Episode 378: Boots In The Field Report January 28, 2026

Ken talks about what to consider in several areas due to drought conditions; tillage, anhydrous applications, topdressing wheat, population and hybrid selection and more in this week’s Boots In The Field Report!

Ken continues to answer questions that came in during our CTC Winter Virtual College and answers the following questions: “Where would you rank the closing wheel system when it comes to planter attachment updates in comparison to all the other updates you can buy?”, “ How can I evaluate my stand to identify if my closing system is an issue?”, and “Can you put too much downforce on a cast iron wheel?”

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie walks through some of the questions that come in during the Virtual College about tillage tools and how to evaluate which is the right one for your situation. 

In this week’s Boots in the Field Report Ken Ferrie walks through some important aspects of doing a good year end review session as you look forward to the coming growing season. “What worked, what didn’t, and why?”  He also gives his thoughts on growers asking about cutting out insecticide on the planter to try to reduce costs. 

Ken does a round robin crop recap with some of our northern growers who came to Osage, IA to help with the hand shelling day.

Ken recaps the IL edition of the hand shelling day and talks about things to consider when picking up new ground in this week’s episode of Boots In the Field Report

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken Ferrie talks all things fall tillage including adjustments for dry soil and warnings about anhydrous applications in these drought conditions.

In this week’s Boots In The Field Report Ken talks on streaks from aerial fungicide applications can skew plot data if not accounted for, tough tillage situations, why spreading out your planting window is so crucial, checking stalk quality of standing fields and keeping an eye on harvest loss till the last field is harvested.

 Beans are disappearing fast, but make sure to keep an eye on stalk quality while waiting for corn to dry down, especially in fields that didn’t get sprayed. Everyone at the field be on the lookout for signs of a field fire and of team burnout in these long dry stretches. These reminders and more in this week’s Boots In The Field Report.

Drier areas showing some crazy swings in bean yields within a field.  Ken shares that corn that dies before black layer will dry down slower, reminds growers to recalibrate yield monitors as need with moisture swings between fields, and for operations to have a fire plan for these dry conditions.