Early plantings look good

Luke Lemenager with Stone Seed is hearing concerns from growers over the top end being taken out of this year’s crops due to weather conditions.

While this may be true, many crops don’t look bad across Lemenager’s territory in Central Illinois.

“I think you’ll definitely see where those early planted beans are going to be really, really good,” Lemenager said last week at Shorty Stork’s Stone Seed field night near Chenoa.

Lemenager feels the corn was pretty far along when all of the dry weather hit. As the ears get bigger, it will put more pressure on the stalks of damaged corn plants from a standability standpoint. There could be plenty of harvest challenges if corn stays out in the field for an extended period.

“I think it would really behoove people to look at some higher moisture harvesting of those fields with a little lean to it at all,” said Lemenager.

Stone Seed’s Melissa Rapp is excited about the company’s new corn hybrids with different maturities at 106, 109 and 115 days. They are waiting on approval of Xtendiflex soybeans. The soybeans this year look promising as pod fill continues in fields.

Anyone who has used dicamba as part of a burndown has seen value there and now the Liberty trait will be available on top of that so fields can be cleaned up in problematic weed areas.

More information about the company can be found on the Stone Seed website or by contacting your local dealer.