By: CFAES Ag Crisis Taskforce
Normal planting dates for Ohio range from mid-April to the end of May. This season was quite different when planting for both crops was delayed until late May and stretched into June and even July across many parts of Ohio. We found ourselves grasping for any information we could find including 1) how much of an effect late planting dates would have on yield, and 2) what, if anything, we should change in management of these late planted crops. The historical planting date information we did have was somewhat helpful, but we did not have any data on what could happen when planting is delayed into the second half of June nor July.
While it may be tempting to write off this year as a fluke from which there are no real lessons to be learned, there is a growing body of data from climatologists that suggest that this is a beginning of a trend. What we have is a giant, unplanned and involuntary trial being conducted by Ohio corn and soybean farmers this year. This experiment can help us understand the ramifications of how planting date and hybrid/variety maturity affected overall yields, as well as pinpoint where further research is needed to fill the gaps in knowledge for future management decisions. To accomplish these goals, we plan to collect a small amount of data on a large number of fields, which can be used to provide baseline information to share how to manage these crops under similar weather events in the future.
To do this, we have a simple request: share your information with us. We ask only for the following information from as many fields as possible:
- County where the field is located
- Crop: corn or soybean
- Planting date
- Harvest date
- Maturity rating (corn relative maturity (days RM); soybean maturity group) of crop planted
- Yield
- Harvest moisture
- Test weight
Information on weather or management can be added, but this is optional. The information can be submitted to us in one of two ways: 1. Follow this link, go.osu.edu/yield19, to an online form with which you can report one field at a time or 2. Print or download a paper form at go.osu.edu/yield19form, fill it out for as many fields as possible, and send a copy via email to Elizabeth Hawkins (Hawkins.301@osu.edu). We will collect this data from farmers until December 31, 2019.
Additional notes:
1. Don’t forget to include early or normal planting dates too. This will help us capture the breadth of the crop in 2019. We want data across a wide range of planting dates, not just late plantings
2. If a field has drowned-out spots where there’s no yield, either don’t use the field average or estimate yield from yield monitor data from parts of the field where stands were representative.