War stories from the Easter freeze

Several of our contacts this week shared observations about Easter freeze damage to wheat, soybean and corn crops. Due to space limitations with our fax edition, we could not pack the into this week's AgFax: Southern Grain. Here are some of their comments:

Wayne Dulaney, Dulaney Seed Co., Clarksdale, Miss.: "Heavier ground took the freeze much better than the lighter ground because it held more heat. One farmer – who cultivates after nitrogen to build a good bed – covered a lot of acres the day before the freeze, and he opened the soil and let the heat escape. It was pretty dramatic. You could tell to the row where they stopped cultivating. Corn on the cultivated ground was killed cold-stone graveyard dead."

Wendell Minson, Bootheel Crop Consultants, Dexter, Mo.: "There were strange cases where wheat on the north side of the field – where you would have expected it to be wiped out – seems to have been only slightly injured. But on the south side down the hill, the wheat was destroyed. It was like the cold air went over the hill and settled on that south end."

Bill Rushing, Research and Production Manager, Delta King Seed, McCrory, Ark.: "There may be more damage on some beans that were up before the freeze than might initially be thought. I visted a friend in Texarkana last week and saw a high percentage of terminals burned out in 2 soybean fields. Those plants will grow more like peas now, more flat to the ground. There’s an indication that you could be looking at a 30% yield loss if enough plants sustained that damage. Those fields had enough lost terminals that I suggested that the grower consider replanting."

David Hydrick: "On Easter weekend, the temperature dropped to 23 both Saturday and Sunday nights. Some people said corn would be fine, but the beds froze all the way through. Where corn was on flat ground, the freeze didn’t kill the growing point. In some fields, the only corn that wasn't killed was at the end of the field on the turnrow."

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