothing rough areas with a disc harrow, trimming back tree limbs along some field borders, and nitrogen applications to no-till corn fields. Karen explained, "We've gotten some rain and some snow. That has slowed us down. Bill got his touch-up discing done. Then it snowed about an inch that night."

Bill knifes liquid N, about 160 to 180 pounds per acre, into his no-till corn fields. Rain showers on Monday interrupted that again. He filled in part of the week by hauling some of last year's corn crop to the local ethanol plant near Council Bluffs, where rail car shortages have hampered ethanol product movement.

Corn markets have teetered between higher and lower. A recent USDA report surprised Karen by its lack of bearish bias. She feels there will be more uncertainty regarding corn supplies because of rain prospects and cool weather. Last week's snow may mean a late planting season. "We're in the second stage of drought here in southwest Iowa. We are quite dry. I'm expecting a real challenge," she said. Regardless of weather, the Johnsons won't be planting corn at least until their crop insurance start date of April 11.

On the subject of USDA reports and the farm bill, Karen feels Congress could have dug deeper to pass a better law. Better information for farmers on management practices and sustainability should be a goal, she said. Payment caps and crop insurance subsidies tied to conservation compliance could have supported smaller farms without offering more to large farms that don't need the help.

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The appearance of coordination through USDA reporting troubles her. "It seems they manipulate the report data to fit their needs," she told DTN. Is that tied to grain market speculation? There's too much of that already. And enforcement of antitrust laws seems lax, especially against large multinational businesses in control of food supplies. "These are two areas that need changes to help level the playing field for ag producers," she said.

Meanwhile, in Florida, Jamie had been wishing for rain, and got it. Storms passing through the area dropped 3.5 inches beginning late Monday. That'll help pave the way for completion of dryland corn planting where soil too dry for germination had slowed progress. "We've been dry for the last week," Jamie told DTN late Monday.

Current temperatures are running between 60-degree-Fahrenheit lows and 80-degree highs. That's a big change from winter. "We had an unusually cold winter here," Jamie said. Typical February temperatures are 40 to 70. It's not unusual for planting to begin then. "Nothing here ever goes dormant; it never stops growing," Jamie said. But this year, earlier-planted crops like oats were hurt by the cold.

Jimmy Harris Farms, the family farm Jamie shares with his father, Jimmy, and brother, Jarrod, has about 300 acres of dryland corn left to plant. If Jamie had it all his way, every acre would be irrigated. That's just not possible on some of his sandy rolling cropland. So establishing dryland crops like corn can be a delicate balancing act that involves timing planting with temperatures and rainfall. "Our soils will hold about 1.2 inches of rainfall without running off. One good rain will get a crop started," he said. But as temperatures warm, evaporation rates rise. Little rain combined with thermometer readings in the 90s offers a challenge. That's why Jamie likes to see soaking rain fall before he starts to plant.

Besides weather, another challenge to successful crop growing in sandy Florida soil is feeding crops through nitrogen application. Small-grain crops like Jamie's triticale, rye and oats call for multiple, light applications to limit N losses. Because N can move through soils so rapidly, first applications to these crops aren't made before March. Deeper-rooted corn is a different story. "One study says if you don't get over 2 or 3 inches at a time, N won't leach away from corn roots," he explained.

Final N applications have been made to triticale planted in mid-December. That crop will be harvest-ready in two or three weeks. Combine preparations are under way. Oats and rye planted a few weeks later will follow.

First-time N has been applied to half the sweet corn crop. Despite being frozen off twice, plant stands are uniform. That's important for harvest when ears must mature at the same rate so the entire field can be gathered at once.

Earliest-planted field corn in irrigated fields is ready for its initial N application through center pivot irrigators. Jamie has been setting up and filling tanks to prepare for that. Virtually all N is applied as liquid. It's been years since anhydrous ammonia was available. Florida demand for NH3 isn't as strong as in Corn Belt states, but the biggest problem is due to liability from methamphetamine makers who steal ammonia for the manufacture of illegal drugs.

Burndown herbicide applications to peanut fields using a tank-mix combination of glyphosate, 2,4-D and Valor, a pre-emerge herbicide to control wild amaranth, or pigweed, are finished. Pigweed is Jamie's greatest weed threat in peanuts. A second application of Valor will go down at planting along with 2x2 placement of starter fertilizer. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," he said. Planting should begin once soils have warmed more, probably in late April.

In addition to farming, Jimmy Harris Farms does custom spraying on 2,500 acres of cropland for a nearby 3,200-head dairy. In spite of hard times and low milk prices, some dairies survived. "We have a number of small dairies around here. They're still plugging away," Jamie told DTN.

Flood irrigation doesn't work on rolling cropland like Jamie's. And center pivots aren't appropriate in some fields. With irrigation being central to uniform crop production, a few farms have used drip tapes in small fields to supply water to growing crops. Jamie's blueberries are drip irrigated, and he'll be doing a pilot project with drip irrigation on a field of melons this fall.

Drip irrigation conserves water, delivering it closer to plant roots where it's needed. But it offers challenges, like plugging, in fine-textured sandy soils. It's also not practical on larger acreages where corn is grown. Center pivot irrigation is the method of choice there, but supplying injectors with liquid nitrogen and maintaining even the simplest machinery is time consuming.

"Once we start watering, it's a 24/7 deal," Jamie said, "I can't imagine it, but I wish we had them (irrigators) on every acre."

Richard Oswald can be reached at Talk@dtn.com

He can be found on Twitter @RRoswald

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Richard Oswald