Wayne Koehler grows corn and soybeans in Charles City with his wife of 35 years, Lisa. He has also been raising oats, and this year will be growing 65 acres of food-grade oats after buying into a farmer-owned oat milling plant in Albert Lea, Minnesota. “We look forward to that challenge,” he said. “The hope is we’ll be increasing our acres of oats and the goal would be to get to a three-crop rotation. We need to get some dedicated oat storage before harvest.” With the oats, he sometimes plants a clover cover crop that will take off and grow after the oats are harvested. He has transitioned to mostly no-till. The Koehlers have three adult children and are expecting their first grandchild in June.

The oats were seeded on March 31 and emerged April 14. Nice growth last week before receiving a light frost on April 20. Last week was an active weather week with some large hail and heavy rain. Our farms were spared from the hail, and rainfall totals for the week ranged from 0.2 to 0.8 inch. I may plant some soybeans this week and plan to spray some burndown for soybeans after a couple days of warmer temps. In my area, most pre-plant anhydrous applications have been completed and I expect quite a bit of pre-plant tillage will be done in the next few days.

The week of April 20 was a productive week for those that chose to plant in my area. Some farmers were very aggressive getting corn planted while others chose to wait. There were some soybeans planted as well. Pre-emerge spraying and burn down for soybeans was done as the temperatures warmed up during the week. We received 0.5 of an inch of rain on Thursday evening, April 23. Many farmers are waiting now for the rain on Monday the 27th and the cool temperatures forecast for the coming week before resuming planting.

We received 0.5 inch of rain on April 27 followed by very cool temps for most of the week. The morning of May 2 the low temperature was 31 degrees with light frost. The planters were running again by Saturday, and a lot of corn got planted over the weekend. Some farmers will be finishing corn planting and continuing with soybeans. Temperatures are forecast to turn cool again by midweek, but I think farmers will keep planting as the rain chances are slight. Pre-emerge spraying has kept up well with the planting.

Most of the corn and soybean planting in my area was completed last week. The early-planted corn is emerging. Too many cold days with strong winds and low humidity after the last rain on April 27 has made it difficult for some early-planted soybeans that are struggling to push through crusted soil. The topsoil moisture has really dried out from the winds every day — even the no-till fields. Rye cover crop is a challenge as the temperatures have been too cold to terminate if you missed the small window of warmer days around April 22. The rye that has not been terminated is taking the soil moisture and leaving dry soil to plant in. A soaking rain is much needed for germination, emergence and herbicide activation.

The warmer temperatures really helped the emergence of the later-planted corn and soybeans. Some replanting or interseeding of early-planted soybeans was done last week. The crop insurance adjuster noted several replant claims of both soybeans and corn around the area. Field borders are showing weed pressure as the temps warm up with the lack of rainfall to activate preemerge herbicides. We did finally get a nice 1-inch rain on May 15 and more on May 17. The oats are growing well and seem unaffected by the stretch of cool weather before the recent warm up.

The week of cool temperatures has not been helpful. Low temperature on May 20 was 38 degrees. Many no-till soybean fields continue to struggle with emergence. The forecast for a week of consistently warm temperatures should get the beans out of the ground if they are still viable. This past week there was no field work as the fields were too wet. By the end of the week, fields had dried off enough to get out and scout for crop emergence, do stand counts and evaluate weed pressure. Postemergence spraying will start with the warm up in temps and drying of the fields.

We received a couple nice rains around Memorial Day totaling 0.8. This helped the remaining soybeans that were still trying to emerge through crusted soil. By midweek the sprayers were back in the fields making post applications in the corn. There was a window to cut and bale hay through Saturday. Some growers began side dressing nitrogen in corn fields. On May 31 we received another .3 of rain. My oats have started heading out.

The first week of June started off with post corn spraying and sidedressing nitrogen. The corn grew a lot with the week of warm temperatures. Some more hay was able to be baled through Wednesday. The appearance of the soybeans continues to improve, but there are spots with thin stands in many fields. On Thursday afternoon there was spotty rain in the area that varied from showers to over 4 inches. At home, we received 4 inches in two hours. The grass waterways were full, and there was much runoff and unfortunately some erosion.

Sidedressing nitrogen in corn and post spraying of soybeans were completed between rains during the week. Some respraying of corn has been done due to challenging waterhemp escapes. Weekly rain total was 0.7 of an inch. Cut some hay on June 12. Most of the corn in the area is growing fast and dark green in color. The soybeans have more variability. The no-till beans are off to a slow start compared to those planted where tillage was done.

The corn has grown to shade the ground between the rows. The soybeans are recovering from the post herbicide spray application. Rainfall las week was 0.2 of an inch early in the week. There was rain forecasted for June 21 but it did not happen. The oats are progressing quickly this year, starting to turn color. This past week of mild temperatures with highs in the 70s should be beneficial as the heads fill out. This week I will work on getting the combine ready for oat harvest and final cleaning and preparation of the grain bin for oat storage.

Area farmers that Y-drop UAN in their corn with high-clearance sprayers as their sidedress method had a good week to get that completed. We did receive 0.2 of an inch of rain on June 24. Some second-cutting hay was also completed during the week. Soybeans are finally growing better, and narrow-row beans are beginning to canopy.

The week was very wet and stormy. Rainfall total was 4.4 inches over five days. On July 2 we received 1.8 in less than an hour. Other nearby areas reported 4-5 inches from that storm. There was strong wind also — gusts reported around 60 mph. Several corn fields have lodged and leaning corn plants. It has been too wet to scout the fields, check the extent of damage and see if there was some greensnap. The oats have some patches that went down, but I feel fortunate they are standing as well as they are. I would estimate they will be ready for harvest in another week. Waterhemp escapes continue to be a challenge in the corn fields.

The week of July 5 -11 was another wet week. Fields were wet from rains over the July 4th weekend and on July 8 we received another 2.5 inches. We were fortunate to miss the strong winds with this round of storms. By late week there were many cornfields tasseling. We are watching the corn for signs of disease and will be getting ready for fungicide application soon. The oats should be ready to harvest this week by the time the field dries out enough to drive on it with the combine.

With only a trace amount of precipitation this past week, I was able to get out into the cornfields and scout for wind damage from storms the previous two weeks. There is some minor greensnap in a couple of fields. It appears to be hybrid specific. Hardly any signs of disease yet. The soybeans are finally getting some height to them and becoming difficult to walk in. We were able to get the oats harvested last week. The high humidity and lack of wind most of the week tested my patience, but we finished with the desired harvest moisture. Very good test weight and yield this year.

We received another 1.4 inches of rain July 20. Later in the week some farmers took advantage of the change in weather and made hay. Fungicide spraying for corn was a common sight throughout the week. I noted a shift in application methods this year — I saw no airplanes but more drones. Helicopter and high-clearance ground sprayer use was similar to past years. We will spray our corn with fungicide this week.

Completed fungicide application on the corn this past week. Used high-clearance ground application on the larger fields and drone application on smaller fields. Spot sprayed some field edges and corners with glufosinate to clean up foxtail, wooly cupgrass and waterhemp. The rain on July 31 was a blessing. It rained off and on throughout the day and all soaked in. One of our farms had 2.2 inches and another had 1 inch. The other farms were somewhere in between. The red clover that was underseeded with the oats has really taken off and grown since the rain. Noticing very little insect pressure at this time in the crops.

I received 0.3 of an inch of rain on Aug. 4-5. On Aug. 7 I received 1.5 inches of rain. The soybeans are growing well and getting difficult to walk in. They have recovered well from the rough start during the cool spring temperatures. I’m seeing very good pod development. The frequent rains lately are delaying hay cutting.

It was another wet week, receiving rain on four different days. Weekly total ranged between 1.1 and 2 inches between different farms. There was no hail or wind damage during the week. I have not been able to get out in the fields and scout, as they remain wet and muddy.