News from Your Federated Agronomists | May 14, 2019

Nature Teases, Soils Stay Cool “Mother nature teased us back in April with some warm, sunny 70-degree days,” said Mike Slater, Federated agronomy sales rep at the Isanti location, and then came more cold nights and rains in late April and early May, highlighting the need to choose the right hybrids. “Hybrids with better emergence scores typically handle wet and cold soils better,” said Slater. Choose those hybrids unless temperatures have reached ideal temperatures... Read more.

Factor ® : Nitrogen’s Insurance Against the Wrong Weather It’s raining plenty now, but when it comes time to side dress nitrogen (N), rain may not be in the forecast. Ron Paulson, Federated agronomist at the Isanti location, calls Factor ® , a urease inhibitor, “a good insurance policy; if it doesn’t rain, you’ll still be protected.” Factor protects the N in applications of urea or UAN for 14 days. “ If you don’t use an inhibitor such as Factor, in 14 days you can lose up to 34% of the N [if it doesn’t rain],” said Paulson, adding that “half an inch of rain will incorporate the N” but the rain doesn’t always fall on time... Read more.

Scouting Fields Isn’t Optional. And Start Early. “Field scouting has become even more important than in the past,” said Rod Gustafson, Federated’s ag and bulk fuel center manager. Early post-emerge scouting is an excellent opportunity to see how well the corn or soybean planter did: Are there missing plants? Is planting depth even? How consistent is plant spacing? Then, it’s essential in these days of resistant weeds to “scout fields before spraying to identify the weeds that are tolerant to glyphosate... Read more.

Halex ® GT for the Fight Against Broadleaf Weeds, Grasses Once the planting and pre-emerge herbicide applications are complete, it’s time to consider strong post-emerge products: Halex ® GT (a Syngenta ® product) controls 90 broadleaf weeds and grasses, with long-lasting residual control. “With its three modes of action, Halex GT is a great defense on weed resistance,” said Craig Peterson, Federated agronomist at the Ogilvie location, and it can be a good fit...  Read more.

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