BECK’S PFR INSIGHT MEETINGS
2020 STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS December 27, 2019
Families run 98% of farms
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2020 OUTLOOK
Demographics detailed in U.S. diversity report By Martha Blum
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Family farms represent 98% of all farms and 88% of production in the United States. Those numbers are included in the America’s Diverse Family Farms — 2019 Edition report which describes characteristics of the 2 million farms. “The report includes what the farms produce, farm profitability, receipts of government payments and participation in agricultural federal programs which is important to understanding the farm sector,” said Christine Whitt, agricultural economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. The data included in this report was collected in the 2018 Agricultural Resource Management Survey. PRIMARY SOURCE “ARMS is USDA’s primary source of information on farm businesses and associated household principle operators,” Whitt said. “Principle operators are those who are most responsible for running the farm.” USDA defines a farm as anyplace that sold at least $1,000 worth of farm products in a given year. “The farm sector consists of a wide variety of farms — very small farms with little sales, mid-size farms with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of sales and large farms with millions of dollars of sales,” Whitt said. “A family farm is any farm where more than 50% of the business is owned and operated by an operator and individuals related to one operator,” Whitt said. “The majority of farms are small family farms, but largescale farms have the largest share of the value of production,” Whitt said. See FAMILY, Page A4
SEE SECTION B
INSIDE
USDA forecasts higher global stocks A2 Huntington plans animal center A8 Time to be bold in markets B3 AgriTrucker B7
Farms For Sale B5
Auction Calendar B1
Lifestyle A9
Business B3
Livestock B8
Calendar B11
Opinion B10
Classifieds B6
Weather A6
Vol. 42 No. 13
CONTACT AGRINEWS: 800-426-9438
AGRINEWS PHOTO/ERICA QUINLAN
Waterhemp plants produce about 250,000 seeds per plant. Those seeds will either take root in 2020 or lay dormant until future years.
Weeds take root Expect pressure from waterhemp, marestail in 2020 By Erica Quinlan
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
MARKLE, Ind. — Many prevent plant acres experienced heavy weed growth this year, causing concern for high weed pressure in 2020. Delayed or missed herbicide applications led to weed escapes. Additionally, floodwaters likely carried weed seeds — meaning growers may have to deal with weeds they’re not used to seeing in their fields. “We need to consider in-
creasing some of our residual herbicides next year, knowing we have more pressure from this past year,” said Chad Threewits Threewits, Syngenta agronomic service representative for Indiana. “That’s one way to combat an increased seed bank. “I think it’s also about being diligent to catch up after a year of poor weed control — with strong fall burndown programs and strong early spring burn-
down programs. Any time we can start clean in fields, we’ll be ahead. “It’s nobody’s fault except the weather — we had to plant into weeds. I think that it will be critical to get ahead of the weeds next year.” Waterhemp and marestail are of particular concern, Threewits said. According to Iowa State University Extension, waterhemp is a prolific seed producer and can produce abundant seed under adverse conditions. Waterhemp plants produce about 250,000 seeds per plant. Those seeds will either take root in 2020 or lay dormant until future years.
“With waterhemp and marestail, we worked really hard the last few years to reduce the seed bank,” Threewits said. “In one year, we put it right back, and maybe even heavier than what we had previously. Especially in areas where it was already bad. “Even if I controlled my weeds pretty well, if my neighbors didn’t — those weeds are going to spread.” An effective herbicide program can combat weed concerns, he said. Erica Quinlan can be reached at 800-426-9438, ext. 193, or equinlan@agrinews-pubs.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Quinlan.
Agronomist shares field advice By Erica Quinlan
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
FORT WAYNE, Ind. — This year’s challenging plant and harvest conditions will impact the decisions farmers make for next year, said Stephanie Smith, agronomist at Golden Harvest. Looking to 2020, Smith shared field management tips on a variety of topics with AgriNews. ON STALK STRENGTH “When we think about stalk strength, it comes from nitrogen availability, potassium availability and overall plant health. When we progress into 2020, keeping those things at the top of your mind is vitally important to ensure that we keep that stalk strength. “This year what we found with a later planting season is that fungicides really provided a huge return on investment and yield benefit. Keeping that plant greener, longer, for it to be able to use soil fertility and to be able to use sunlight to make starches — that will help
keep the plant from cannibalizing itself.” ON LOWER TEST WEIGHTS “This year’s test weights were Smith lower than average. I think growers across the Corn Belt are being docked for their test weight. “When we think about 2020, let’s hope we don’t have a similar planting season. Planting those hybrids earlier will be much more beneficial as we’re (hopefully) going to get more of that time frame for grain fill next year.” ON HYBRIDS AND PLANT POPULATION “Hybrids are not created equal. Knowing the ins and outs of that hybrid before you throw a population at it is important. Take a look at hybrid performance this year. Also, understand your soil type.”
ON PLANT DISEASE “When we think about disease, tar spot continues to get a lot of coverage when it comes to corn diseases. What we saw this year was that the area of infection is continuing to move south and east from what we saw last year. I was able to find it in central Indiana and Ohio this year. “That ring of infection continues to spread. As we select hybrids, we need to make sure we take that tar spot rating into consideration.”
little bit of trouble. Also, a lot of Indiana growers haven’t had to think about corn rootworm in a while, but if our crop rotation changes and we’re looking at three years of corn on corn, we should be thinking about different trait options in our corn systems.”
ON WEED MANAGEMENT “We had unprecedented prevent plant acres this year. When we think about those acres, typically those didn’t get managed the best for weed control. “When we think about seON CROP ROTATION lecting corn and soybean prod“2020 is going to be a little ucts for 2020, I think it’s pretty tough when it comes to crop important to consider our herrotations. This year, most of the time corn didn’t get planted bicide program as maybe one of the first determining factors. where corn was intended. It “There are a lot of technologot planted into drier fields, in gies out there, including Enlist hopes of getting the crop in. “So, a lot of guys, if they were soybeans, in addition to Xtend. in a corn and soybean rotation, We have Liberty options in corn. We have a lot of different planted corn on corn or beans options. This might be a year on beans, because that’s what to explore a different type of they were dealt. The question becomes, what will be the rota- herbicide program that really goes after those weeds, because tion next year? “If we go back to beans again I think this coming year could for a third year, we may be in a be a bit of a mess.”
Minimize yield-limiting factors for winning crop By Erica Quinlan
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
INDIANAPOLIS — Purdue Extension corn specialist Bob Nielsen shared tips for achieving high corn yields at the Indiana Certified Crop Adviser Conference Dec. 17-18. “It’s true that high-yielding corn requires a uniform, healthy crop canopy that can intercept and use about 95% of the incoming solar radiation by the time it hits flowering and throughout the rest of grain fill,” Nielsen said. “This fact gives us something to aim for.”
Building the solar canopy begins with agronomic choices made prior to planting and continues through the end of the growing season. “Unfortunately, our choices about these inputs change every year because Mother Nature changes every year,” Nielsen said. “So, it’s not easy, and we make different choices every year. “It’s a continual process of making the right agronomic decisions in order to build that solar canopy that’s going to capture sunlight. The effects are going to be season-long.” Nielsen offered three tips for a
AGRINEWS PHOTO/ERICA QUINLAN
Purdue Extension corn specialist Bob Nielsen talks about corn agronomics at the Indiana Certified Crop Adviser Conference. winning program: n Improve your agronomic knowledge. Never stop the learning process. n Identify, locate and diagnose
important yield-limiting factors; do this as early and often in the growing season as you can. See FACTORS, Page A4