Posted July 02, 2024 | By: Nutrien Ag Solutions

Crop Consultant, Nolan Taylor, shares his insights on what Kentucky growers can do to mitigate crop stress in the current heat and what products he would recommend for a thriving yield.

Episode Transcript:

Farm Progress broadcast presents this Week in Agribusiness Serving America's most essential industry brought to you by Case IH solutions for every challenge, equipment for every farm Case IH built by farmers.  Well, flooding and heavy rains aren't the only challenges facing American crop growers this year.

Heat, particularly in the South, has been a concern, and that's the topic of this week's Agronomy for your Acres with Nutrien Ag Solutions. Joining us to bring us up to speed on this heat wave is Nolan Taylor. He's a Crop Consultant down in Cecilia, Kentucky. And Nolan. How are crops in Kentucky grappling with this hot weather?

Well, it really depends. This year, we've had a lot longer than normal planting window. We had about a 75-day planting window for corn, which is normally about 45 days. So we have a lot of early corn that is getting ready to go into reproduction. And a lot of late corn is just setting nodal roots and just getting out of the ground.

As you look at that part of the growing stage where we are, Nolan, what are the risks when we see this kind of heat event on a growing crop? Right. The reproductive stage is obviously the most critical part cause it's going to start putting that tassel out and setting that air and it's going to start putting all of its energy into that air development.

So it's very critical that it doesn't have any stress whatsoever. It needs all the nutrients and all the water it get. And so it's very critical with those late-planted corn plants, they're just trying to get their roots set. So they need to be able to get plenty of nutrients and get the root depth so that they can set up for the rest of the season.

Absolutely, Nolan, you know when we get this kind of a heat event on our crops, we can't just go out and give them lemonade. What do you recommend as a way for farmers to moderate or mitigate some of this crop stress? So the first thing I would recommend would be to contact your local Crop Consultant, have them come out, walk some fields, examine how your crop is looking.

And I would recommend taking tissue samples, that lets us have a snapshot in time of where that plant is as far as nutrient uptake and what it might be lacking in nutrients. And at that point, after about a 48-hour turnaround, we can get those results back and really have a good idea of what kind of products we can put on the crop to get it back up to optimal potential.

Well, Nolan, I know you were out there in a field right now. I'm sure you've been doing these kind of tests. Are there some products have jumped out to you as being effective in this environment? Absolutely. With Loveland Products, we've got a whole host of products that we put on the crop. After we get the tissue samples back, we can examine them and see if there's one specific nutrient that is lacking and we can focus on that nutrient or if it's just lacking in a few different ones.

We have a great product called NutriSync Complete 3D that we can put on and it kind of gives it a booster, it's a whole host of micronutrients to get it going and get it replenished. Lots of options out there, even in a challenging growing season like this one. Nolan Taylor, Crop Consultant with Nutrien Ag Solutions, thanks so much for joining us this week and sharing your insight on Agronomy for your Acres. Thank you. You can learn more about their offerings by visiting NutrienAgSolutions.ca