Mark Licht is an associate professor and Extension cropping systems specialist in the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University.
His Extension, research and teaching program is focused on how to holistically manage Iowa cropping systems to achieve productivity, profitability and environmental goals. His research is centered around varied aspects of soybean, corn and cover crop management.
Licht took time this week to talk with IFT about what he’s focused on for the upcoming growing season.
IFT: In Iowa we closed out March and started April with some snow and rain. Did that help solve the drought that has been persistent throughout Iowa and Missouri?
LICHT: From a surface soil standpoint, we have seen a bit of relief, so it’s helping. The downside is we haven’t had enough to get us through the growing season and reduce the spread of drought. There have been some pockets of reprieve, but that extreme drought area still covers northeast Iowa and moderate to severe droughts in central and southwest Iowa.
What we are looking for is long, soaking rains to allow water to infiltrate into that subsoil. The downside is that spring is often when we get those 1-, 2- or 3-inch rains and those are not as useful because they tend to run off more than we actually see infiltrate.
IFT: People will be planting soon. Do current conditions change how we need to manage things like termination of cover crops?
LICHT: Good question. It relieves the sense of urgency because we’ve received some of that recent topsoil moisture. I still think we probably should terminate cover crops a little bit earlier, just because I don’t know if we will get that subsoil rejuvenated or replenished. Terminating the cover crop is probably still a safe bet for us.
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IFT: Early to mid-May tends to be the focus for those looking at possible last frosts of the year. If that happens, what are the first signs of cold damage that you would see on those early planted crops?
LICHT: Starting with corn, if you have cold injury, you may see leafing out underground and large delays or variance in emergence. If you have either corn or soybeans that were emerged when we got the cold temperatures, you’ll see what I would call water-soaked leaves. If you are out there right away, you’ll see that and see where they had the cold injury and that slowly will turn leaves brown and they’ll die off.
If we see whole plants that die, or appear to die, we need to wait five to seven days in corn to see if we get regrowth. The growing point is below the surface for several weeks, so it could recover.
For soybeans, the growing point is above the ground, and so if you have those brown plants, there’s not really a chance they’ll come back, assuming the growing point was terminated. If the point wasn’t damaged you’ll start seeing it green back up and new growth coming on.
IFT: Are there any specific worries you have going into the season, whether it be pests or disease?
LICHT: I’m concerned with how warm we were through the winter and what that did for overwintering insects. If they overwintered better than normal and had less mortality, we could have a bit more pressure. Scouting fields early will be advisable from an insect side of things.
Then just kind of recognizing what conditions — soybeans, in particular — were planted into because of how cool it is now. We’ve got some moisture, so there’s risk of sudden death syndrome. It’s usually a disease where you get that root rot from germination through first and second trifoliate, and if you are on the wet side, it can be a bit more problematic.
IFT: What are some of your research focuses for the upcoming growing season?
LICHT: We are doing a little bit of additional research with short-statured corn and looking at how well it responds to seeding rates and fungicide applications. We are also doing some plant defoliation and seeing if those short-statured hybrids are responding to it the same way tall-statured hybrids are.
We are also doing more work with cover crops again, so looking at basically trying to learn how to limit the yield penalty on the corn side of things. Then we could possibly alter management to not have that penalty with cereal rye, in particular, ahead of corn.
We are also doing some work with relay intercropping, so basically looking at soybeans that get seeded into winter rye or winter wheat in April and then harvest that wheat or rye in early to mid-July and harvesting soybeans in October. We are looking at that system to see if we can maybe intensify our production profitability and get the nutrient loss reduction benefits that we would get with having a cover crop.