At least we're not in Illinois

There’s quite a bit of anxiety around the countryside these days as the calendar moves relentlessly forward, yet a lot of corn and soybean seed remains safe and dry in the bag. The weather hasn’t exactly been cooperating for a lot of people and they’re getting a bit antsy. By the middle of this week the best guess was that Ontario had about 50 per cent of the corn planted but not much more than 10 per cent of the soybeans.
But let’s keep our perspective here. It’s only May 14. Sure, we like to have corn planted before May 1 and get soybeans in not too long after. But we’re still a lot better off than the folks in Illinois and Indiana. As of Monday, the former had just 10 per cent of the corn acreage in the ground. And these people need to be done a lot sooner than us northerners.
So, should we start switching hybrids or go from corn to soys? The general consensus among agronomists is that it’s too early to make a move. Don’t do anything before May 20. Of course, if your field is too wet today, it’s not likely you’ll be doing any planting before then anyway so the debate becomes academic.

Another question this week revolved around the wisdom of planting soybans into a dead winter wheat stand when you've already applied nitrogen to the wheat. There's a commonly held notion that the beans become "lazy" in a high-nitrogen environment. "Poppycock", says Cargill's Pat Lynch. Well, he didn't actually say that but that was the gist of it. The detrimental effect of nitrogen on soybeans is an old wive's tale, he says. In fact, it might actually be beneficial. The bottom line: don't worry if you've already applied nitrogen and it's getting too late for corn. Plant soybeans and don't listen to the folk tales.