Understand Growing Degree Units
As the growing season begins the terms growing degree days (GDDs), growing degree units (GDUs), and heat units become quite common. These terms are often used interchangeably and applied to a variety of different subjects including crop growth stages and insect pests. What do these terms actually mean? What are GDUs? GDUs were developed as…
Jacobsen’s Quick Reference Guide
Farming is a delicate balance of many different disciplines. Farmers are sometime biologists, chemists, climatologists, or mathematicians while getting a crop from seed to harvest. It can be tough to remember all of the different equations and charts for multiple crops. To help our customers manage this, we developed the Jacobsen Quick Reference Guide. This…
Thorough Planter Check-ups Start the Season Off Right
Time moves faster and faster each year it seems and planting will be upon us soon. As we (hopefully) begin to see warmer weather this month, it is a great time to get the planter out and check things over. Top yields rely on a wide variety of factors, some that we can manage and…
Soil Carbon: The Basics of Soil Carbon and a New Credit Industry
There has been a lot of talk in the last few weeks about soil carbon (SC), carbon sequestration, carbon credits, and the like but it is tough to understand what all of it really means. There are three main reasons we expect SC to become an even bigger topic in the near future – the…
Current Moisture Levels and 2021 Outlook
Happy New Year! As we roll into 2021 I can only hope things get easier than they were in 2020. One of the many issues we dealt with last year was a large, and increasing, area of drought. Areas in Nebraska, South Dakota, Western Iowa and Southeast Minnesota were hit hard. This pattern is part…
Prioritizing the Long List of Spring Field Work
Springs are becoming shorter Recent data from Iowa State University is validating what we have all been thinking – our springs are getting shorter. According to ISU, from 1964 to 2019 the average number of days suitable for spring work has dropped from 48 days to 35 days when looking at a time period of…
Fertilizer and Micronutrients
A micronutrient is an element essential for plant growth but is required in very small amounts. Until recently, farmers have been able to rely on the natural quantities found within the soil for adequate crop production. With yields continuing to increase, micronutrient availability will develop a more important role in complete fertilizer programs for top…
Back to Basics: Fertilizer and Macronutrients
It can be very difficult to keep all of the inputs used for crop production organized. To help keep ourselves straight we often lump fertilizer into one broad category without taking in to account the variation in importance and role that a nutrient has in the plant. In the illustration on the right you can…
Manage Compaction during a busy Spring
With a wet Fall this past year and a long to-do list of field work to get done this Spring, the last thing farmers want is something else to think about. Taking the time to worry about compaction can directly affect the bottom line. Soil compaction occurs when soil particles and aggregates are compressed into…