Posted October 08, 2024 | By: Nutrien Ag Solutions

Crop Consultant Dustin Fritzmeier discusses harvest progress in Kansas and shares his advice for growers as they plan for the 2025 season.

Episode Transcript:

Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us here for This Week in Agribusiness. I'm Mike Pearson. As the calendar flipped to October last week, it was a busy week for farmers across the country.

In the Southeast, growers began the cleanup process after Hurricane Helene and in other parts of the country, harvest has moved ahead. That's the focus of this week's Agronomy for your Acres with our friends from Nutrien Ag Solutions. Joining us this week is Dustin Fritzmeier of Leoti, Kansas. Dustin, thanks for taking the time to chat with us. I appreciate you having me today, Mike.

So, Leoti, Kansas, as I recall, you are far western Kansas, basically between Scott City and the Colorado border. Is that right? That's correct. We're out here, out here on the flatlands of Kansas. Well, how is harvest progress moving in your part of the world? Harvest is going great, Mike. We've got a lot of silage acres wrapped up. Right now, we're in the middle of getting some dry land out.

Some of our irrigated is just getting ready. And we've got some stuff where moisture contents right where it needs to be and others that it's going to take a couple of weeks to get some stuff dried down. But we're right in the heat of it. Yields are looking solid for growers? Yields are looking good. It's you know, we've got a lot of different rainfall through our few counties out here.

And so things are kind of sporadic. But we've got some really good dryland corn. I've heard some bushels coming in over that 120 to 130 mark and a lot of stuff where, you know, rainfall is a little bit short, you know, and that 60 to 80 range so it's a little bit all over the board. A lot of diversity in that part of the country.

Dustin. Looks like you might be standing in a field plot. We've got some signs behind you. Can you tell us a little bit about what you've been working on there? Absolutely. Corn plots are something we really like doing. We were able to get a good look at different varieties that are coming out throughout the year. So this particular one is on a farmer that's been working with us for the last decade, and we've got four different hybrids from three different companies.

And we're ready to get through it and get some data pulled off for next year coming up.  I know you don't have the data yet from the harvest, but how have things looked through the growing season in the plot? Yeah, things that look great. This particular field has been one that's got some beneficial rains.

It has been one that the farmer's done a great job of getting his yield right where he wants to be. And we're looking forward to some good yields. Pulled a couple of ears out, got some 54VC14 Dyna-Gro and it's a 114-day product that we're really looking forward to to cover some of our dry land possibly, and into our irrigated acres for sure.

All right. New options coming for growers. Dustin, let's talk about what comes next year. I'm sure some of your farmers are already looking ahead to that 2025 season. And what are some of the issues on your mind? This time of year is always fun. For us it’s seed selling season. And so we're out talking to farmers, you know, hey, what is the game plan for next year. Mike, we jump on combines and I get a lot of responses of “hey, I don't want to talk about 2025 corn when I haven't even got this this field completed and I don't even know what I've got for this year”.

But it's important for us to have those conversations early so that we can logistically get corn on order, get the right seed size, the right hybrid, because if we wait until springtime, oftentimes, you know, we run into supply issues if we don't get those things booked early. And so our seed companies are going to incentivize that by using prepaid discounts and we at Nutrien Ag Solutions have really aggressive and competitive financial options that we can use through our Nutrien Financial program.

So I definitely encourage people to talk to your local crop consultants about what those finance options are and how those can be a player for you. All right, Dustin, real quick, before we let you go, any other thoughts in your mind here as harvest season works through? Absolutely, Mike. At Nutrien, we have safety as one of our core values.

And when it comes to fall harvest, we know it's a long season of the year, our fall harvest, and it's one that can be really busy. I want to take a moment and just encourage anybody who may be partaking in fall harvest to take your time this year as you're going down the roads, going through intersections. There's still corn there.

Keep an eye on the road and what's going on. You know, take that cell phone, put it in the seat next to you. That text message can wait till you get to the elevator, back to the field. It's important to keep our eyes on the road. And just as important as our physical safety is also our mental safety.

I'm fortunate enough to be a part of a company that has an employee helpline to be able to call into if there's, you know, mental issues that we're going through. And I think as farmers, a lot of times we can have this rough and tough mentality that that I got to pull myself up by my bootstraps. Sometimes that's tough to do on our own and so by no means do you have to feel like you've got to do harvest on your own, like you got to do life on your own, reach out to somebody.

And even if that's your local Nutrien Ag Solutions, they can help point in the right direction to where some help might be needed. So, you know, agronomy for your acres is important and we want to keep you as a farmer continuing to gain that agronomy and continuing to farm together. Absolutely. Dustin Fritzmeier, Leoti, Kansas, Crop Consultant with Nutrien Ag Solutions, thank you so much for joining us this week.

Thanks, Mike. And you can learn more at NutrienAgSolutions.ca