Episode 24 of Battle for the Belt is now available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kANsraM1kPk
In this episode, we are with Chris Zoller, interim Assistant Director of Agricultural and Natural Resources with Ohio State Extension. Chris provides information about drought and farm stress resources related to the drought.
The state of Ohio currently has 95% of the state experiencing at minimum abnormally dry conditions; 62% of the state is under moderate drought, 31% is under severe drought, 22% is under extreme drought, and 7% is under exceptional drought (Figure 1). The U.S. Drought Monitor Map rates counties on a scale from D1 to D4, as the drought increases in severity, the number increases. Since the creation of the drought monitor in 2000, Ohio has not had a D4 or exceptional drought category until now.
OSU extension has a drought resource page that you can visit at go.osu.edu/Ohiodrought. At this website, you can find information about agronomic crops, forage crops, livestock, farm service agency programs, and more. We recognize that the current drought conditions can cause issues like field fires, lower yields. This added to low crop prices increase the level of concern in our farming community. OSU Extension has aims to provide support for farmers. Please take a few minutes to go to our website go.osu.edu/farmstress. There are resources in every county of Ohio; we encourage you to talk with your Extension Educator. Additionally, you can talk to the OSU Farm Stress team at the Farm Science Review September 17-19th . In times like this, it is important for us to stick close together and know the resources that you have available.
What’s happening in the battle for the belt fields across Ohio?
Western
At the Western location, soybeans are drying down quickly with planting date one at R7 stage (beginning maturity), with at least one pod at mature color (Figure 2). Planting date two is at R6 (full seed) with a few plots in R7. Planting date three and four are at R6 and are beginning to drop lower leaves, while planting date five is still at R5 stage (beginning seed). In corn, planting dates one, two, and three are all at R6 (maturity), and drying down. Planting date one is ready for harvest. Planting date four is at R5 (dent) and planting date five is at R4 (dough). With the R5 disease ratings, the later planting dates are showing a higher disease pressure at this location. The corn in this location is drying up fast - likely affected by weather and disease pressure, with even the ear leaves drying as early as the R5 stage (which is unusual).
Northwest
At the Northwest location, the first planting date of soybeans reached R6, while the remaining planting dates are at R5. In the corn the first two planting dates are at R5, planting date three is at R4, and planting date four and five are at R3. The corn in this location is also drying up fast, including to the ear leaves. At this site, there is almost no disease pressure, and the rapid dry down effect is expected to be primarily driven by weather.
Wooster
Finally for the Wooster location, the soybeans have planting date one and two at R6 and planting date three, four, and five are at R5. The corn has planting date one, two, and three at R5, while planting date four is at R4 and planting date five is at R3 (milk stage). The plots, overall, look better at the Wooster site due to greater precipitation compared to the other locations.
The summary of locations, last week’s weather, planting dates, GDDs and stages is presented in Table 1.
