Lance Tarchione, a Technical Agronomist with Bayer, wrapped up the 2022 season and touched on the 2023 season. Tarchione reported it has been a very good fall to get post-harvest things accomplished. It has been dry but that has been beneficial to get tile or construction work done since you do not want to be working in the mud. At this time of year there are a lot of people evaluating product performance from the 2022 growing season. A lot of people were pleasantly surprised on crop performance despite the weather challenges farmers faced. Farmers are in the midst of making seed, herbicide, and fungicide decisions for the 2023 growing season. There is a lot that goes into these decisions. Furthermore, Tarchione touched on yields, which is determined by hundreds of factors with weather being a main one. The weather in 2022 was not the best that farmers could want but it was not horrible. Disease pressure was low, there were good plant stands, and no drowned out spots. Even if it was scary dry sometimes the timely rains, good soil management and no drowned out areas went together to deliver a good harvest. Some of the best soybean yields in the state came out of the Monmouth area. Tarchione says it was an overall worse year for Soybeans compared to the 2021 season but it was an overall good year for corn compared to the 2021 season.
***Written by WMOI/WRAM Intern Elaina Allaman***