East-central Illinois agronomist has planting tips

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East-central Illinois agronomist has planting tips

An agronomist says farmers in his area of Illinois might need another pre-emergent application of dicamba since so many soybeans have been planted earlier than normal.

Austin Edwards is a DeKalb/Asgrow agronomist in east-central Illinois,

“That’s a month ahead of when we’re used to actually having our ‘pre’ zone. I can foresee us needing to put another residual in or another active in the tank and maybe even spraying for a third time.”

And because it’s so dry and might continue to be, Edwards urges growers to make sure their seeds are married with the soil, “We need to make sure we’re getting out of the tractor cab just a little bit and doing some digging. And making sure that that seed-to-soil contact is actually happening, making sure that we don’t have air pockets developing in the seed trench.”

He says growers are about 50% done with planting both corn and soybeans.

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