Drones and the Future of Farming

Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., the world’s largest corn processor, received regulatory approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to fly drones that will locate and assess crop damage.
Using drones will help expedite the processing of crop-insurance claims, the Chicago-based company said in a statement Wednesday.“We are on track to have this technology in the air for our customers next year,” Greg Mills, president of ADM’s Crop Risk Services unit, which offers insurance, said in the statement.
Drones are one of the latest tools in precision agriculture, in which data is collected by satellites and sensors and analyzed to maximize farm yields.
While the FAA bans commercial drone use, it has granted exemptions to operators who track crop yields, monitor oil and gas facilities, and inspect power lines and smokestacks. To get an exemption, companies must certify that their drones will be operated by licensed pilots and that a second person observe the flights.

Looking for High Yield Soybeans

For the first time, Walter Godwin will plant soybeans under irrigation -- which isn’t a typical practice for a Georgia farmer to do -- because getting a higher soybean yield is his best bet for solid cash flow in 2015.

During an interview with South East Farm Press Godwin pointed out his choice of soybeans to lead the way on his farm is unusual considering he farms in Mitchell and Grady counties in Georgia, one of the largest peanut-producing regions in the country. His particular pocket of land has heavy soils, though, which are good for making a good peanut crop but not good for digging and harvesting the peanuts. The soil hangs on to the pods too tight.

For Godwin, 2015 is the year to go for higher-yielding soybeans. Cotton prices threaten barely to stay in the 60-cent-per-pound range; contracts for peanuts, due to a market glut, have been low to nonexistent, and, besides, he can’t get the yields in the wagons needed to make peanuts cash flow anyway. Corn and wheat prices are down.

Pretty enough

So that leaves soybean at around $9 to $9.50 per bushel, the most-attractive option; not pretty, but pretty enough for him and his best option for finance in 2015. But he needs the yields from the soybeans to make it work.

He’s hoping to average as near to 75 bushels per acre as he can get with his 500 acres of soybeans. He plans 300 of those acres under to be under irrigation, and the pivots where being put in as he attended the Feb. 5 Georgia/Florida Soybean/Small Grain Expo.

Godwin is the current president of the Georgia/Florida Soybean Association, so he is no stranger to soybeans, but his beans have always been dryland. And he has done well at times with dryland, averaging 50 bushels or better per acre in some fields.

Drought conditions and 100-deree weather hit his part of Georgia in June and July of last year, right at soybean blooming time, and dropped Godwin’s earlier planted soybean yields to the 10- to 15-bushel range.

He’ll plant about four different soybean varieties, going in the ground starting mid-April and work them in through May. The varieties will be full-season determinates but he is going to try again an indeterminate variety, which put on the pods last year but didn’t make because of the drought. But under irrigation, he thinks the indeterminate will produce what he needs.

Obtainable yields

He will take care of the beans to secure the yields, he said, which means he will spend to apply N through the irrigation systems as needed and keep insect and disease pressure down with spray trips across the field. But it inputs will be as minimal as possible without sacrificing yield potential.

Many growers balk at spending much money on a soybean crop. They get 40 bushels per acre or so and they’re happy. That’s fine. But by doing a few things differently like Godwin -- and nothing really too flashy or spending much more -- they can hit 60- or 70-bushel averages and be profitable.

When prices for soybeans reached $15 per bushel and higher a few years back, Southeast growers looked closer at getting more bushels out of their beans, said Jared Whitaker, University of Georgia Extension agronomist, and some growers started seeing soybeans in a different light, a crop worth investing in for higher profits.

“When we’re talking about $5 (per bushel) beans, I can see not wanting to put much if anything in the crop. I get that. But when we were talking higher prices and even now with close to $10 soybeans, like where we are right now, we’re still talking being profitable with higher yields,” Whitaker said.

Wheat Yield Contest

Agriculture.com noticed a new wheat yield contest will help identify the nation's top wheat growers, drive innovation and urge experimentation with new production technologies, the National Wheat Foundation (NWF) announced during the Commodity Classic in Phoenix, Arizona Feb. 26. 

Yield contest participants will compete by wheat class (there are six different classes), by dryland or irrigated practices, and by state and region to ensure the competition is between peers. Contest parameters include class, geography, quality and yield. The contest rules are still being developed and will be announced prior to the entry date, according to NWF.

The NWF is launching the National Wheat Yield Contest in conjunction with BASF, says Dusty Tallman, wheat grower from Brandon Colorado and NWF chairman.  

“We appreciate the generous support of our primary industry partner, BASF, to assist in the creation of this program. We are looking forward to this contest increasing grower productivity, helping build a stronger U.S. wheat industry and increasing knowledge transfer between growers,” Tallman says. 

The contest will ensure that U.S. wheat producers continue to provide an ample supply of high-quality wheat to its domestic and foreign customers. 

BASF has partnered with the NWF to help growers maximize inputs to get the most of every acre, said Neil Bentley, Director of Marketing, BASF. “Initiatives such as the National Wheat Yield Contest give growers an opportunity to work with innovations that help them break yield barriers, and allows farmers to grow and learn from one another.”

Save Billions of Gallons of Water

Farmers who use polytubing for irrigation often don’t get the most efficient use of their water resources, says Chris DeClerk, irrigation specialist with Delta Plastics, Little Rock, Ark., who spoke at the annual meeting of the Mississippi Agricultural Consultants Association which was covered by Delta Farm Press.

For more information, watch the video here.

Farm Bill Deadline Nears

Deadlines are nearing for decisions farmers need to make to comply with provisions of the new farm legislation, Keith Coble reminded peanut producers at the annual meeting of the Mississippi Peanut Growers Association in a recent interview with Delta Farm Press.

“You have until Feb. 27 to update yield history and/or reallocate base acres,” he said. “You have until March 31 to make a one-time choice between ARC (Agricultural Risk Coverage) and PLC (Price Loss Coverage) for crop years 2014 through 2018. From mid-April through summer 2015, you can sign contracts for 2014 and 2015 crop years.”

Coble, who is Giles Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Economics at Mississippi State University, served as chief economist for the minority staff of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee during the 2013/14 farm bill debate.

He notes that help is available to producers from MSU’s Agricultural Economics Department in the form of spreadsheets that can be used in making the calculations (http://bit.ly/1tW5dLl). “You can plug in your own circumstances and figure out how it will work for you.”

Coble says also  that the Mississippi Farm Service Agency has been “very cooperative in providing knowledgeable people to go to meetings and bring farmers up to speed on these provisions.” And he and other Mississippi Extension specialists have been on the meetings trail for the past few months.

Among the things farmers need to keep in mind about the new legislation, he says:

• “You can’t build base. If you have 200 acres of base on a farm serial number for a particular set of crops, when you get done you’re still going to have 200 acres of base. You can’t build it, but you can reallocate it.

• “Yield updating is probably one of the big no-brainers. Because of past programs and the inability to update base yields, we have a lot of farmers who have relatively low base yields. You now have the opportunity to take 90 percent of the 2008-2012 average, and in a lot of instances that will be a higher number. I would suggest you take a look at that.”

• PLC program: “The peanut industry and rice industry wanted a traditional price-triggered program however a price-triggered program was created for all program commodities. The corn reference price is $3.70, and the Congressional Budget Office said that would cost almost nothing — now look where corn prices are.”

In terms of ARC versus PLC, Coble says, “for rice and peanut farmers most analyses suggest PLC. I’d think really hard before I chose ARC on either of these crops. But for beans, corn, and wheat, it depends on what you think the price path is.

Decisions on ARC/PLC

Beans still look pretty favorable toward ARC; for corn, it’s more of a toss-up with an slight edge to ARC in most cases. In Mississippi, we have some counties that have a pretty good history with ARC, and others that don’t, so look at your own county.”

Farmers also need to keep in mind, he says, that “you can be in the PLC program and SCO (Supplemental Coverage Option), but if you’re in the ARC program you can’t purchase SCO insurance.

“The two versions of the ARC program are a shallow loss revenue program. The county-triggered program is commodity specific and pays on 85 percent of base acres. The area-triggered program is paid on 65 percent of base acres, and it is going to lump your farm serial numbers together and it’s going to be across all your commodities.”

While the farm level ARC program was designed for wheat farmers in Montana, Coble says, “I could envision a few cases in Mississippi where someone has one farm serial number and is only growing one crop. This is a scenario where individual ARC might work.”

It’s also important to understand, he says, that with ARC, “rather than a fixed legislative target, it uses an olympic average on yield and price. Take the last five years, drop the high and the low, and average the other three.

We were at pretty high commodity price levels when this bill was written; now we’re at lower price levels for several crops. What we’re going to see is that ARC will likely ride these price levels down.  We’ve got a lot of upward-trending yields, so it’s going to move in the opposite direction.”

SCO is very similar to ARC, he notes. “It’s a shallow loss insurance product, delivered by RMA (Risk Management Agency), with a premium subsidy of 65 percent of the total. The top coverage level is 86 percent, the same as ARC. For these products, RMA is moving toward using their own data rather than NASS county data for these yield series. It will be interesting to see how it works.

“You may purchase either STAX (Stacked Income Protection Plan) or SCO on cotton. STAX is just for cotton and is very similar to SCO, but has a higher premium subsidy — an 80 percent subsidy and a 90 percent guarantee. I think a lot of cotton producers will prefer STAX to SCO.”

Crop insurance coverage levels in Mississippi “have been going up fairly rapidly,” Coble says. “I thought we were catching up with the Midwest, but I was wrong. They’ve been moving to higher coverage (75 percent to 85 percent) and the primary reason for it is enterprise units — growers have gone to enterprise units in order to get higher coverage.

Switching for more benefit

The higher percentage the subsidy, the more benefit you get. That’s why I think we’ve got a lot of people switching from basic units to enterprise units. However, with enterprise units, you’re going to have some offsetting losses. If you’ve got a low yield field with a yield loss, and another field that doesn’t, they’ll be averaged together.

With SCO, Coble says, “You’re topping off an individual coverage policy with an area trigger policy. In the past, you were never able to buy two insurance policies on the same acre — now you can. They’re intended to cover layers of loss. You can have two policies insuring the same acre.

“The ARC program, an FSA-delivered program, is doing much the same thing as SCO, but it’s not tied to the crop insurance choice you make. So, you can buy a coverage level that doesn’t match up to ARC, or you can buy a coverage level that laps over into the ARC range.”

As decision times near, Coble says, “I would suggest you ask your crop insurance agent five questions:

1.    Can you give me a quote for enterprise units and trend adjusted yields?

2.    Will you show me the premium for different coverage levels?

3.    What about topping off individual coverage with SCO?

4.    Will you give me a quote for separate coverage levels by practice?

5.    What about the APH (Actual Production History) yield exclusion?”

And he cautions, “There is a lot of bad information out there. Be very careful about using information from the Midwest to make decisions here in the South.

Questions growers “need to be asking” about the ARC/PLC issue, Coble says:

1.    How much do you want to protect yourself from risk or increase government payments? “Are you trying to protect yourself from risk, or are you trying to get the most money from the government?”

2.    How much do you value having a price floor under the price of a crop? “If you sleep better at night when you’ve got a $3.70 floor under your corn, then take the PLC program, even though ARC might pay you more money. We don’t know what these programs are going to pay you in 2018. It’s just a guess.”

3.    How much are you willing to depend on individual crop insurance for risk protection?

4.    How much are you willing to depend on area-triggered crop insurance for risk protection? “Remember that area-triggered programs may not trigger when your farm has a loss. It’s not about whether your average yield is higher or lower — it’s about whether the county yield is low when your yield is low.”

5.    How much are you going to worry about relatively small commodity program payments versus controlling cost?

Some “easy calls” for producers, Coble says, will be conversion of cotton base to generic base and yield updates. He notes that farm level ARC “may not be a good fit” for diversified producers, and says STAX will likely be preferred over SCO for cotton unless crop insurance coverage is low.

Among important things to remember: “Area-triggered programs may not trigger when you have a loss. Title 1 programs are on base acres, not planted acres. And, compared to direct payments which are paid every year, ARC, PLC, and SCO are expected to pay less than 50 percent of the time.”

Farming Near an Urban Enviroment

Adversity comes in many different forms for our nation’s farmers. From unpredictable weather patterns and fluctuating commodity prices to seemingly ever-increasing input costs and pest complexes that can keep even the most seasoned consultant guessing at times, adversity seems to be a word synonymous with farming.

For one Mississippian who farms just south of the Tennessee/Mississippi state line where Olive Branch (Desoto County) meets the southern boundary of Memphis (Shelby County), In a recent interview with Delta Farm Press, Wes Hoggard, owner of Hoggard Farms (and Stateline Turf and Tractor, a John Deere dealership), has to keep his eyes on farm land replete with a very specific kind of adversity with which more and more farmers are having to deal — urban encroachment.

From 1990 to 2000, the population of Olive Branch exploded from around 3,000, to over 21,000. From 1990 to 2010, Olive Branch was the fastest growing city in the United States with an astounding growth rate of 838 percent. Mississippi Highway 302 (known by most in the area as Goodman Road) is a major transportation corridor running thru Olive Branch, with its most western point ending in Walls, and the most eastern point terminating just west of Mount Pleasant.

Urban Movement

Hoggard has been farming in this area for over 20 years — long before urban encroachment veered its multi-faceted commercial head. “I’ve been lucky in one respect when it comes to proximity to warehouses, semi-trucks and subdivisions…,” he says, “…because the fields that I farm are, for the most part, linked together with suitable access roads which greatly reduces the number of times I have to move my equipment.”

But Hoggard not only has to deal with changing pest complexes each year, he also has to deal with what he calls “an encroachment complex.” It’s easy to understand his “personally-coined” term as we both turn our heads toward the highway, where a steady stream of cars, trucks and school bus traffic screams by at 65 mph — while we sit in his John Deere 9670 Bullet Rotor Combine just 50 feet from the east-bound shoulder of the four-lane highway.

The fields Hoggard has been farming in this area vary in their relationship to traffic density. “Some fields are still tucked away from most urbanization but some, especially in the last five years, have become neighbors to more and more warehouses, subdivisions and commercial real estate developments,” he adds.

When it comes to making applications on whatever crop he’s currently producing, his only option is a ground rig sprayer. “Ag pilots won’t even consider flying in this area due to the number of roof tops (single unit family dwellings), but even with a ground rig — if there’s a slight breeze, I have to delay spraying, especially if the wind is blowing toward someone’s backyard,” Hoggard says.

And he can’t even think about burning off a wheat field. “That gets people, and the local fire department, way too anxious,” as he shakes his head, pointing to a subdivision that rests adjacent to a set of massive power lines — both of which are juxtaposed along one of the larger fields he’s currently farming.

“Not knowing what land will (or will not) be available to me each year also makes it impossible to forward contract any of the crops I produce,” he adds.

Making it Work

Hoggard is a 30-year veteran producer who grows soybeans, wheat, corn and milo on fields that range in size from 5 to 120 acres. Any given year, Hoggard may farm anywhere from 1,200 to 1,800 acres of land on which he rarely drops down a plow thanks to advice from his long-time friend, John Bradley.

“Dr. Bradley and I have been friends for a long time, and his advice has helped me be successful at no-till farming for as long as I can remember. It saves me time and labor, but the number one thing it’s done for me is, it has preserved so much land from erosion,” says Hoggard.

Hoggard took over some pasture ground and thought it would require tilling before he could put down a seed, but Bradley told him to let the land lay out over the winter. “The winter freeze and subsequent thawing would mellow the soil that was very compacted from years of cattle grazing. Dr. Bradley was correct, it worked,” Hoggard says.

Hoggard also has more than his share of unwanted activity on the land he farms. “I've got great neighbors, and I don’t hear much out of them, but every so often I’ll have a four-wheel drive truck or someone on a four-wheeler come on the land and see how much damage they can do — all in the name of having fun,” he says.

Hoggard also finds an occasional trespasser who thinks just because it is farmland, it’s ok to hunt on it. “The local game warden is a friend of mine. I keep his number handy, but I really don’t have to call him too often,” he adds.

There’s no shortage of wildlife on the land he farms, despite the constant activity from local businesses, warehouses and planes taking off from Olive Branch Airport (which was named the busiest Fixed Based Operation in the United States in 2012). “It’s absolutely amazing…,” he says, referring to the number of deer, turkey and other wildlife. “You would think this urbanization would push them further out. But it’s nothing to see a herd of 15 or more deer on one of the field access roads right next to the highway early in the morning or late in the day.”

Hoggard Farms is pretty much a one-man operation. “I do the majority of the farming myself while my son, John, holds down our John Deere dealership. When I do need help, he, along with my other son, Ben, are both quick to lend a hand,” says Hoggard.

He also has a daughter, Rachel, who is a school teacher (but when Hoggard calls, she gladly comes to the farm and drives the grain cart). “I’m also lucky enough to have a good friend who is an independent businessman and has a very flexible schedule. He just likes driving a combine — so I let him,” says Hoggard.

Looking Ahead

It should come as no surprise that with increased urbanization encroaching on more and more farming operations, Extension Service personnel across the country are receiving higher numbers of phone calls complaining about things like oversized equipment on roads or highways and smells with which the general public are just not familiar.

Desoto County Extension Agent Dan Haire, a 20-year row-crop veteran, moved into the area three years ago. “With the population growing as fast as it is, I find myself working mostly with homeowners rather than farmers,” says Haire. “It’s something I've had to do not out of choice, but out of necessity, to help keep local farmers in the good graces of their neighbors who just don’t know about or understand farming.”

With constant encroachment by numerous warehousing businesses, schools, shopping centers and subdivisions, it’s very likely more of the land around Hoggard’s fields will be sold for commercial development. “It’s disheartening to see beautiful country land turned into a concrete jungle,” he laments.

Hoggard doesn't exactly know what lies ahead for his operation — as far as what land will be available in the next year or two — but he sees the tell-tale signs offering more and more land for sale. He’s hoping to find more farmable land in more remote, less urbanized locations in the near future.

Soybean Talk

Matt Miles says he's one of a small group of farmers he considers "some of the best in the United States."

Some might consider that bragging except for one thing: That small group of growers has harvested more than 100 bushels of soybeans per acre, some of them, including Miles, for two years in a row in the Arkansas Soybean Association's Grow for the Green Challenge.

Miles was a speaker at the National Conservation Systems Cotton and Rice Conference in Baton Rouge, La. (The Cotton and Rice Conference, the name it took when it started 18 years ago, has now been expanded to include the Southern Corn and Soybean Conference.) Delta Farm Press covered the conference.

Miles and his wife, Sherrie, and son, Layne, farm 6,300 acres in Ashley and Desha Counties in southeast Arkansas, where at least a half dozen growers have harvested more than 100 bushels of soybeans in the Arkansas Soybean Association contest. About 85 percent of the Miles acreage is planted in corn and soybeans, a reversal from the years prior to 2006 when it mostly was in cotton.

"Our soybeans always used to be on our poorest land," says Miles. "We took the least amount of care of them. We might have a 100-acre field with 25 acres of clay, and we would put the soybeans down there."

Miles credits fellow Southeast Arkansas producer Jim Whittaker with getting him on the road to growing high-yielding soybeans. "I called him and told him 'y'all are growing some of the best soybeans around, and I'd like to know what you're doing?"

He also pointed to Billy Gardner, his farm manager in Ashley County, and Rob Dedman, his consultant from Rison, Ark., as being integral parts of his operation. "These two guys push me to push these soybeans harder."

Most of the soybeans he grows are Pioneer varieties, he said. He will try other brands, planting them on 15 to 20 acres to see how they compare to his standby varieties. He said he plants about 150,000 seed per acre because "invariably, we plant when it's too cold, and we up the seeding rate to make sure we get a stand."

Miles has been an advocate of twin-row planters until now. "We drag a single-row planter around with us wherever we go," he noted. "For several years, we were averaging six or seven bushels more per acre with twin rows. But the last two years, we only harvested a bushel to a bushel-and-a-half per acre on twin rows. So we're rethinking some of that."

For more on the Grow for the Green Challenge, visit http://www.arkansassoybean.com/Yield-Contest-.html

Wheat Producers Should Pay Attention

Who would have predicted that gasoline prices would be below $2 per gallon (down from $3.50 in June 2014), that oil prices would be below $50 per barrel (down from $110 in August 2014), and that Perryton, Texas, corn prices would bottom out below $3.40 (down from a peak of $8.90 in August 2012)?  South West Farm Press reported that wheat producers should learn from these price declines.

Wheat prices have declined. In July 2014, wheat prices were near $8.50. By June 2014, cash wheat prices were near $7.50. By the end of September 2014, wheat prices had fallen to $5.30, which is not nearly as low as wheat prices could go.

What current oil, gasoline, and corn prices show is that if U.S. wheat ending stocks go above 850 million bushels and world wheat ending stocks go above 7.5 billion bushels, Oklahoma and Texas cash wheat prices could go below $4. In June 2010, Oklahoma and Texas cash wheat prices were near $3.50.

The good news is that relatively tight hard red winter wheat stocks and cold temperatures, with little to no snow cover, are supporting wheat prices. Oklahoma and Texas wheat prices have increased from the $5.30 September low to near $6. At this writing, wheat may be contracted for 2015 harvest delivery for about $6.05 in central Oklahoma and about $5.90 in the Texas Panhandle.

At this writing, U.S. hard red winter (HRW) wheat 2014/15 marketing year ending stocks are projected to be 227 million bushels compared to a five-year average of 333 million bushels. The HRW wheat stocks-to-use ratio is 30 percent compared to a five-year average of 37 percent. Relatively low HRW wheat stocks, the number of planted acres and current wheat conditions lower the odds of 2015/16 HRW wheat ending stocks going above 333 billion bushels and wheat prices going below $4.50.

A negative price factor is the value of the U.S. dollar compared to other major currencies. Since early July 2014, the index measuring the value of the U.S. dollar to other major currencies has increased from 80 to near 92.

A 15 percent (80 points to 92 points) increase in the value of the dollar effectively increases the cost of exported wheat by 15 percent. Assume that the HRW, 12 percent protein wheat price at the Texas Gulf (FOB) is $7.50. If the index of the dollar was 80 rather than the current 92, the effective price would be $6.52. The increased value of the dollar has effectively made the cost of U.S. wheat about $1 higher to foreign buyers.

Producers could believe that $7.50, as compared to $6.50, implies a higher farm level price. The fact is that this $1 has no direct impact on producer prices. A direct impact is that the higher value of the dollar increases the cost of U.S. wheat, export demand is less and producer prices are lower.

Producers ask what the petroleum industry’s reaction will be to extremely low prices. High-cost oil wells will be shut down; fewer oil wells will be drilled; and the least efficient distilleries will be closed, resulting in decreased supplies and higher prices.

Evidence exists that for the most part, the petroleum industry has prepared for lower prices. Extremely low prices happen. Smart managers prepare for extremely low prices by building cash reserves. Then when prices go back up, they will be in business to take advantage of profitable prices.

Wheat producers need to do the same thing. That is, know that $4 wheat is a possibility and that staying in business requires being prepared with cash reserves and having a plan for extremely low prices.

Pumping Lowering Water Levels

Thanks to a severe, multiyear drought and increased demand for water, groundwater levels in the Upper Rio Grande Basin in Colorado, New Mexico and Far West Texas have dropped as much as 200 feet through the years.

A water expert at New Mexico State University (NMSU) warns those levels are just the tip of the iceberg as a sluggish recharge of the river, combined with increased groundwater pumping in the years ahead, will create worse shortages in the near future.

Brian Hurd, an agricultural economics professor and president of the Universities Council on Water Resources was quoted recently in the El Paso Times, saying that the threat of coming water shortages in New Mexico and Texas represents a serious problem for farmers up and down the entire basin region.

"The real big deal is going to be the change in the intensity of pumping," Hurd told the Times (http://bit.ly/1ricO5E).

Hurd and government hydrologists agree that river flows in the Rio Grande will suffer more as the demand for groundwater increases as a result of growing population density and the need for more water for agricultural and industrial activities.

In a 2013 joint Upper Rio Grande Impact Assessment prepared by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the Sandia Laboratory Climate Security Program, even at the current annual use of groundwater throughout the Basin, critical water shortages will intensify in the years ahead.

According to that assessment, in the Upper Rio Grande Basin of Colorado and New Mexico, water management challenges posed by a highly variable and extremely limited water supply have been exacerbated by a prolonged drought.

In addition to problems associated with heavy groundwater pumping, the assessment determined that pronounced changes in climate in future years are anticipated for the Upper Rio Grande. The climate modeling used to support the study suggested that average temperatures in the Upper Rio Grande Basin may rise by an additional 4 degrees to 6 degrees F by the end of the 21st century.

Simulations

These model simulations do not consistently project changes in annual average precipitation in this basin, but they do project changes to the magnitude, timing, and variability of inflows to the system. In addition to groundwater demand, the study detailed the following:

• Decreases in overall water availability

Supplies of all native sources to the Rio Grande are projected to decrease on average by about one third, while flows in the tributaries that supply the imported water of the San Juan-Chama Project are projected to decrease on average by about one fourth.

• Changes in the timing of flows

The seasonality of flows is projected to change. Anticipated changes include earlier snowmelt runoffs as well as increased variability in the magnitude, timing, and spatial distribution of streamflow and other hydrologic variables. Projections indicate that this basin will experience a decrease in summertime flows and less of a decrease (or potentially even an increase) in wintertime flows.

• Increases in the variability of flows

All simulations used in this study project an increase in the month-to-month and inter-annual variability of flows over the course of the century. The frequency, intensity, and duration of both droughts and floods are projected to increase.

While climate change will increase the risks of water shortage in the basin area, of more immediate concern is how communities and industry will react to current shortages. While recent drought conditions have lowered reservoir levels and decreased inflows to lakes, increased pumping of groundwater has helped to sustain adequate resources in the short term.

Challenges Ahead

But hydrologists say the time for such groundwater relief may be short lived as demand increases and groundwater levels continue to drop.

Zhuping Sheng, a hydrologist at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in El Paso, draws a comparison with putting money in the bank.

"We're withdrawing more than we are depositing," he says.

He points out that in some areas around El Paso, for example, groundwater levels have dropped by as much as 200 feet over the last century.

Hydrologists say as groundwater continues to diminish as a result of slower recharge and greater use, population levels along the basin are expected to rise, adding a greater strain on the region's hydrology.

Adding to the overall problems are both the ongoing drought and lighter-than-normal snowpacks in the San Juan mountains in recent years. Water experts say significant and beneficial rains over the last two summer and fall seasons have helped, but it was "like putting a Band-Aid on a major wound."

As farmers prepare for planting in 2015, concerns are elevated over whether there will be enough water to bring their crops to another successful harvest. Good rains in the second half of this year should provide enough water to get the crop started, but experts say another dry summer could be devastating if those rains don't continue late into the growing season.

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Arkansas Strikes Again!

In late 2013, during the happy aftermath of massive soybean yields, Arkansas producers — three of whom were the first to break the 100-bushel barrier — were reticent to predict another bin-busting crop for 2014.

Mercurial Mother Nature had smiled on their growing season and, they knew, she could just as easily be in a foul mood next time around.

But for many in the state, it turned out, she was just as happy in 2014. Numerous, extremely pod-heavy fields were easy to find — especially south of Forrest City.

Some 3.15 million acres were planted in soybeans this year.

As of late September, three producers had harvested 100-bushel-plus soybeans in fields that were entered in the state’s yield contest.

A repeat winner

According to Delta Farm Press Matt Miles, McGehee, Ark., was the first to repeat the yield feat. His Pioneer P45T11R soybeans cut 100.609 bushels.

Miles’ wife, Sherrie Kay, claimed her own green jacket with a field of Pioneer 48T53R beans that yielded 106.499 bushels.

Thus far, the big yield winner, however, is David Bennett (no relation to the author), who farms outside Lake Village in the southeast corner of the state. His field of Asgrow 4632 soybeans yielded 112.012 bushels — the highest total ever for an entrant in the Grow for the Green contest.

Several weeks before harvest, it was obvious that the central Delta and southeastern parts of Arkansas would bring in bumper soybean crops.

“There are great soybeans all over the area,” said Lanny Ashlock, Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board. “Rains were heavy farther north, but from around Helena south, rains were timely, and farmers were able to manage their crops well.”

Nelson Crow agreed. “We had to irrigate maybe three times,” says the Winchester producer, whose Group 3.9 soybeans last year yielded over 100 bushels. “It seems like every time we began to irrigate, it would rain.”

One key to escalating Arkansas soybean yields is shifting the crop from second-best soils to the best.

"Everybody's Pushing For Beans"

“It used to be in the Mid-South that you put soybeans wherever you didn’t have cotton or rice,” says Crow. “Now, they’ve come out of the closet, and with no more cotton, soybeans are going on our more productive ground.

“We have farmers across the Mid-South who are all trying to maximize bean yields — and there are some really good farmers. We’re all pushing these beans, trying different things, finding out what they can do. It really is new territory.”

A second key is yield contests. Crow says being involved in the yield competition “has at least doubled my knowledge of soybeans.”

The competitive drive of farmers has meant educating themselves on how best to manage the crop. “It’s pretty serious when I pull a combine out of a buckshot field and move it into a contest field to harvest before a rain,” says Matt Miles.

“I think it’s the best soybean contest in the U.S. I’ve looked at some others, and I think Arkansas is setting a precedent that others are trying to follow. The contest is doing what it was designed to do.”

The contests have “generated a ton of interest,” says Wes Kirkpatrick, Desha County Extension chair. “There are 16 contest fields in the county this year.”

‘You want to do it again’

Miles says he and consultant Robb Dedman “have enjoyed the contest. Once you do it, you want to do it again. You chase the yield, and want to compare things you’re trying with what other growers are doing. I’ve made so many contacts through this competition.”

Brad Doyle, president of the Arkansas Soybean Association (ASA), says the friendly competition among farmers “is a great story. In this process, we’re all learning from each other. We’re compiling all the data from the entry forms and, hopefully, we’ll be able to put something out through the ASA to show everyone what the contest entrants are doing to make these outstanding yields.”

Outside Dumas, producer Martin Henry says rains reduced his irrigations by half. “In a normal year, we’d irrigate six or seven times — this year, we irrigated only three times.”

Ashlock is keen to highlight Henry’s management skills.

“What’s unique is that he farms on heavy ground,” Ashlock says. “Even so, last year, his yield contest field harvested 98.5 bushels on a Sharkey clay-type soil. To me, that’s remarkable.”

Advocate for Irrigation

Henry is a big advocate of irrigation scheduling programs. “We’re fortunate to have good water around here.

“The whole farm is on the PHAUCET irrigation scheduler. That’s something that needs to be promoted. This is our third year using the program. Using it means wasting 30 percent less water. As
valuable as water is, we need to save every drop possible.”

Henry admits there was “a big learning curve” with PHAUCET. “It took a while,” he says, “but we’re comfortable with it now.

“You set up a field on the computer, plug in the flow rate from your well, and the program tells you the hole sizes to pop in the polypipe.

“Years ago, we’d just pop holes all the same, which meant one end of the field would have water, and we’d have to wait for half a day, or more, for the other end of the field to be irrigated.

“PHAUCET works. When the water is out, the field is covered. You aren’t just pouring water out the end of the field while waiting for the whole field to be covered. I wish everyone would try it.”

Henry also credits the yield contests in the state with nudging producers toward strict management of their soybean crops.

“Being involved in the Go for the Green contest has allowed us to learn so much by trying to push our beans. We wouldn’t have done that before.

“Now, we’re not just pushing one field — we’re pushing all of them. So, the contest has really helped Arkansas soybeans.”

Control Mustards in Your Winter Wheat

Look carefully, and you may notice tiny mustard weeds in your winter wheat fields. Now is the time to take care of them, says Dallas Peterson, weed specialist at Kansas State University's Department of Agronomy. 

Many farmers don't think about controlling mustard species until spring -- when they really begin to take off. "It is still possible to get some control at that time with herbicides, but mustards are much more difficult to control at that stage and often have already reduced wheat yields by then," Peterson says.

To keep yield losses to a minimum, mustards should be controlled by late winter or very early spring, before the plants begin to bolt or stems elongate.

If winter annual broadleaf weeds are present in the fall, they can be controlled with any number of ALS-inhibiting herbicides, including Ally, Amber, Finesse, Affinity, Rave, Olympus, or PowerFlex. Huskie, 2,4-D, and MCPA can also provide good control of most mustards if the weeds are at the right stage of growth and actively growing, and if the wheat is at the correct growth stage. Dicamba and Starane are not very effective for mustard control.

Here are some control tips, based on the species you are after:

• Blue mustard: Pehaps the most difficult winter annual broadleaf weed to control because it bolts very early; herbicides should be applied in late February or early March. Blue mustard is more difficult to control than tansy mustard with 2,4-D because blue mustard has often already bolted by the time 2,4-D can be safely applied to wheat. Thus, 2,4-D often is applied too late to be effective on blue mustard.
• Flixweed and tansy mustard: Treat before they reach 2 to 3 inches across and 2 to 3 inches tall; control thereafter decreases dramatically. Ester formulations of 2,4-D and MCPA are more effective than amine formulations. 
• Field pennycress: Easier to control than other species, herbicide applications made before the pennycress bolts are usually effective. Wheat should be fully tillered before applying 2,4-D, or tillering will be inhibited and wheat yields may be decreased.

Most ALS-inhibiting herbicides control winter annual mustards very well, although there are populations of treacle mustard and flixweed that are ALS-resistant and cannot be controlled by these products.

Alternative control measures will be needed to control these populations. The best approach is to use other herbicides such as 2,4-D, MCPA, or Huskie as an alternative or in a tank-mix with the ALS herbicides. MCPA can be applied after the wheat is in the three-leaf stage; but 2,4-D should not be applied until after wheat is fully tillered -- which often doesn’t occur until spring. Huskie can be applied between the 1-leaf and flag leaf stage of growth. None of these herbicides has much residual control, so the majority of weeds need to be emerged and actively growing at the time of treatment.

Some producers commonly apply ALS herbicides with fertilizer in January or February. Unfortunately, MCPA, 2,4-D, and Huskie are most effective when applied to actively growing weeds, so application when weeds are dormant may not provide good control.  As a result, if an ALS-inhibitor tank-mix with one of these herbicides is applied to dormant ALS-resistant mustards in the winter, poor control can be expected.

ALS-resistant bushy wallflower seems to be present in a number of fields in central Kansas. ALS-resistant flixweed has only been confirmed in the Saline county area, but may start to show up elsewhere. Producers should watch for cases of poor control, and consider alternative herbicides or herbicide tank-mixes to help prevent or manage ALS-resistant weeds. 

Crop rotation with corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, cotton, or sunflowers is a good way of controlling the mustards as long as they are controlled in the spring prior to producing seed. Crop rotation will usually result in a gradual reduction of mustard populations in the future as the seedbank in the soil gradually decreases.

A Front Door

History is filled with examples of entrepreneurs ginning up ideas that revolutionized U.S. agriculture. Those early pioneers had local communities that helped them nurture and grow their brainstorms until they became viable products.

But where do today’s Eli Whitneys and John Deeres and Cyrus McCormicks turn to get the help they need to launch their great innovations and build industries around them? That’s one of the biggest challenges facing agriculture as it seeks to feed, cloth and provide fuel for a rapidly growing world population.

Steve Bares, president and executive director of Memphis Bioworks Foundation, an organization that works with entrepreneurs in a number of fields, including agriculture, talked about the process during a presentation at the Tennessee AgriTech Challenge in Murfreesboro, Tenn.  Delta Farm Press reported on it.

“I have the privilege every day of working with entrepreneurs, whether we’re working with entrepreneurs in the agricultural space, in the medical device space or in the logistics areas,” said Dr. Bares. “The one thing you learn I think in the community and in the state is that entrepreneurs put batteries in our communities.

“They light the way; they provide the energy; they give you jobs; they make it so that our kids want to come back to the state and work. That’s what this is all about. What we’re trying to do is build a system around helping entrepreneurs.”

The Memphis Bioworks Foundation, which organized the conference along with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and USDA, has a track record of assisting entrepreneurs in taking their ideas to the marketplace.

Another fact Bares has learned is that ag entrepreneurs’ good ideas don’t get automatically translated into success. “That’s not what happens,” he said. “It’s actually hard to be an entrepreneur in the agricultural space. It’s not clear where we go to get the information we need.”

Too often, Bares said, entrepreneurs don’t know where to go to get the information they need on subjects such as irrigation or other areas of expertise that could help solve problems they face. They often don’t know where to get the capital they need.

“What we’ve done is we’ve made it hard for entrepreneurs, the batteries or the energies behind our communities,” he noted. “What we’ve learned in this process is that when you talk to new entrepreneurs or your customers, they tell us ‘we need to figure out how this works; we don’t get it.’ They need a front door.”

That doesn’t mean that only one organization should be working with entrepreneurs and providing that single front door, according to Bares. “If we’re doing this right, we need 12 organizations that are doing this across the state. But we still have to have a place where it all makes sense, where it all comes together.”

The goal, he said, is to enable hundreds of entrepreneurs to start many new agricultural companies in Tennessee.

Participants in the Tennessee AgriTech Challenge heard presentations by four representative startups that are seeking help in getting established. The four are scattered across the state and even into Mississippi:

Climate Adaptive Genetics. James West, a professor at Vanderbilt University and chief technology officer for the company, described a breeding program that would put Angus cattle in white coats to make them more tolerant of the heat in climates like Brazil. The project is being developed by Vanderbilt and Middle Tennessee State University. www.Climateadaptivegenetics.com

Hivalgo. John Reams, CEO, described a system that would provide refinements in grain and oilseed training through the use of information technology. www.hivalgo.com.

Croptell. Scott Sartor, CEO, discussed developing new financial farm planning software for the row crop farming industry. www.croptell.com.

Sytheros. Jim Stratigos, CEO, talked about developing a wireless sensor platform for agriculture and other industries. www.sytheros.com.

Ron Meeusen, a former scientist with Dow AgroSciences who now directs a venture capitalist firm called Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, spoke on “Investing in Agricultural Innovation,” and three panelists, William Brown, dean for research and director of the University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station; Walt Mullins, trait manager for Bayer CropScience; and Barry Knight, chief executive officer, Cresco Ag LLC, spoke on “Does Tennessee Have a Role in Global Ag Innovation?”

For a short video on this presentation click here.

FSA Meets Farm Bill Target

$100 million is a lot of money, even by government standards. But, by the time it’s all said and done, there’s one $100 million amount that farmers will more than likely agree was money well spent.

This $100 million is the money Congress provided in the Agricultural Act of 2014 to help USDA get the word out to farmers about the many new provisions in the 2014 farm bill and how they differ from those of the 2008 law.

Using those funds, USDA has held more than 2,000 farm bill education meetings since August. Some were training sessions for FSA county office employees, but the majority were meetings held by county FSA directors to introduce the new insurance-oriented Title I safety net programs to farmers.

USDA also contracted with Texas A&M University’s Agriculture and Food Policy Center, the University of Missouri’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute and the University of Illinois to develop decision aid software that allows producers to plug in their information and determine how different farm bill decisions will impact them.

Land-grant university personnel are working with farmers on how to use the new software.
“Many farmers have just finished harvest, and now they’re turning their attention to the farm bill,” says Val Dolcini, administrator of the Farm Service Agency. “We’re trying to do everything we can to make sure they have all the information they need to make good decisions.”

Dolcini, interviewed by telephone from Nashville, Tenn., where he was attending a national FSA employee farm bill training conference, agreed with an oft-repeated expression that it will take more than one meeting for many producers to fully understand the many options available under the Agricultural Act of 2014.

“It is complicated, and I think many farmers may need to hear the information from more than one source,” said Dolcini, who served as state executive director of the California Farm Service Agency before assuming the top FSA post in September. “That’s why we have partnered with the land-grant universities at most of our farm bill education meetings.”

Dolcini said FSA employees have overcome a number of challenges since President Obama signed the 2014 law in February, working through a number of issues to get to the point where they are now signing up farmers for the new programs.

“Our first step was to roll out the Livestock Forage Disaster Program, which was designed to help producers who had experienced livestock losses from droughts, floods and blizzards,” said Dolcini. “Then, in September, we launched the Dairy Margin Protection Program to provide help for dairy farmers.” (Dolcini visited a dairy farm in Orlinda, Tenn., to discuss the MPP-D program while in Tennessee.)

Farm Service Agency personnel just completed the signup for the Cotton Transition Assistance Program, a program that will provide about 5 cents per pound to producers who will not receive a direct payment or insurance payment in 2014.

And since Sept. 29, they have been working with landowners on updating yield history or reallocating base acres and, since Nov. 17, signing farmers up for the Agricultural Risk Coverage or ARC or the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs. Signup for updating yields or reallocating base acres ends Feb. 27, 2015 and for ARC or PLC ends March 31, 2015.

“These are very serious decisions for farmers,” said Dolcini. “When growers sign up for ARC or PLC, they’re committing their operations to those programs from 2014 to 2018. Our county FSA employees cannot provide advice to growers on what they should do, but they will provide all the assistance they can.”

Enrollment in the new, complicated farm bill comes at a time when FSA and USDA have fewer full-time employees (FTEs) and reduced funding for general operations. As a result, FSA has been consolidating county offices and reducing FTEs where possible. Tennessee, for example, now has 59 county offices instead of an office in each of its 95 counties.

“We’ve been able to make good use of temporary employees to stay on schedule for farm bill implementation,” said Dolcini. “We’re having them do some of the paperwork and freeing up full-time employees to handle the more complicated tasks and work with farmers.

“I won’t say it hasn’t been challenging, but we have a great group of employees, and they’ve been working very hard to keep us on schedule.”

For more information on the remaining deadlines for signing up for 2014 farm bill programs, see http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/printapp?fileName=nr_20141002_rel_0161.html&newsType=newsrel

Market Confusion!

This week the soybean market is fulfilling one of Murphy’s Laws: “The market will do whatever is necessary to fool the majority.” According to a report by Agriculture.com, cash soybean bids broke above the $1.00 rally level on October 29. Strength at that time led many to believe there were large gains still ahead. Since then, action has leveled off, and prices have become much less volatile. Bets that prices could go straight up were tempered by two days, November 4 and November 19, when they broke below the dollar level. Both times there was a quick rebound back above that “magic“ level.

Scanning the charts of cash bids and March futures gives the impression that the high was on October 31 with the price of $9.69. However, the ability of the market to rebound every time the support level is broken makes me think that the bids could hold in this area or higher for a long time.

In addition to chart action that is somewhat bullish is the fact that basis has finally started to improve. I admit that the move is small and not consistent across all price levels. It is at least better than having the basis deteriorate as the record soybean crop finally comes to town. Hope that the end of the year will see much better basis and gradually improving cash bids.

Meanwhile, corn bids continue to plug along, pennies up and pennies down. The net result has been a gradually improving cash bid. That is better than having violent large moves up and down but not going anywhere. At least the price today is such that market analysts have stopped taking about cash corn prices below $3.00. With the size of the 2014 crop, it may take until spring for corn to be above production cost if indeed it ever gets there for most of us.

All cash bids quoted in this column are from Midwest Farmers Co-op in southeast Nebraska.

The Crops and the Bees

Delta Farm Press reported on the EPA release was news to farmers who have been producing significantly higher soybean yields in the Mid-South.

“EPA finds neonicotinoid seed treatments of little or no benefit to U.S. soybean production,” the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention said in the release. “There is no increase in soybean yield using most neonicotinoid seed treatments compared to no pest control at all.”

The study, which comes as EPA is under pressure from environmental activist groups to withdraw the registrations of neonicotinoid insecticides because they claim they are a threat to bees, caused quite a bit of consternation in the farm chemical industry.

“On the 15^th of October, we got an October surprise from EPA when they issued this very cursory report saying they had done a benefits analysis and found there are little to no benefits for the use of seed treatments of neonicotinoids on soybeans,” said Jay Vroom, CEO of CropLife America, the organization representing  crop protection chemical manufacturers.

“That is a great reminder to me that part of the truth is way more harmful and damaging than an outright lie, and, unfortunately, our friends at EPA know that a lot better than we do.”

Vroom, speaking at the Southern Crop Production Association annual meeting in New Orleans, said the industry was determined not to let the claims go unchallenged and began responding almost immediately after the EPA press release hit the streets.

“Fortunately, the neonicotinoid registrants already have massive benefits analysis underway. That was being used that Wednesday afternoon just hours after we met with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and the team from the Office of Pesticides, and we voiced our frustrations and dismay that they kept this analysis of benefits a state secret and blindsided us with it.”

“I think we’re on top of this now, and in my subsequent conversations with EPA leadership, I’m beginning to hear that they may be thinking about doing a little bit more course correction on some of the follow-on label change actions that they were contemplating at EPA,” Vroom said.

Most Americans have only a cursory knowledge of honeybees, he noted. Some may have heard of the threat the Varroa mite poses to bees, but they have no idea what the mite is or what it does to pollinators.

Vroom displayed a photo taken at the Bayer CropScience Bee Center in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. Center personnel use a visual that is about the size of a sofa pillow to show visitors the impact one Varroa mite can have on a honey bee.

The primary weapon for combatting the Varroa mite is a miticide or a pesticide that will eliminate the pest without endangering the honeybee.

“It’s a great reminder in a visual way to those who have concerns about the health of pollinators that there are a lot of factors associated with pollinator health that go well beyond inadvertent exposure to pesticides that may diminish honey bee health,” he noted.

“And, in fact, the answer to the mite problem is miticides, which are pesticides. That’s an eye opener for a lot of folks in the public that don’t know anything about these issues.”

The bee health issue has now gone all the way to the top, he said, with President Obama creating a federal government pollinator task force last June. He made USDA and EPA the co-chairs of the task force.”

“We were pleased with that and commended the president for that move,” said Vroom. “But we’ve been disappointed that USDA has not kept pace with the leadership from EPA around driving the bus on the pollinator task force for the president."        `

Since the EPA's release, the neonicotinoid registrants - Bayer CropScience, Syngenta and Valent USA Corp. - have issued a number of reports about the efficacy and benefits of the compounds in seed treatments on a number of crops, including soybeans. To see those reports, visit www.GrowingMatters.org.

Fertilizer Prices & The 4 R's of Nutrient Application

I hope harvest has been going smoothly for you, though delayed for most in Ohio this fall. This week Agriculture.com has some information that is important as we think about fall and spring input prices.

Fertilizer prices are higher this fall compared to a year ago on seven of the eight common forms.

Some farmers anticipate prices softening between now and spring so they are holding off on purchasing fertilizer inputs. This may or may not hold true as retailers say that the high cost of freight and rail will keep fertilizer prices locked in. Retailers are seeing less fertilizer sales today compared to a year ago.

Fertilizer accounts for over 40 percent of your variable input costs for corn and about 25 percent of your soybean variable input costs. The way this input is managed can have a large effect on your bottom line - yield and cost.
​
Remember the four “R”s of nutrient application: the right source, and at the right rate, in the right place, at the right time.

Fall Nitrogen Application Tips

Efficient nitrogen (N) applications can translate into a better bottom line. Here are five tips Agriculture.com came up with to help you efficiently manage your fall N applications.

1. Watch the temperature.“Our guideline is, when it hits 50°F. between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. at the 4-inch depth, it’s time to apply,” says Dave Franzen, North Dakota State University Extension soil specialist. 

Applying anhydrous ammonia before soil temperatures reach 50°F. can lead to ammonium conversion to nitrite, says John Sawyer, Iowa State University Extension soil fertility specialist. He recommends spring N applications and sidedressing instead of fall applications to avoid loss.

2. Consider the soil type.“Soils that have a greater chance for N loss would be less preferred for fall applications,” says Sawyer. Also, avoid applying N in the fall on historically wet fields.

3. Plan split applications.
Franzen recommends applying half of the total N rate in the fall or preplant, and then the other half when the corn reaches V5 to V8.


“That way, if it does become really wet in May and early June, you only have half of your N at risk,” Franzen explains.

4. Use the correct form.
Only certain types of N fertilizer should be fall applied. For fall applications in Iowa, Sawyer only recommends anhydrous ammonia. All other forms should be spring-applied he says. 


“Some states don’t recommend putting on urea at all, but we haven’t found that to be an issue,” says Franzen. However, he doesn’t recommend UAN for fall applications.

5. Follow the guidelines. Franzen recommends checking state guidelines before making N applications. State guidelines will give combinations recommendations for fall N applications, he says.

11 Ways to Cut Grain Drying

Recently Agriculture.com looked at the best ways to cut into grain drying.  Here is what they came up with.

Drying grain can be one of the most energy-intensive operations on the farm. When you burn fuel to produce that energy, you also burn money. 

There isn’t an easy solution to cut costs. “No two farms are the same,” says Gary Woodruff, GSI. “There isn’t one best way to dry grain.” 

This list will help you identify energy-saving tips for the size of your operation and your grain-drying infrastructure.

1 Run in all-heat mode
“One thing that’s been around for a long time but is still cost effective is running a portable dryer in the all-heat mode,” says Woodruff. 

In all-heat mode, you heat the grain in the dryer and cool it in the bin. “The advantage is you can come out of the dryer at a higher moisture content, and then you lose one, two, or three points of moisture in the cooling process,” explains Kerry Hartwig, Sukup Manufacturing Co. “Drying those last points takes the most energy.”

That can save you 20% to 30% of your operating costs, says Woodruff. Running in all-heat mode also increases your efficiency, because grain flows through the dryer more quickly. Plus, you end up with better quality grain, because cooling grain rapidly can increase stress cracks on corn kernels. 

There are limitations to running in all-heat mode. This drying system won’t work on most bins larger than 50,000 bushels. That’s because you need to run between 1∕3 and ½ cfm of air through each bushel when the bin is full. For bins 50,000 bushels or smaller, you will need to have larger aeration fans and increase the number of roof vents. It will also require more management. 

“There are better drying systems on the market that don’t require the extra management that all-heat mode requires,” says Woodruff, “but this is one of the least expensive ways to improve how you process grain on your farm.”

2 Buy an all-heat dryer 
If your present dryer can’t run in all-heat mode, consider upgrading. “A new all-heat dryer gives the most capacity, efficiency, and quality for the dollar, even with the bin aeration upgrades required,” says Woodruff.

3 Upgrade to vacuum cooling or heat recovery
“For larger operations, it will be more efficient for grain to come out of the dryer cool,” says Hartwig. “That’s where vacuum cooling or heat recovery can make a big difference.”

In vacuum cooling, heat that is given off by the cooling grain is cycled back into the drying process. By doing this, less fuel is required to raise the drying air temperature.
Vacuum cooling is offered on tower dryers, centrifugal dryers, and centrifugal stack dryers. 

“With vacuum cooling, you can dry grain with even better efficiency than you can with all-heat drying,” says Woodruff. “You will spend more money up front, and you’re going to need a pretty good size grain dryer to get that newer technology.”

4 Dry grain evenly
“If a dryer dries grain faster in some areas and slower in others, the dryer will overdry grain to make up for the underdried grain,” says Hartwig. “This adds drying cost in extra fuel used and lower grain test weights from overdrying.”

There are different systems available to help you dry grain more evenly. Sukup’s single-module and stacked dryers use a quad-metering roll system that pulls dryer grain near the inside of the grain column out of the dryer faster, while leaving wetter grain near the outside of the column in the dryer longer. Stacked dryers also use a grain cross-over system that takes grain from one side of the dryer on the top module to the other side of the dryer on the bottom module. This inverts the grain for more even drying. Sukup tower dryers use a grain exchanger system halfway down the heat chamber.

Another option is to use a system like GSI’s grain inverters. The inverters move all grain, except the outer 2 inches within the column, to eliminate overdried grain and to maximize drying efficiency. The inverters redirect the warmest grain from the inside of the column next to the wettest grain at the outside of the column. The wet grain is dried by the captured heat, which recovers up to 15% of the heat that would have been lost.

5 Run at a higher plenum temperature
“One thing you might not be aware of is that the higher you run your plenum temperature, the more efficiently you dry grain,” says Woodruff. “At the end of the season, farmers will say they are only removing three to four moisture points, so they lowered their plenum temperature to save some fuel. Exactly the opposite happens.”

Running at a higher temperature reduces the drying time and, therefore, saves you fuel. However, higher temperatures can potentially do more damage, so you need to find a good balance. “Each dryer’s airflow and column management is different, so you have to balance efficiency with quality,” says Woodruff. “There will be a maximum best temperature for each type of dryer.”

6 Do preseason maintenance
Before you start drying grain, make sure there are no obstructions in the columns and that the burner is ready to go. During harvest, empty, clean, and restart the dryer once a week to make sure the dryer is performing optimally. 

“Like any other piece of equipment, if you don’t take the time to clean it and keep it in operating mode, you are probably going to reduce your efficiency,” says Woodruff.

7 Avoid overdrying
Grain needs to be dried to a safe moisture level so it can be stored. This can range from 13% to 15%, depending on how long you will store the grain. However, you want to avoid overdrying. Grain takes more energy per point of moisture removed. So drying beyond the desired moisture level will eat up extra energy.

8 Use a remote monitoring system
One way to keep from overdrying is to use a remote monitoring system. These systems differ for each manufacturer, but most will allow you to monitor all dryer controls just like you would at the dryer from a smartphone, tablet, or other device. 

“Farmers want to be able to monitor their dryers in the combine, at home, wherever they are,” says Hartwig. 

With some systems, like Sukup’s remote monitoring and GSI’s WatchDog, you can also make adjustments remotely. 

“The only thing you can’t do is start the dryer without being there, because that would be dangerous,” says Woodruff. “You can adjust things like the plenum temperature, moisture control setting, and unload limits.”

Beyond avoiding over-drying, remote controls will also ensure that the dryer is running efficiently and hasn’t stopped for some reason. 

“The average dryer puts 2,500 bushels through an hour,” says Woodruff. “In 10 hours, that’s 25,000 bushels. If your dryer isn’t running for that long, that can make a huge difference.”

9 Manage dryability for different hybrids
“There is a lot of variation in the way different corn varieties dry,” says Hartwig. “Even with the same hybrid, there can be drying differences in different years.”

Woodruff says this has become more of an issue in the past five years. His recommendation is to closely monitor your dryer when you change fields or when you’ve changed varieties to make sure the dryer is running where you think it should be.

10 Check moisture controls
To make sure your dryer is running properly, pull samples, check the moisture control, and make sure the dryer is where it is supposed to be. 

“Moisture sensors are temperamental. It only takes one little stock of grain hanging up in the wrong place to throw their values off,” says Hartwig. “You should pull samples two to three times a day.”

11 Get an energy audit
“Sometimes you need someone who is willing to look at your entire operation to make sure that you are operating in the best way you can for your system,” says Woodruff. 

One way to do this is to get an energy audit. Your local NRCS office should have a list of businesses that conduct professional energy audits. 

A USDA REAP grant is available to help you upgrade your system if you can increase your efficiency by 25%.

“If you pursue a grant, work with a grant writer,” advises Woodruff. Learn more about the grant at Rurdev.usda.gov/energy.