By MARK BERNARD
Staff Writer
Harvest 2023 is history for most and like last year, brought about far better than anticipated yields especially on the corn side. Uncertainty was the name of the growing season until harvest began. Soybean yields were respectable in most cases but not generally on a par with 2022. Corn yields surprised a lot of us. One was in amazement once yields began to trickle in. Where did the yields come from given the rainfall that just never seemed to come in July and August?
We made the most of what we had for moisture. We went into the winter last fall very dry. Winter started early and we received about the usual amount of snowfall. However, the frost depth remained shallow or nonexistent where the ground was snow-covered throughout much of the winter. The snowfall also contained a higher-than-normal moisture content. When the opportunity was there for the snow to melt and seep into the soil, that’s exactly what it did. The snow cover was gone in mid-March and even though precipitation for March and April was below normal, it added enough moisture to get the crop out of the blocks in good shape. Warm temps in mid-April had everyone giddy. A few planted corn prior to that and were rewarded, this time. The temps turned cold and rainfall after that delayed planting into the first week in May.
Most made great headway and were done planting corn when the rain started the afternoon of May 5th. Depending on location, much of the area received between 6” – 14” of rain over a ten-day period. Large areas of corn were underwater where the rainfall ponded. Some of the soybeans that were planted suffered a similar fate. By the end of May, anywhere from 20% - 25% of the corn had to be replanted. What appeared to be a nice start similar to last year had suddenly deteriorated into a potential crop insurance claim. Or had it?
Rainfall for the months of June, July and August was substantially below normal, more than 3” below normal for June and July and about 1.5” below normal for the month of August at the SROC in Waseca. We did receive some spotty rains from August 7th – 14th although it appeared the small pods that were setting up top on the soybean plants were aborting as the month wore on. Corn was showing some tip back which wasn’t surprising given the rainfall. Fortunately, as happened last year, while we ran into some stretches of hot days, their duration wasn’t as lengthy as it could’ve been. Also like last year, we generally didn’t have extreme wind with the heat. Were we still in the game or had we missed too many rains at critical times?
While our growing season precipitation had been very hit and miss, there were some positives to it as well. Where and when rain did fall, there were once again long intervals between the significant rainfall events. This means less favorable conditions for foliar disease development in both corn and soybeans. There was some spotty appearance of sudden death syndrome in soybeans, but many had treated their seed for it after being stung in 2022. Same as last year however, most were wringing their hands over tar spot in corn after being bombarded all winter with horror stories from primarily the “I States”. And, same as last year, there was considerably more tar spot locally affecting coffee shops and social media than there was in area corn fields.
Our GDU accumulation for the growing season was again well above normal. At Waseca, the growing season (May – September) GDU accumulation was 2932.5 or 17% above normal, making it the 4th warmest growing season on record. The first frost was October 10th. This was crucial particularly for those who had replanted especially when they stuck with some of the closer to full season corn hybrids. Some of the early planted, early maturity corn reached physiological maturity and was harvested as early as September 9th. Stalks were questionable on those fields, so it made sense to pick it. Corn kept maturing about on schedule. We had a slight harvest delay due to some substantial rains September 22nd – 28th. The silver lining was that unlike last year, we suddenly had some soil moisture to work with for both fall tillage and for the 2024 crop. October added more moisture to the soil profile for us to play with next season.
So how did this growing season turn out for most after the devastating May rainfall? On the early soybeans, yields were reported as high as the low to mid 70 bu./acre range with most falling in the 60 – 65 bu./acre area as the harvest season progressed. Not on a par with the previous two growing seasons perhaps but still far better than many imagined after missing out on some desirable August rains to finish. Did the soybean size and weight compensate for the lack of rainfall at a perceived critical time? Hard to say but It appeared once again that estimating soybean yields is best done with the combine.
Corn basically followed a “high ground/dry ground – low ground/wet ground” formula. Where water had ponded, it apparently was early enough that not much denitrification or leaching had occurred. Why not? Soil temps remained cool much of April and May, slowing conversion of ammonium nitrogen to nitrate. There was also more moisture left in the low ground from that excess rainfall during the critical parts of the crop’s development. Yields for corn planted on last year’s soybean ground ran well above expectations, especially after the blast furnace August 22nd – 24th during this year’s Pro Farmer Crop Tour and an encore performance September 3rd – 6th. The crop appeared to have given up. Or did it? Appearances can be deceiving.
Corn yields were coming in well over 200 bu./acre field average which seemed incredible considering the warm growing season and lack of rainfall. Low areas of fields and peat ground had yield monitors showing some 300 bu./acre areas. What was even more incredible was some of the replant corn actually yielded as well and in some cases better than the initial planting. That wasn’t surprising in some instances where there wasn’t anything left after the initial planting. Even in areas where the crop was sufficient to leave, some reported better yields in adjacent areas where they’d replanted. That might not have been the case had it froze about mid-September. Harvest moisture too was surprisingly dry considering the planting date. Well above normal temperatures in September and October dried the corn down rapidly, particularly with the unheard-of 90+ degree highs October 1st & 2nd.
To sum up, solid soybean yields, and fantastic corn yields for the conditions were the name of the game for the 2023 harvest. Corn and soybean prices are down but so are fertilizer prices. Cash grain farmers can definitely exhale after being on edge for much of the growing season. Soil moisture conditions are much improved over a year ago at this time. The long, warm fall allowed operators to finish fall work in a timely fashion and finish many projects they’d only dreamed of with 6” of snow on the ground last year. 2023 proved we could still raise a pretty decent crop sans timely rains if we had enough stored soil moisture to carry us and temperatures that moderated. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.