There are times when uneventful is good, as was the case for spring planting on Matt Frostic’s farm in Applegate, Mich., in Sanilac County — often referred to as the Thumb area. “We were blessed with some really good weather with timely, shallow rains that brought the crop up really well,” he says.

However, rains in the past couple of weeks have presented some challenges for crop maintenance.

Many parts of Michigan were warm early in the spring, but it cooled off the last part of May and first week of June before temperatures rebounded.

Sugarbeets went in first on Frostic’s 1,200 acres, which also includes edible beans, soybeans and corn. Sugarbeet planting wrapped up May 1 when he switched over to corn planted in 20-inch rows. After a few rain events, Dekalb 98- to 102-day maturity corn was finished May 15.

At planting, he put down in-furrow starter and 2-by-2 starter. “I’m giving that corn crop a lot of nitrogen, probably about 60-70 pounds of nitrogen [per acre] with the planter, and then a couple of gallons in-furrow,” Frostic says. “That gives that crop something to eat when it’s ready, and even in cooler temperatures and soil, it still wants to do something. We've seen some really good success with being strategic with fertilizer and nitrogen placement.”

It's a normal practice for Frostic, but he says it’s a challenge putting a lot of product down because it slows the planter if you're busy filling up. “It’s a balancing act between getting product down and planting in a timely manner,” he adds.

On June 11, Frostic said they had pulled nitrate samples. “In the next couple of weeks, we’ll sidedress liquid UAN 28%,” he adds.

Fungicides are a must

For the past 15 years, he’s applied at least one fungicide application in corn. “It’s becoming a common practice in our area,” he says.

Last year, like many Michigan corn growers, Frostic struggled with vomitoxin. “We’re looking at doing an early application to protect against that at pre-brown silk. And then watching it to see if we have a tar spot infection, and if so, we’ll go back in and protect it again a week or two later,” he explains.

Vomitoxin in the state was a “bomb” last year, he says. “Vomitoxin and tar spot are the two that are crushing us right now in the state,” Frostic adds. “We're still managing it from the standpoint ethanol plants are trying to keep that level down.”

Frostic wonders if they are keeping their corn plants too healthy. “Because that husk stays tight to the cob, it creates an environment for mold, and hence a vomitoxin increase,” he says. "So, we might be solving one problem while creating another. We don't know, but it’s something we’re looking at.”

By June 11, his 350 acres of corn was close to knee-high and ranged from V4 to V2, with the early corn rooting and capturing some of the early heat. “The later corn has some catching up to do, but it will get there,” Frostic says.

Last year’s phenomenal corn crop yielded an average of about 250 bushels per acre.

An overpopulation of deer took about 30-40 acres of his soybeans. “We’ve been feeding a lot of deer in the last few years,” Frostic says. “Combined with the Canadian smoke that I think affected the growth of our soybeans. We didn’t start harvesting beans until mid-November, which is not normal, and our average yield was below average at 58 bpa.”