View From the Cab

Heat, Humidity Pose Problems in Iowa, Florida

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

LANGDON, Mo. (DTN) -- From Florida to Iowa, no matter the crops they raise or how they tend their fields, farmers always have some things in common. That's the way it is for View From the Cab farmers Karen Johnson of Avoca, Iowa, and Jamie Harris of Madison, Fla., as summer temperatures start to heat up.

"I just took lunch to the field where Bill is windrowing hay and it is 95 degrees F. Much, much hotter than my comfort zone!" Karen told DTN late Sunday.

Temperatures fluctuate up and down. But rain and humidity seem to be in it for the long haul.

"It rained as soon as Bill got in and later rained some more -- very dark with thunder and hail. Tornados were sighted at Persia and Portsmouth. Harlan, 10 miles northeast of us, had some baseball-sized hail that broke out vehicle windows," Karen said. That was only the beginning of the week. Karen reported six tenths, Monday, June 30, with 3.9 inches of rain the following Saturday.

Karen and Bill have had some corn broken off by high wind and some hail damage. Their Federal Crop Insurance will cover wind and hail loss if yields are affected, but they also carry a supplemental policy through a private company for hail. Crop adjusters are finally supposed to come this week for hail losses sustained in early June. "They're so far behind because of hail and tornado damage over the whole western-Iowa area and so many different storms," she said.

Other damage at the farm isn't Mother Nature's doing. Someone bent the Johnson's mail box where it sits alongside the road. A deputy sheriff told them there had been a break-in at a farm nearby that same night. And muddy holiday revelers on a 4-wheeler and motorcycle tore up a road that Karen and Bill travel regularly. "That'll make the road super rough when it dries. Summer fun is OK only if it isn't destructive!" she said.

Testing pays in many ways. Samples of hay taken from some big bales that heated up last week have been taken to the lab for analysis. Bill wants to know if heating affects nutrient content. And the two big Limousin bulls that keep the Johnson's cows company were taken to a vet for semen testing. Muddy roads required some extra footwork on the return trip. "Dakota (Bill and Karen's grandson) and I met the (cattle) trailer down at the corner of the dirt road 1/2 mile south, and we helped walk the bulls up and over the hill on the dirt road to the pasture where the cows are," Karen explained.

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Cattle are at a good price. Bill and son Jerod visited Dunlap Livestock Auction in Dunlap, Iowa, where they saw cow/calf pairs bringing about $3,200. But it takes money to make money. Milk replacer to feed an orphan calf at the Johnson farm now costs about $60 a bag.

Maybe it's because they appreciate the effort required, or maybe just because, but the joy of good food is never lost on farmers. "Dakota and I went on a hunt for wild raspberries out in the far windbreak and ate them on the spot -- the berries were tasty!" Karen told DTN. Later in the week Karen and Bill visited Johnny's Cafe at the old stockyards in Omaha, for chicken fried steak and dark mushroom gravy. She and Bill have shared that eating spot in common for over 50 years. And following the July 4th parade in Avoca where granddaughter Ella rode the Girl Scout float, a parish picnic at Westphalia offered fried chicken prepared by a popular area caterer, Staleys of Charter Oak, Iowa. "There were several hundred if not a thousand people there," Karen said.

Seed fields planted for Remington Seeds have been mapped and the maps delivered to Remington Headquarters. Bill is still hauling corn to SIRE (Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy) where the price of corn has dropped below $4. Karen has one word for lower corn prices, "YIKES!"

Soybeans have been sprayed with a mix of glyphosate and Cobra that burns plants brown. But that's what it takes to kill glyphosate-resistant weeds these days. "The mix is known to brown beans but they are supposed to come out of it ... The old saying is, what doesn't kill you will you make you stronger," Karen said.

Florida has had its hot days as well. Jamie reported heat indexes up to 115 last week. "It was hot. Extremely hot," he told DTN late Monday. But evening showers in Florida's semi-tropical climate help knock the edge off afternoon heat. Toward the end of the week, afternoon highs dropped to lower 90s with morning lows in the 60s.

The plant where Jamie and his family partners at Jimmy Harris & Sons get gypsum for their peanut crop shut down over the 4th with about 300 acres left to cover. "Our week was cut short because they closed," he said.

What's a young single farmer to do on a hot summer holiday off? "I did some kayaking and fishing on the river with my girlfriend. Later we watched fireworks put on by the town of Live Oak, Fla.," Jamie told DTN.

A maturity check on corn fields shows earliest-planted corn might be ready for harvest in two weeks or so. Kernel milk lines are only about halfway down, but rust on plants is still actively shedding spores. At this point, treatment with a fungicide is out of the question. "It's one of those years no matter what you throw at it you're just throwing your money down the drain," Jamie explained. But with high heat and fast-drying sandy soil, regular irrigation is still a must. "We water up to black layer," he said.

It's getting close to time for planting iron clay peas. An 11-row, 15-inch Kinze planter is being prepared prior to starting. Start date is about 10 days away. Ground is prepared with a tandem disc. Then fertilizer will be applied, with another discing just prior to planting.

Double-crop soybeans have had their post-emerge herbicide treatments. A field with Roundup-resistant pig weed, about half the total acreage, was planted to a Liberty-tolerant soybean variety from PHB. Other fields rely on an older form of treatment. "We've got a crew lined up to walk five fields. We've gotta go through and pull the pig weeds," Jamie said. "We try to get them when they're about knee high." Jamie explained that doing nothing is not an option. Failure to control pig weed by allowing it to make seed only makes problems worse the following year. Perry Indigo, another problem weed, has been controllable so far with tank mixes of glyphosate and Cobra.

Soybeans haven't begun blooming yet, but peanuts have. Preventive fungicide treatments are underway on those along with a dose of Select post-emerge grass killer.

Three-cornered alfalfa leaf hoppers are showing up in soybeans where the stem burrowing sap suckers can do real damage. Treatment may be needed. But hoppers aren't the only critters that like soybeans. Deer have been a problem in one field where, under browsing pressure, 20 acres can just up and disappear. After evaluation, the state of Florida has issued a control permit. Fields with heaviest deer pressure are usually planted to peanuts instead. "The most peanuts we've ever lost were just 2 or 3 rows along a tree line," Jamie said.

Some Florida wildlife is more confrontational than others. Jamie discovered a bumble bee hive while mowing on an open tractor -- or maybe they discovered him. "One stung me on the elbow. I happened to look back and saw a black cloud behind me. I put the tractor up in road gear and got out of there," he said.

Richard Oswald can be reached at Talk@dtn.com

Follow Richard Oswald on Twitter @RRoswald

(CZ/SK)

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Richard Oswald