DECATUR, Ill. (DTN) --

-- Memorial Day may be the unofficial start of summer, but for Tyler Rath, it typically signals the start of edible bean planting. This year, though, cold weather has the Belgrade, Minnesota, farmer on hold waiting for higher temperatures to start those plantings. Newly emerged field corn and peas could also use the growing degree units.

"If I knew what a normal year looked like, I'd hope for it," said Rath. "Our first corn fields have mostly popped through and are still waiting for warm weather to emerge in low spots. All of the peas are up and we had a nice 4/10-inch of rain this week. But it is COLD."

In central Maryland, Chris Weaver's crops also received rainfall this week. That was a much-needed boost to a stand that, prior to the precipitation, he had deemed "near perfect, but needing a drink." Those rains were also well timed as they arrived after he had just baled and put the first cutting of alfalfa into the barn.

Scouting and checking fields are top of mind for both farmers this week. This is the second combined View From the Cab report this season. Find the first report here: https://www.dtnpf.com/…

CHRIS WEAVER: FINKSBURG, MARYLAND

It may have been Will Rogers who famously said, "The farmer has to be an optimist, or he wouldn't still be a farmer." But optimism is a quality Weaver intentionally weaves into how he operates. This week, nature lent a helping hand with nearly an inch of rain that fell the evening of May 20.

"I'm really excited about what we're seeing so far. It's been dry, but I still have cotyledons alive on soybeans," he said (before that rainfall). Cotyledons fuel the plant's growth before the plant's root system, and initial leaves are fully capable of doing so.

"Stand counts on corn and soybeans are near perfect. I'm really excited because early tissue sample numbers are coming back even better than I've seen in the past two years on early stuff," Weaver said.

Those tests provide indications of the levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, boron, zinc and various microbes in the leaf tissue, he noted. Years of testing have helped him build a database for the farm that signals what nutrient ranges are desirable at different plant growth stages based on parts per million (ppm) of nutrients available in his soil and his yield goals.

Weaver, who also serves as an agronomy consultant to other farmers, recommended that those interested in developing a high-yield crop program start by drilling down on macronutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

"Once those macros are established, we can begin to look at ratios between different nutrients and decide how to make corrections through foliar applications," he said. "The important thing to remember with these kinds of adjustments is that it needs to be based on your farm, and it all takes time to learn and to see results."

Weaver recognized that he's fiercely competitive. "When I mow the lawn, I actually set a stopwatch to see if I can mow it faster than I did the week before," he admitted.

"I don't care what the neighbors are doing, but I'm not happy if I'm not pushing myself and learning. That's fun for me," he said.

Fun also means heading to the field on the four-wheeler to scout crops. He's typically armed with a sweep net, handheld microscope, soil penetrometer, shovel and a bucket of water for washing plant roots.

"I feel as though I am on my phone all day long. But I don't look at the phone while I'm in the field, so that's an escape. I enjoy the fact that the field is always teaching me something. I love it when one of my kids goes along, and they see something I don't. Or, sometimes I will miss something on purpose to see if they see it.

"I'm an old-school notetaker," he added. "I've got stacks of those 2-inch diary-style notebooks full of hand-written observations. I'm always going back and forth between my planting book and my scouting books to compare what worked and what didn't or just remind myself why I tried something the way I did," he said.

This week he'll be watching closely for grubs and slugs. The pests are known to hang out beneath the fodder in no-till systems.

"They've mostly stayed buried this year because we've been hot and dry -- they do not like hot. But with recent rain and cooling temperatures, we could easily see them resurface and they can devour a crop," Weaver said. He also spotted a few cutworms in his field visits this week.

Staying observant isn't good enough if you aren't willing to make management corrections. For example, Weaver used to routinely throw an insecticide treatment in with his herbicide burndown.

"It was a relatively inexpensive practice at the time, and we were going across the field anyway," he said. "But we discovered that insecticide was hurting beneficial microbes that were actually helping control slugs. We've experienced a lot less slug damage since we discontinued that practice."

The first cutting of alfalfa and some grass hay was rolled into bales last week. Early low temperatures curbed expectations by about 1.5 tons per acre on the alfalfa cutting. The farm realized 4 tons per acre of dry alfalfa hay and 3 tons per acre on early grass hay. There's more grass hay baling to be done during the next few weeks, as weather permits.

"Spoon-feeding alfalfa similar to what we do with corn has really paid off for us," Weaver said. He also uses fungicides on alfalfa and will be scouting for alfalfa weevil.

Temperatures soared into the 90s Fahrenheit this past week, which stalled applications of foliar nutrients such as calcium, boron and sulfur on the newly harvested alfalfa.

"We shut down sprayers when temperatures are above 80 degrees -- regardless of crop or product," Weaver said. "There's no point in adding stress to a crop. It's all about photosynthesis. Why do I want to burn the leaves that I need to grow the crop?" he asked.

The only real weed breaks he's seeing so far are Canada thistle and patches of Italian ryegrass. "It was cool and dry when we did preemergence herbicide applications earlier this spring, and we didn't get a good kill on that ryegrass. Spot spraying should be enough to get it under control," he said.

This week Weaver headed back to the University of Maryland to receive the Institute of Applied Agriculture (IAA) Distinguished Alumni Award. It's an honor that wraps family into its acceptance -- there's a "we" in every statement he makes when it applies to the farm.

"My speech will revolve around the need for the three things I depend on: Faith, family and being patient," he said.

TYLER RATH: BELGRADE, MINNESOTA

Short-sleeve weather can't come soon enough for Rath. Cold weather has slowed almost every farm operation this spring.

The central Minnesota farm is still a week away from first-cutting alfalfa, and he anticipates that yields will be poor.

"Some area farmers are tearing up alfalfa stands due to excessive winter kill. Grass hay is poor with lots of dead spots," he reported. "Dandelions don't seem to have a problem flourishing, though. I tell our edible bean seed guys that they need to develop a seed crossed with dandelion and Canada thistle that would grow well anywhere."

Calving has finished, and his father, Dennis, was working this week to keep those energetic calves secured with adequate fencing -- which delivered a shocking wake-up call to prove everything was working. Getting zapped -- either through fences or frost -- seems part of the drill this year.

"This week we sorted cattle and put them to pasture with the bulls while we were in our winter coats. I've never done that before," Rath said. On the work agenda this week was recording which cows went to which bull.

Rath will be getting after weeds in organic corn production by "flaming" the crop right as it spikes. This helps control broadleaf weeds and knocks back grasses enough to give the corn a few days' head start. A pull-type weed burner keeps the flame away from the tractor.

"In organic corn production systems, grass is by far our most difficult weed to kill," Rath said. Waterhemp and common lambsquarters are also problematic since both of these summer annual weeds can set volumes of seed if not controlled early.

Sustainable warm weather is preferred to get started on weed control prior to planting navy and kidney beans, Rath noted.

"We also need temperatures to be consistently in the 70s or better for several days to plant these crops," he said.

DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick said the chances are good for some temperatures in the 80s this coming week for the Belgrade area.

"A couple days could touch 90 if the skies stay clear. There may be a few chances to get a few showers to move across the region, but most likely they'll be dry and get missed," Baranick said.

This week Rath continued to walk corn fields to check on emergence and dug to check for issues such as sidewall compaction or anything that might restrict roots. Recent rains have provided adequate moisture levels.

Fortunately, English peas endure cool weather, and Rath was able to get his acreage drilled by the beginning of May. However, the short growing season, coupled with very short preharvest intervals, makes this food-grade crop tricky when it comes to the use of any chemical control. This week he'll look over all the pea fields to scout for weeds.

One place he won't be as worried about weeds is in the garden. He covered the entire area with a weed barrier cloth for the first time last year and couldn't believe how well it worked to smother weeds while still allowing moisture penetration. The landscape cloth was rolled up at the end of the year and reused this year.

His wife, Ashley, is the main gardener in the family, and they plant a wide variety of garden produce such as beets, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers, potatoes, popcorn, radishes, pumpkins and zucchini for personal use.

"We even planted some peas and green beans -- even though we raise hundreds of acres of them. But the kids like to eat them while they are out in the garden," he said.

Rath credits one of his classmates from The Executive Program for Agricultural Producers, known as TEPAP, for planting the seed for this timesaving gardening idea. He graduated from this program several years ago and continues to use the experience and connections to ask other growers what they are doing or seeing.

"Seems like I can always learn something from someone in a different growing environment, even if it's not directly applicable," Rath said.

**

More on DTN:

-- "Farmers Assess Spring Planting Progress," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

-- Profile of Chris Weaver's farm operation: "Maryland Farmer Pushes Yields and Curbs Inputs," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

-- Profile of Tyler Rath's farm operation: "Minnesota Farmer Diversifies to Reduce Risk," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Pamela Smith can be reached at pamela.smith@dtn.com

Follow her on social platform X @PamSmithDTN

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