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Crops look ‘surprisingly good’ despite setbacks
A sales manager with the Mosaic Company says overly wet spring conditions caused some nutrient deficiencies in crops.
Tyler Smith tells Brownfield early cool and wet conditions, like he saw in his territory of Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska, can lead to slower root development and sulfur deficiencies.
“Sulfur behaves as a more mobile nutrient,” he said. “So, when the roots aren’t down far enough to latch onto it or it’s possibly leached out of availability, similar to nitrogen, you get some yellowing symptoms in the leaves, especially in the corn crop.”
He said that was a common theme early this growing season, but until recently, conditions have been drier.
Smith said he’s seen several issues affecting this year’s crops.
“There’s a fair bit of northern corn leaf blight pressure across my footprint, as well as the soybean aphid flaring up, Japanese beetle and a number of other pests,” he said.
But Smith says crops in his territory look surprisingly good. He says now is the time farmers need to carefully watch their crops for disease and pest indicators and evaluate their crop’s nutrition to see what adjustments need to be made in 2021.
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