XtremeAg farmer Temple Rhodes battles slugs and disease pressure on his Maryland farm. Lee Lubbers and Matt Miles face other challenges.

Temple Rhodes - Centreville, Maryland

Temple Rhodes is a fifth-generation farmer in Centreville, Maryland. Chestnut Manor Farms operates 3,000 acres of soybeans, 1,500 acres of corn, and 1,500 acres of wheat. His family also runs a hunting operation.

Harvest is nearing on wheat. We are roughly 10 days ahead of the normal harvest window. I would say the quality of wheat may be an issue. Wheat does not like a wet spring and that’s what we had. The upcoming 10-day forecast is clear and hot so hopefully the test weight remains good. 

Post corn herbicide and side dress fertility is pretty well finished in the area. The corn looks good for the most part on the early planted crop, but the later May planted corn really needs a rain event. 

The early planted soybeans have been hit hard with slug damage. There is a lot of replants, and a lot of slug bait was used. What the slugs didn’t get, the disease did. There is a fair number of soybean plants around that look good and even though we felt like it was a small timing window. The later planted May soybeans seem to be fairing the best. Some new treatments and trials this year are really showing out in these adverse conditions.

Lee Lubbers - Gregory, South Dakota

Lee Lubbers is a fourth-generation farmer in Gregory, South Dakota. Lubbers Farms includes more than 17,000 acres of dryland soybeans, corn, and wheat. Lubbers says he is always trying to learn and challenge himself.

Rolling with the season… We wrapped up planting corn and soybeans. The last 20% of the acres we waited for a few fields to dry out enough to run then sit and wait again. The last day was filling in holes scattered around the area that we couldn’t get earlier.  

We went from fighting the rain to needing rain. The last two weeks of planting were rain free, which let us finish. To our east in the southeastern corner of the state, they can’t catch a break. They keep getting rains that are either going to prevent planting or some people might still try to get acres planted. Less than 100 miles from us they’ve never caught a break all spring from what we hear and see.

Our winter wheat is finishing pollinating and starting to fill. We are seeing some burn spots on some ridges even. It’s definitely time for a rain. It is hard to believe it wasn’t that many days ago we were still trying to float over spots to get them planted. It can take up to .25 to .50 inches of moisture a day pollinating and filling. It’s the biggest moisture and nutrient draw there is on the plant right now.

The big sprayers are getting a rare break right now. They’ve ran a few days doing some experimental trials for XtremeAg. Otherwise, they are washed up and sitting in the shed. We just finished a soybean hauling contract and started hauling on a corn contract this week. We planted our food plots today and we are spraying thistles and other noxious weeds. We run all of our borders, draws, and field edges spraying weeds. It’s a lot of hours invested in the project every year.  

The girls are in softball and swimming mode and enjoying summer. We check fields together, too. It makes the learning fun for all of us. Stay safe and enjoy the summer everyone.

Matt Miles - McGehee, Arkansas

Matt Miles is a fourth-generation farmer in southeast Arkansas. Miles farms 3,500 acres of corn, 3,500 acres of soybeans, 1,500 acres of cotton, and 1,500 acres of rice.

There are some things I love about farming in the delta and some things I hate. Yes, we have a lot of irrigation, and we are flat with decent size fields, but some of our tradeoffs sure make things challenging. Last Friday we had to hold up on spraying because of wet fields and by this Wednesday we will be watering corn wide open. 

With our thin topsoil and high temperatures, I’m serious when I say we are always 2 weeks from a drought. You seem to finally get things in order and then here comes 50 miles of poly pipe to lay. It is a very labor-intensive process but once it’s laid and started, things slow down some. 

I wonder sometimes why my family didn’t turn more north! I guess if that would have happened, I wouldn’t have my wife of 33 years, my kids, and all my grandkids. As they always say, be careful what you wish for!