The only frost I like is on a mug
It’s been awhile, but just like the frost in early fall: the Soil Sound Off was bound to show up. But, hopefully unlike the frost, this article is being greeted, instead of dreaded. The frost I am referring to was the hard-frost that came through on the morning of Sept. 28.
Gardeners, farmers, and pranksters looking to fork a yard during homecoming week know a frost all too well. Side note: forking is when you wait for a night when a frost will settle in, and you stick plastic forks in someone’s front yard. When it freezes over night it makes it impossible to pull the forks back out, especially without them breaking off. A great prank, but, young reader: don’t do it.
To get back on track; not all frosts are the same. Most people would call a “frost” when the temperature gets briefly to 32 degrees Fahrenheit. There is also something called a ‘hard-frost’ or what some would call: a killing frost. This occurs when temperatures get to 32 degrees, or even low as 28 degrees, for several hours.
The landscape takes a sudden deep-freeze and will kill most vegetation; vegetables, flowers, and row crops. But other plants (such as grasses, clovers, trees) will persevere and slow their growth process, because they take it as a sign for winter.
When planting dates are not delayed, an early frost isn’t a major issue. It is when we have a delayed planting that brings risk. A light frost will not kill the entire corn plant, which is important, because the plant can continue to photosynthesize, and carbohydrates from the stalk move into grain.
When it is a killing frost, photosynthesis and the movement of nutrients is stopped, hard. The plant then “panics” and the kernels make a black layer prematurely. The black layer seals off the kernels from getting extra nutrients. Besides yield loss, a hard frost can frustrate harvesting. With the frost killing the plant, from the top down, rapid dry down can accelerate the window for harvest. Though an early harvest is a good thing, in this case it’s becoming easy to miss the proper time. Silage corn is losing 1-2 points of moisture per day, going from 68 percent moisture to 64 percent in just a few days. Soybeans have been observed to have split their pods open, and gently dropping seed to the ground, a loss of 4-6 bushels per acre. Granted, the plants want their seed to hit the ground, but seeds on the ground do not pay the bank loan.
From what I have gathered, the high-stress acres have dried down the fastest. The ‘high stress’ are mainly from compaction that caused shallow rooting, which prevents plants from accessing moisture and also cause the roots to become over saturated with moisture. Excess water (from heavy rains) drains slower in heavily compacted fields, which can cause root rot. Next time you are out in your corn field, check the tasseled area of your plants; if they are bleached of green color, they probably got root rot late in the season.
It was a hard thing to predict this spring; that a delayed planting season would pose a punishing event from a killing frost. All is not glum though. The quickened silage harvesting and soybean combining has eliminated arduous work in poor/cold weather conditions, and created opportunities for seeding small grains like winter rye, triticale, or wheat for cover crops or next year cash grain, or forage. This adaptive rotation helps amend the soil profile, enhances water management, energizes the biology, and sets up another source of income. That is what makes our farming community unique; when a situation puts farmers into a corner, they get resourceful.
These next two weeks will be some interesting field days to attend in our area. On Oct. 6 a NUE project from UW Discovery will be on display at a plot outside of Colby at Mike Redetzke’s farm. A split trial of silage corn will show silage yield and quality in varied rates of nitrogen applications on different field treatments. Mike’s farm is at 110891 Elderberry Rd. in Colby. The event is from 1 - 3 p.m. I will be presenting along with EPPIC and UW Discovery Farms that day, hope to see you there.
And on Oct. 14, Marathon County is having a field day at Dave Bauman’s farm (221584 Fairfield Dr. Edgar, WI) from 9:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. There, they will have a soil pit and a demonstration of a rain fall simulator.
The Soil
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