As we are watching this corn crop come out of the ground this year, it’s time to begin evaluating what has happened thus far. Different areas have had wet spells and planted corn in wet soils, while almost everybody has planted in cold soils. We have had humidity that made residue management difficult, and the wind that has buried clean strips with trash. Through it all, you all did the best job you could to manage the conditions that you had and planting to the best of your abilities. So now is the time to grade your work.

If you haven't heard from now, Monsanto has terminated its agreement to sell its Precision Planting division to John Deere.  Only those inside these companies really know what led to the end of this agreement, but the press releases help us piece together what happened.

As we are in the midst of putting our crop in this year, there are a few things that some of us take for granted. One of those is straight rows, which most any system can deliver.

Dicamba drift issues are a big concern this summer, making me wonder how willing farmers will be to trust the recommendations from their ag data platforms on when it is OK to spray. An even better question is: what happens if the platform's recommendation gets it wrong, resulting in Dicamba drift and nearby crop damage?