Young grain farmers need to know soil fertility, herbicides to use, and insect and diseases that can occur in their fields. The extension service is a good resource for information and diagnosis of problems in grain production.

A young grain producer calls on me for information concerning fertility, weed management, disease and insect controls. I help him with his soil test information, seed planting rates and herbicides he uses on his corn and soybean fields. This young grain farmer is trying to achieve high yields with low inputs, hoping to make the most profit.

The Wayne County Extension Office has been conducting a corn, soybean and wheat yield contest the last thirty-nine years. This year this young grain farmer achieve the highest soybean yield recorded in this contest at 85.86 bushels per acre. The Extension Service is providing him with valuable information to achieve high yields.

One of the production practices this farmer used was spraying fungicides and insecticides on his high yielding soybean field. He called on me for advice on when and if he should spray his field with fungicides and insecticides. I gave him the information on when to spray and if he should spray the chemical controls and he choose to spray. The fields he sprayed gave him an additional 10 to 15 bushel increase per acre in soybeans. 

With those results he is planning on using fungicides and insecticides on his soybean production again, with the possibility of making him an additional $50.00 per acre profit.