Fertility
Crops don’t grow well without ample plant food, and fertility is the biggest recurring expense on any farm. Finding the best and most cost-effective ways to meet the fertility needs of your crops will help them thrive all season long and build better yields at harvest.
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Row Spacings, Fungicides at Planting in Corn, Jump Start Your Pasture
Brian and Darren Hefty discuss setting wide or narrow row crops, how putting a fungicide in-furrow can improve yield, and the best way to get your pasture thick and lush. Plus they give advice on spotted spurge weeds and planter opening discs.
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Jump Start Your Pasture
If you want a great lush pasture this year, start now. Brian and Darren Hefty talk pasture soil sampling, gibberellic acid, fertility, weeds and more.
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Acidic Soil and Lime
Darren Hefty explains why farmers sometimes apply lime, or calcium carbonate, to their soils.
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Tillering in Crops, Super Early Pre-Emerge Spraying, Nutrient Stratification
In this episode, Brian and Darren Hefty talk about suckers in wheat and corn, the earliest you can spray before you plant, and where the fertility should be in the different layers of soil. Volunteer corn is the Weed of the Week. And Darren discusses field cultivators in the Iron Talk segment.
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Nutrient Stratification
Where exactly is all your fertilizer? Brian & Darren talk the importance of having your P, Zn, Cu, K at the right layers of the soil.
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Frost Heaves In The Road, Molybdenum Matters, Planting Population
Brian and Darren Hefty talk about how to stop winter damage on your roads, how much molybdenum your crops need, and exactly how thick or thin you should plant your corn and soybeans. Tough puncturevine is the Weed of the Week and the Germinator Closing Wheel is discussed in this week's Iron Talk.
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Planting Population
What's the ideal planting population for corn and soybeans? Brian and Darren give you the equations and ideas so you don't plant too thick or too thin.
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Molybdenum Matters
You don't need much "moly", but all your crops must have some molybdenum. Brian and Darren tackle this hard to say and hard to to measure micronutrient in this episode.
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Nutrient Movement In Soil, Plant Growth Hormones, Mulder's Chart
The Hefty brothers discuss how various nutrients move or stay put in the soil profile, what plant growth hormones you could use, and how to use Mulder's Chart to help balance your soil's fertility.
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Nutrient Movement In Soil
Brian and Darren talk about how various nutrients either move down or stay where they are in the soil profile.
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Plant Growth Hormones
The Hefty brothers discuss the use of various plant growth hormones in crops.
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Mulder's Chart
Brian and Darren Hefty discuss understanding Mulder's Chart can help you get your soil fertility in balance.
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Phosphorus Fertilizer
Have you ever wondered where fertilizer actually comes from? Darren Hefty explains in this week's Ag Minute.
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Soil Temperature Variation, Elemental Sulfur & Soil pH, Herbicide Incorporation
In this Ag PhD episode, the Hefty brothers discuss how much a soil temp can vary during the day, what to consider when applying elemental sulfur, and when you should incorporate your soil-applied herbicide.
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Elemental Sulfur and Soil pH
Brian and Darren discuss considerations when it comes to applying elemental sulfur to your fields.
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Understand Soil Test Results with Midwest Labs
Join us as agronomic field representative Ashley Babl, walks us through the impact of CEC, Organic Matter, soil pH and Buffer Index on your soil fertility and irrigation management.
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Surface vs. Sub-Surface Drainage, Silica and Your Crops, Dry Beans Management
Brian and Darren Hefty discuss tiling and ditching, their trials with silica, and weed control and more in dry beans. The Weed of the Week is crabgrass. Plus we talk about how drought can actually help you prepare variable rate planting maps.
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Can Silica Help Your Crops?
Are you measuring your silica content in your soil and crops? Brian and Darren talk about the latest developments with silica use in agriculture.
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Dry Beans Management
Brian and Darren talk weed control in this crop not often discussed by the Heftys. Plus they give their input on insects, diseases, and fertility in dry beans.
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Salt and Plants
Darren Hefty talks about how too much salt is harmful to plants.
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Ears of Corn Per Plant, Corn Smut, Soil Organic Matter
This week, the Hefty brothers discuss how many ears of corn can be on a single plant, how to fight corn smut, and how to increase or decrease soil organic matter.
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Split-Applying Nitrogen
Darren Hefty talks about equipment to consider when making multiple nitrogen applications during the season.
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Soil Organic Matter
The Hefty brothers talk about the importance of organic matter in soil and how you can either increase it or deplete it over the years.
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Growing Possibilities, Episode 2, Past, Present and Future of inoculants
The role of inoculants in sustainable agriculture and how they work on a cellular level. This video explores the history of inoculants as well as looking at the role they play in relation to synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. At the five minute mark you can find an animation detailing how inoculants...