In this edition of CropLife Retail Week, CropLife Editor Eric Sfiligoj and Amy Asmus, Co-Owner of Asmus Farm Supply are joined by Dan Bjorklund, Technical Agronomy Lead from Landus Cooperative to break down early harvest trends and critical fall agronomy decisions for ag retailers.
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*Below is a partial and edited transcript:
Eric Sfiligoj:
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another edition of CropLife Retail Week. I’m Eric Sfiligoj from the CropLife Media Group, here with my co-host, Amy Asmus from Asmus Farm Supply. Amy, welcome back to the program.
Amy Asmus:
Thank you very much.
Eric Sfiligoj:
Yay! And for viewers who are paying attention, of course, we have a third person on camera this week: Dan Bjorklund, Technical Agronomy Lead from Landus Cooperative.
If Dan looks familiar, you may remember him because he was on the cover of CropLife a few months back when we focused on Landus Cooperative and what it was doing in the marketplace.
So, Dan, welcome to the program.
Dan Bjorklund:
Thank you so much. Really good to be here.
Eric Sfiligoj:
Yeah. So again, we wanted to discuss a couple of things going on in the world of ag retail, and more specifically, in Iowa. So, Amy, I will let you take it away.
Amy Asmus:
Thank you very much. And Eric, thank you for joining us as well. Sometimes I get comments that you get left out of the thank-yous or the acknowledgment for joining us today.
So let’s start off with what you’re seeing up there. I know a few of the dryers have shut down. The lights have been turned off the last couple of nights, and that’s an indication up here that people are starting to get done with harvest.
So how’s it looking down south where you are?
Dan Bjorklund:
We saw some really interesting images when we were flying drones, especially NDVI images that I honestly haven’t seen before.
It turned out that when you went out and looked at these small red spots that were polka-dotted throughout the fields, the plants were ghosted out. It was like a warning sign to me, like the canary in the coal mine, that we’ve got some disease going on here, and this is going to have a yield impact in some of those fields.
I went back in and checked the yields. They were 252 to 260 bushels last year, protected by fungicide, of course, against southern rust. This year, they were around 200.
Eric Sfiligoj:
Just to follow up on something, Dan, I’ve talked to other ag retailers who mentioned that, because of the way the market was performing economically, a lot of their growers in their regions decided not to make an extra fungicide application this year.
They were trying to save a little money. But then the disease pressures came. Tar spot came in pretty heavily, for instance, and gray leaf spot showed up pretty strongly as well.
Was that part of what was going on in your market, or was it a little less economically driven than it was in other parts of the country?
Dan Bjorklund:
One of the fields by Ames that I saw when we flew our drone and took an NDVI photo—which, I think, most of the audience knows means green is good and red is not good from a biomass standpoint—was riddled with southern rust when I went out and looked at it in late August.
I went back and checked, and the grower had not applied any fungicide at all because it wasn’t discussed as much as it was last year.
I think that was not the normal case, though. I think a lot of Iowa farmers used at least one application, although not as many as they used to.
I do have some examples where people who used two applications got higher yields down in the Boone area, up in the 60-bushel range. They’re running about 20 bushels better than farmers who used just one application.
But this is very early, and I want to wait until I get more data before making any conclusions. I guess I just made a statement, but we need more confirmation. Still, I think there’s something to what you’re saying.
Eric Sfiligoj:
Okay. Sorry, Amy. Go ahead.
Amy Asmus:
Oh, no. Dan, we’ve been talking over the past couple of months when we get on here about the technology boom and how retailers are using it. A lot of times, we think about using technology in-season, when the plants are growing and everything.
You had briefly mentioned SkyScout. You can talk about that if that’s okay.
How are you using technology this time of year to actually look ahead to next year when you’re advising your growers? And how is that helping Landus as a retailer?
Dan Bjorklund:
We’re calling it a look back at the growing season.
The nice thing about the SkyScout program is that it’s not our software. Obviously, we’re using one of the newer companies that have been around for the last three or four years and their software.
What it does is provide a timeline at the bottom of the dashboard every time there’s a drone flight, plane flight, or satellite image.
If I’m out in a field and see something during the season that looks really interesting, I’ll put a pin in that area and go out and walk it.
What’s nice about now is that you can see the results. You can go back on the timeline and follow things through. Some things that weren’t apparent at the time are now starting to make a little more sense.
For example, crown rot has come into some parts of the state and caused more difficulties. So we’ll continue to do that.
The software also has really good analytics, and there’s an AI agent that facilitates analysis of all the acres in the system.
We can ask questions like, “Okay, let’s compare this genetic hybrid, this company brand versus another, and let’s compare where we did fall and Hydrus and maybe a little bit of spring Ewen versus just fall.”
We can look at nitrogen timing. There’s no limit to the questions you can ask. Sometimes I can go down some deep rabbit holes that way.
It’s fascinating to me. So, from now until we have our farmer meetings, which will start in December, I’ll be looking back at what we saw, reviewing the data coming in, and making correlations as best we can.
As you know, being in agronomy, we never figure everything out. It’s pretty interesting that way.
Amy Asmus:
So, you talk about looking back. How do you take that data—and I know for us, growers then turn the page. It’s a brand-new year. Let’s put all of that behind us.
How are you driving those conversations so that you’re not only looking back, but maybe when you start having discussions in December, you’re also looking forward to practices they might need to add or practices they might not need to do anymore?
How do you handle that with growers? Because I know with us, it’s a pretty hard page turn. Now I’m on to the new year.
Dan Bjorklund:
You know, I’m sure this is what you see in your business model as well. You’ve got a certain number of growers who are always looking for something new, and they’re always wondering why things happened the way they did.
I have a grower between Britt and Forest City. He put all these acres into our SkyScout program, and I promised him, when I was visiting with him and the sales rep, that I would be up there every two weeks.
I think I pretty much fulfilled that promise. But we became good enough friends that he calls me every day now.
He’s one of those growers who was a little disappointed with the results, so we’re going to have a meeting with him. We’ll look back and show what we found.
Then, looking forward, we’ll talk about how we still have options if we have another really difficult April with difficult planting conditions.
For example, it hasn’t rained for three days, but it’s May 15, and they’re calling for rain again. It’s not quite fit to plant. What do you do?
They’re going to start planting. But what do we do about crown rot?
Genetics selection is one thing. What I want to do is keep the plant as healthy as I can.
There are some newer products that work in the xylem and phloem. We were just introduced to some. I’m not going to mention brand names or anything here, but they’re a little different from our normal fungicides, which are just leaf-based.
Although, Amy, we have some people who applied fungicide at V5 and are telling us they have better yields than those who didn’t. Maybe it helped, not because it controls crown rot or stalk rot, but because it helped delay their onset.
So that would be one example of looking ahead.
Amy Asmus:
Right. We look at that V5 timing as well. There’s a lot going on in the corn plant at that time that really needs protection.
Although we don’t always see it visually when we walk through the field, that’s an extremely important time for the corn plant and its development.
So, you brought up nitrogen applications.
Dan Bjorklund:
I knew you were going to go here.
Amy Asmus:
I wore red and blue just to remind everybody to get out and vote. You know me. I always say, “Go vote.” If you don’t use your voice, then you lose your voice. I say that almost every time I’m on, so get out and vote.
But in Iowa, the main topic every time I turn on the TV now is water quality issues.
I was talking to somebody in Extension, and they’re already receiving calls from citizens who are listening to the water quality discussions and watching growers put on anhydrous and manure this time of year.
It’s foremost in everybody’s mind.
So, how do you, as an agronomist, approach this? We have to get the nutrients on, and sometimes fall application is a choice people make.
Of course, we have the 50-degree rule in the fall, and Iowa State’s maps show that up here, I’m about 55 degrees at a 4-inch soil temperature. So it’s a little early yet to be putting on anhydrous and manure.
But there’s always that situation you alluded to: If it’s my window, I’ve got to go. It’s supposed to start raining and not stop. I’m not going to get this on.
What’s our role as retailers and agronomists in helping the public understand nitrification, denitrification, and stabilization, along with helping our growers understand that we have to do this sustainably? Because part of it is our responsibility.
Dan Bjorklund:
Well, I mean, we could spend the rest of the podcast on this question.
I go back to my pre-Landus days. I worked for Land O’Lakes and the WinField United people for more than 30 years, and we had what we called Answer Plots.
I remember one of the speakers at an Answer Plot doing a discussion on the maximum economic rate of nitrogen per year to get maximum economic returns.
He would ask that question, and this was about an hour-long discussion. This guy was brilliant. He’s somebody I really looked up to. He’s retired now.
It was interesting to hear the questions he got. And he said the answer is, “It depends.”
Some years, it was 120 pounds of nitrogen because we had very good mineralization during that year, according to Iowa State research. Some years, it was 240 pounds.
You never really know what you’re going to have there.
So the whole nitrogen thing is very elusive. My recommendation as an agronomist is: Do not put on anhydrous if soil temperatures are above 50 degrees, like they are right now.
When you think about what the price of nitrogen per pound was 20 years ago versus what it is today, there’s a real cost.
There was some information from the Answer Plots, and it’s scary when you add up the numbers. But I’m just going to go for it because, Amy, I’m 69. I’m in the fall of my career, I’d say, although I still haven’t made that decision yet.
I love agronomy, but I will say this: When you’re looking at this whole nitrogen issue and what we should and shouldn’t do, every fall for the last 30 or 40 years, we get to this time of year, and there’s an aroma that spreads out from the rural areas into Fort Dodge, Moline, Ames, and wherever.
And we know what that aroma is. I always…
Amy Asmus:
Like money, Dan. It smells like money.
Dan Bjorklund:
It does. And is any of that manure stabilized?
Amy Asmus:
There you go.
No, and you talked about stabilizers. I know we’re always explaining that stabilizers degrade in the soil. They’re more stable, and they can work better at cool temperatures.
The message about stabilizers in our area is that they do not change the 50-degree rule for fall application. That’s still a hard-and-fast rule.
I think when stabilizers first came out, people thought, “Well, it’s stabilized nitrogen. I can apply whenever, and it’ll stabilize it.”
But at warmer temperatures, those stabilizers break down, denitrification starts, and the nitrogen is gone.
Dan Bjorklund:
So, yeah, we’re very, very focused on getting the timing right and doing it when the environment is correct for it.
It’s too warm right now. There are some tanks out there, though, but they have some other names on them. I won’t say what those are.
Amy Asmus:
I don’t sell anhydrous. It’s not my name. No.
So this has been great talking to you. I want to give Eric another chance to jump in here if he has any more questions.
After that, Dan, I’m just going to give you a second to mention anything we haven’t talked about.
But Eric, did you have any questions for us this fine fall day?
Eric Sfiligoj:
Well, actually, Dan, one question as we wrap up here.
As we’re going into the fall season and getting ready for the Agricultural Retailers Association annual meeting, I’ve talked to a lot of ag retailers as part of our CropLife 100 report, getting their read on what kind of year it’s been.
But I’m always curious about the early forecast outlook for next year.
Looking into the crystal ball from where you sit there in Iowa and at Landus, what’s 2027 looking like? A good year? An indifferent year? More of the same?
What’s the early read based on what your growers are telling you?
Dan Bjorklund:
Well, what I’m seeing in the questions I’m asking is that some individual growers had really sort of skimped on phosphate because phosphate prices have been higher.
They’re not skipping this year.
Some of it depends a little on the area. I think northern Iowa, as I look at it up toward Amy’s area, and then a little bit in northwest Iowa, was a little dry. But there are some pretty nice yields coming out.
Soybean yields were phenomenal. I mean, I haven’t talked to a farmer who wasn’t pleasantly surprised with soybean yields.
So we discussed how many pounds of potassium and phosphorus are going out. We’re seeing people at least applying replacement rates, whereas in the past they were skipping some.
Prices haven’t come down, but people are putting more fertilizer on.
Nitrogen is going to be an interesting one because of that elusive question of timing and rate.
I think what I’m seeing, and what I want to present at our farmer meetings, is another discussion that goes back to what Amy said.
Let’s look at rates and what we need to achieve our yield goals. Let’s look at timing. Let’s take a look at both of those.
I know you can’t save your way to prosperity in our business. But for those people who are getting 30 to 40 bushels more per acre into their bins, that’s a pretty nice commodity to have compared with other people.
In the Elkhart and Ames areas that had 10 inches of rain, some growers are getting yields that are 50 or 60 bushels less than others. They don’t have the same options.
So I hope I didn’t ramble too much. I do think we’re seeing that 2027 is shaping up to be a good year because people are looking at at least replacement fertilizer applications.
I don’t know if there’s a lot of build-up going on, but if we get a rally in prices after the first of the year, depending on what El Niño does, that always changes people’s minds about what they do.
So, yeah.
Eric Sfiligoj:
Good point. Thank you, Dan.
Amy Asmus:
So, Dan, do you have any last comments or anything we didn’t touch on? I’ll look at my watch.
Dan Bjorklund:
No. I know hybrid selection is going to be important next year. Amy, we’re seeing differences by hybrids, so hybrid selection is important.
I also think that, depending on what happens in the spring, using some products that might help us in those biotic and abiotic stress situations will be important.
And I definitely think we need to take a look at what we do with nitrogen.
Those are three points I want to bring up.
Then I’m going to tell people that, obviously, they need to have some kind of scouting system.
My last point about SkyScout is this: I’m 69. I’m not as quick in the field as I was 30 years ago.
I can take a scan of a field, and it’s like a human MRI. I look for those abnormal areas throughout the growing season, and it directs where I scout.
It’s a fantastic tool for old guys like myself.
Amy Asmus:
Awesome. Old guys like me, too.
Eric Sfiligoj:
Hey, wait a minute. I’m there, too, so…
All right, well, Dan, listen. Amy and I certainly appreciate you taking some time out of your day to join us for this edition of CropLife Retail Week.
We wish you the best there at Landus and everyone at Asmus Farm Supply as well.
On behalf of everyone here at the CropLife Media Group, thank you, viewers, for joining us for this edition.
We hope you enjoyed it, and we’ll see you again next week.
