Farmers are ahead of schedule this year,” said Jacob Scriver, agronomy location manager for Allied Cooperative in West Salem, Wisconsin. “Almost all the planting in the area is wrapping up. We’ve finished with the pre-emerge soybean spraying and we’re just getting started on the corn post-emerge spraying.
“Now farmers are starting to take the first crop off for forage, so we’ve been doing a lot of fertilizing, making sure they have enough boron and sulfur out there on the fields.”
From what he has seen and heard, he said, the majority of farmers were moving their cattle out to pasture a week or two ago.
“Pastures are growing,” he said. “They’re starting to green up now that we’ve got this rain and we’re getting some growth on them. We did some fertilizing on them earlier and they were kind of stagnant because of the lack of rain. But now that we got the rain, it’s starting to take off.”
Thistles are coming, he said, so it’s a good time to start spraying.
“Milestone is one we use a lot for thistles where cattle can continue to graze,” he said. “Otherwise you have to read the label and abide by the label, and by (the company’s) grazing and rotational restrictions.”
Another weed that farmers should watch for is horsenettles. He said they’re newer to the area; because they’re thorny, cattle won’t eat them.
“They’re tougher to control because they’re woody so you have to beef up your chemical to kill them,” he said. “Therefore you have restrictions with the cattle being in there. Other than that, thistles are the main concern.”
Chemical prices have stayed about the same this year, he said, unlike fertilizer that’s been extremely expensive.
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