2020 Fall Farm Outlook

PAGE 16 2020 Logan County Farm Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS October 28, 2020 deciding which seed is right farmers take into consideration: 1. Soil – Testing the soil texture, compaction, cation conversion, and organic content. Choosing the wrong seed for the soil will cost the farmer expensive fertilizers, frequent cultivation, and various planting methods. 2. Indigenous adaptability – The best seeds are adaptable to the atmosphere and field location. 3. Disease resistant – When a farmer is able to identify diseases based on previous crops, he or she can select seeds resistant to that disease. 4. Assess the past varieties of seeds – Reflecting on the previous year’s planting and environmental changes, and reports of insects and diseases prevalent in the region gives the farmer a better idea of which seeds might produce a more successful harvest. 5. Companion planting – Novel today, but done in some areas, planting furrows between rows can offer resistance to disease, insects and reduce weeds, and the right companion can even improve the nutritive value of grains. 6. Current demand in the market – The best seeds to plant are, of course, the ones that will produce a product that is in high demand in the current market, and holds greater potential of profit. Hybrid grains focus primarily on pest or disease resistance, but also may be on color, size, and harvested crop volume. Another preference is seed that takes fewer days between plant date to harvest, as it reduces environmental risks in the field. A hybrid seed is produced by cross-pollination of two plants with different characteristics. The season-by-season development takes a lot of time and expense. Seeds saved from a hybrid will have a mix of characteristics. Hybrid seeds must be bought each year. A GMO, or genetically modified organism, is a plant that has been genetically altered in a laboratory. Specific individual genes are transferred. One advantage to GMOs has been faster improvements in seed for better crop production. The use of GMO grain met with resistance and conflict in some foreign markets initially, but they have since gained widespread acceptance. Some farmers believe that chemical companies CONTINUE X