Apr 24, 2019 | Agronomy, Newsletters
by Matt Hagny It seems to be the latest trend amongst the Regenerative Ag folks to stop using seed-applied fungicides for fear of what they might be doing to the soil ecology, particularly mycorrhizae (see my previous newsletter on this —my agronomy consulting is dba...
Apr 8, 2019 | Agronomy, Newsletters
by Matt Hagny Soybeans into cc oats in central KS, seeded with a JD 1560 drill with upgraded seed boots (90-series), SDX firming wheels, Thompson closing wheels. We tend to be rather complacent about soybean stand uniformity—non-uniform distance between plants as well...
Apr 3, 2019 | Newsletters, Planter Setup
by Matt Hagny If you have new blades on a Deere planter with the depth mechanism set as shown in this photo, the furrow being cut should be 2” deep consistently. If it’s less than that, you don’t have enough downforce on the row unit. (For corn, sunflowers, and...
Apr 2, 2019 | JD 50/60/90/Pro-series drills, Newsletters, No-till Drills
by Matt Hagny If you notice a lot of wear on the depth-adjustment mechanism (the plate with the notches in it, as well as the knob), it’s probably a sign you’re not running enough downforce on the openers. If you don’t have enough downforce (whether that’s OEM or with...
Mar 30, 2019 | Agronomy, Newsletters
by Matt Hagny, freelance agronomic consultant since ’94 [Originally written Nov 2017; updated March 2019] Palmer amaranth, waterhemp, marestail, kochia in many regions are now resistant to glyphosate and several other herbicide modes of action. This has prompted...
Mar 30, 2019 | JD 50/60/90/Pro-series drills, Newsletters, No-till Drills, Trading Planters or Drills
by Matt Hagny We’ve been waiting decades for Deere to come out with improvements to their 90-series no-till drill openers. Now that it’s finally happened, it’s mostly a yawn—almost everything has already been surpassed in aftermarket products. For instance, Deere is...
